Unlike easter it was going to be a bit nippy so full winter bivvy kit was in order.
Broom! Broom! Shake the Broom!
Heading out of Peebles was mostly shortish drags of hills with the occasional bit of forest to negotiate.
Then we got to the Pentlands. We've never been riding here before so ...
This doesn't look too bad. The camera never lies? Right! This was effing steep! We both walked from about this point.
Higher up it was much easier
Finally payback with a great descent down to an RSPB reserve where we were going to bivy for the night. Having never been to the area before and with Edinburgh not too far further along the trail we weren't sure if there'd be any suitable bivy spots.
In the morning we had a ride through the Pentlands to get to Edinburgh
Edinburgh was a mixture of roads and secret connecting ginnels to get out to the coast. At some point on this one she banged the rear rim and the tubeless tyre just wouldn't hold air. We eventually put a tube in it.
A late brekkie by Portabello Beach
Lots of faffing about to get to the Lammermuirs. The route seems to want to make a circuit of them before deciding on the route through them.
You see them hills? Can we get to them please?
A big climb to get up to the top
Various tracks in and out of steep sided valleys before the last one down to Bunnie's Bothy (locked) which was just on 100km so far for the day.
A lovely valley led out from the bothy down to the main road.
We were a bit ahead of schedule so decided to skip our intended bivy spot (both had been used earlier in the year by Mike and Nick - I did a bit of Strava detective work to work out their stops
) so decided to head on to Melrose and find a chippy. No chippy so it was the Co-op. It was getting pretty cold now and there was about an hour of daylight left so we figured we'd bivy by the river. Suitable spot found we bedded down for the night.
In the morning we were away by 6am and the first 5km had 250m of climbing! Certainly warmed us up. Unfortunately the day got colder and by the time we'd dropped down to Selkirk we were chilled and it had started raining. There was only one place open serving food so brekkie taken before heading out in the mirk.
At least the next bit got us warmed up, a big climb up through woods before a traverse led to another climb up to the Three Brethren.
See those spots? Them's snowflakes them is.
The next bit follows the Southern Upland way and is great ridge riding but we'd got a strong wind with more snow
Yep, more snow
By the time we got to Innerleithin we were chilled and short of time so decided to skip the loop over Minch Moor and headed back along the valley bottom to Peebles getting back just 48hrs after leaving. Did a total of 227km.
Everything was just about as dry as it could be, there are some long sections that wouldn't be fun after a spell of rain. Some great riding. We were both on rigid hardtails but apart from the Glentress and Innerleithin sections that use the trail centre network it's more than doable on a gravel bike.
We certainly didn't have the blizzards that seemed to affect the Cairngorms but today was pretty nasty all the same.
Two bivvies done to get our 5/5 as well
.