On arriving at the station I discovered Jamie was also waiting there for me which was a nice surprise, I had thought he was making his own way there. After introductions we set off.
Blair had not done the Capital Trail so our plan was to follow that but I had decided to miss out Portobello and Musselburgh and picked it up at Carberry Tower having made as direct an approach as possible using cycle paths. We had rain on and off throughout the day and all the rain we had had previously made many of the the tracks a muddy mess which meant we were pretty soon filthy.
At Pencaitland which was just over half way we were caught up by Alasdair who originally had planned on heading to the Bothy via the Capital Trail coming in from the other direction but had changed his mind. Not only that but he was not on his fat bike, he was on a very tasty Ti Stooge and i fell instantly in love, with the bike that is. Alasdair had set off an hour and a half after us so he must have been shifting pretty damn quick. We rode the next section to Soulton Forest as a group but after that Alasdair kept pulling away, he was having problems with his dynamo lights and if he stopped peddling for any length of time he would loose his lighting. The last we saw of him before the Bothy was on the road leading into the Lammermuir's.
Blair was new to bikepacking so apart from a bar bag he had on a medium sized back pack which at this point he was begining to realise why we don't use them. It was fully dark now as we pushed up the first long climb into the hills. The CT proper has a ford to cross and another push, this one being a short sharp one so I had plotted another slghlty shorter route without any fords and an easier climb. 10 miles became 5, then 2, then 1. Not far now Blair we encouraged as we were all now a little chilly and looking forward the the shelter of the Bothy and the promised warmth of a fire. No better feeling than seeing a Bothy hove into view when your tired, wet and cold.
Alasdair was outside getting his gear off his bike and said he had seen our lights from miles away over the ridgeline .
First thing I did before unpacking the bike was to get the hurricane lamp going and then went to retrieve the coal and fire lighters I had hidden two weeks before. It didn't take long to get a decent blaze going and only then did I unpack my gear. Everyone else seemed to have brought a change of clothes except me, I had only brought a pair of thick fluffy socks so whilst I sat by the fire drying out the others got on with cooking, I got on with drinking. A can of lager left there went down very well and Jamie had a Boddingtons that had also been left. A second can of Bodies didn't get drunk as it had been bashed about a bit and when opened it didn't make a sound, no sqsshh of the widget doing it's stuff or even a tiny hiss. Must of had a hole in the tin somewhere so had gone flat. No way was I going to risk drinking that.
After drying out a bit I put some tunes on and we all sat round the fire chatting and drinking. The fire kept belching out a bit of smoke but we put up with that as the fire gave out more heat with the door open and previous experience told me that shutting the door made it draw more and burned through the coal quickly. Later on Blair produced a half bottle of Grouse and offered it round and I was more than happy to oblige having finished my own supply of wine. I must admit that for four blokes who didn't really know each other we had a great night. We chatted about bikes and bikepacking, music, work (as you do but only briefly) and many other things. Before we knew it it was midnight so decided to turn in.
We got up at eight and discovered Blair hadn't slept well after 3 due to being cold. I wish I'd known as lying next to me was an unused fleece liner I'd taken out of my bag as I was too hot. We had some food and packed then discovered that our bikes were frozen solid because we had left them outside. After some fettling we could at least turn the cranks, some of us had gears and others didn't. I was glad that I had at least adjusted my front bb7 the night before or else I would have had practically no brakes, the rear lever was coming right back to the bar!
We said our goodbye's to Alasdair who was continuing on along the CT whilst we where heading back the same direction we came but on a different route shadowing the one we came in on. We discovered a lovely little valley with a great looking bivi spot by Hopes Reservoir. The going was fast as the ground was frozen solid and found a nice bit of singletrack through Soulton Forest which popped us out near Sustrans route 196, an old railway line that would take us almost all the way to the outskirts of Edinburgh. The last few miles seemed to take an age but before long we were back in Edinburgh. Jamie split off to head home and I rode with Blair to the station then on to home. When I got off the bike my feet were so cold it hurt to walk, nothing a mug of hot tea and a bath wouldn't fix.
All in all a great weekend made all the more enjoyable by some great company. Thanks lads,
.
