Whilst July was mostly full of cycle-friendly calm, sunny days, August has not been quite so obliging. As a consequence, we haven’t done much of note, and even had to abandon some planned Lothian Cyclists outings. You have to stay optimistic, so I came up with another group run for later in the month, taking a route that I hadn’t ridden before. Well, I’d done it anticlockwise, but not the other way around, and the planned cafe stop in the middle was also new to me. It made sense for Colette and me to give that one a trial run when we got the chance (a brief lull between wet and windy days), and we were joined by Fiona and Susan from the cycle group, who were also getting cabin fever from lack of cycling.
The start point was the small car park near Rosewell at the top of the Roslin Glen road. We got there at the allotted time, but Fiona and Susan weren’t to be seen. We gave them 15 minutes then phoned to find out that my directions weren’t very good and they had got lost! So we drove to their location and brought them back to the starting point. As a result of that, I’ve changed the starting point for the group ride to a much easier to find location.
No matter, we had all day, and so started off just after 11am, on a calm morning with the temperature in the mid to high teens and with the sun breaking through from time to time. Perfect cycling weather in fact.
The route took us into Rosewell then out again via Thornton Road and past Thornton Farm on unpaved road before reaching tarmac again. We then turned left and headed in the direction of Edgelaw Reservoir. This brought us to the first of the day’s testing gradients – just a short steep section, but one that used to strike fear into us when we first started cycling in this area. Once that was over, it was “false flat” for a mile or so before we descended towards Edgelaw Reservoir.
Here’s us at Edgelaw not being trolls (you need to go and read the notice just behind where Colette is standing to take this photo to know what I mean!)
We cycled right up to the water and paused to take in the scene before getting back on our bikes and heading for the next one. That took us left over the bridge, where the surface had turned very muddy after the recent heavy rains. None of us even attempted the short, steep climb that followed, pushing up the muddy, gravelly track till it levelled off again. The next section of dirt track was easy, apart from the place where you have to choose whether to ride through the deep puddle or skirt it on a thin strip of dry land, and flagellate your right leg with the overhanging nettles!
Having our next stop at Rosebery Reservoir
At the end of the track, we turned right then left, taking us towards Rosebery Reservoir. We paused here too and had some snacks, as the morning was waring on but we were still a long way from our lunch stop. The water was nice and calm, and there were quite a few fishermen out appreciating the benign day, just like us.
These guys were trolling for trout
Pressing on, we climbed away from the reservoir to Yorkston, where the road to Gladhouse runs steeply down then back up again almost as steeply. The momentum certainly helps get you up the other side! Before long we were cycling alongside Gladhouse Reservoir. Susan commented to me that she never knew any of this existed, and I had to admit that even though I was local, I never really knew how all the roads linked up until we started cycling. Now we know them like the back of our hands!
After Gladhouse, we turned left and headed out across the moor. After a few miles, we paused to check out the free range chickens at Westloch; it always strikes me how contented they look. It was a bit harder to look over to the opposite side of the road, where the pens were full of well fed lambs, waiting to take the next step on their journey to our dinner plates.
We had to keep moving, so it was onwards, past the access road to Portmore Loch then steeply down (for once!) to Waterheads and the A703. We were going to ride about a mile down the A703 in the direction of Peebles before taking the first right turn. As the road was busy, we decided to ride single file in two groups of two, to help cars overtake. Although just a mile, it was quite eventful. I was at the front and wasn’t sure why the oncoming cars were beeping and flashing lights at us. Could it be that they disliked bikes that much? When we got to the calm of the side road, I found out from the others that it was the cars overtaking us in the face of oncoming traffic that caused all the bother. What’s more, when one of the cars was passing Susan, the passenger shouted “boo” loudly out of the window. It seemed like today the roads were full of morons in cars, so we were very glad to get back on quiet roads again.
When I cycled along this section of road previously it was always from the other direction, and I thought that the ups and downs were fairly balanced. Well I was wrong! The next couple of miles was distinctly more up than down. I started to get some complaints, and “how long to lunch?”, so it was a relief when we arrived at the top of the hill leading down to Whim Farm and the A701. We fairly zoomed down that hill and turned left onto the main road.
Again, we split into two groups, but the traffic on this road was very light and not at all bothersome. We passed through Lamancha and all I could think of was “ma luncha”. Fiona screamed “cafe” as we passed, but we weren’t going to the one in the village, nor the burger van in the layby (although it wasn’t there today for some reason), but Whitmuir Organics, just a wee bit further on.
The cafe and farm shop are housed in a quite substantial new building and the car park was full. We hoped there was enough room inside for us, and yes there was plenty, as well as some seats outside, although we opted to eat inside. It was nearly 2pm when we sat down, so we had made it just in time for the lunch menu. We all opted for soup and bread, though the menu offered quite a lot of interesting options besides. Quite a “foodie” type place, with fresh, clean surroundings and attentive service. An ideal place to take your mum! Colette and I decided to splash out on the gooseberry meringue pie for pudding, which was lovely. Typical cyclists, all of us completely cleared our plates, as we needed every last calorie!
We were now 20 miles into the ride, with 13 left to go. Most of the climbing was over but there was a sting in the tail, as well as a chill in the air, when we set off after lunch. We freewheeled down towards Macbiehill to find a wall of a climb awaiting us. Susan’s chain came off at the bottom – it’s like the bike’s way of saying “no way, I can’t do that!”. The climb wasn’t very long, but it slowed us to an absolute crawl. After that, we had one more climb of note before reaching the road to Penicuik.
The long straight road runs across the moor parallel to the Pentlands, and going in the direction of Penicuik we would normally expect to have a bit of wind assistance from the prevailing westerly. Not today, but nonetheless we made a decent average speed over there, increasing as the road started dipping towards the town. The final approach, after rejoining the A701, was an incredibly bumpy 30mph descent – they need to do something about that road; it would be a lot more fun if it were smoother!
Just after entering Penicuik, we turned right for the railway cycle path, which was a bit muddier than usual, as was only to be expected, the way the weather has been recently. We then had an easy ride for the final few miles back to where the cars were parked. It had been a really nice day out; good company and a varied route, with just enough by way of hills to keep it challenging.