{"id":249,"date":"2014-01-21T21:39:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T21:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/?p=249"},"modified":"2014-01-21T21:42:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T21:42:58","slug":"21-january-2014-unexpected-sogginess-near-mount-lothian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/?p=249","title":{"rendered":"21 January 2014 &#8211; Unexpected sogginess near Mount Lothian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.strava.com\/activities\/107961745\/embed\/59d86308237010b88e0672418e1567dd7d212931\" height=\"405\" width=\"590\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There are some roads and tracks quite close by that I&#8217;m aware of from the map, but have never tried. Today, I decided to try out several, hoping to open up some new route possibilities. Colette wasn&#8217;t able to join me, so consequently there are no pics, but I thought I&#8217;d write this one up all the same.<\/p>\n<p>It looked like a reasonable day, with occasional sunny intervals, but as I started out, I realised that we have been spoiled of late with light winds. The wind today was quite noticeable and made it hard going at times. So I slowly made my way up to Gladhouse Reservoir, then after the dam, turned right for the short-cut along the farm roads. After that, I took the B6372 to the Mount Lothian crossroads, making good time along that section with the only bit of useful wind assistance I was to get all day.<\/p>\n<p>I turned left at the Mount Lothian crossroads heading roughly south. It was a slog against the wind, making my way to the entrance to &#8220;Millenium Wood&#8221;. I had never gone beyond that point, and there is a notice effectively tellling cars to go no further, as there is no turning ahead. In my naivety, I just assumed that meant the road was narrow. The map shows the road carrying on past a few farms till it reaches the A703. May be tricky for cars, but my bike can go places where cars can&#8217;t!<\/p>\n<p>So I carried on past Cockmuir farm where I said hello to someone as I passed, and a small dog decided to tag along. I tried to outrun him, which wasn&#8217;t a great idea, as I&#8217;ve never been able to outrun a dog before. After a while he gave up and I stopped to catch my breath. I had apparently reached the end of the road. The turning to the right that I was looking for was actually just a farm track that looked like it may have been paved in an earlier era but was now returning to the wild.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t really want to back track, especially as I would be embarrassed to go back past man and dog, so I thought about opening the gate and going on. The road was fairly flat for a while before turning to a grass track leading gently uphill. In between, there was a long stretch of puddle. I decided to go through the water, as it was a fairly manageable 4-6 inches deep. However, by the time I had got halfway through it started getting deeper. There was no way I could turn back without putting my feet down so I went on. But the water just got deeper and my feet got wet just pedaling anyway. It went up over the bottom bracket (that&#8217;s the spindle that the cranks are attached to) and the wheel hubs.<\/p>\n<p>I jumped off at the side of the road and lifted the bike up, only to realise that I was standing on reeds in the middle of a bog. My feet were already soaked and the bike was as wet as it could be, so there was nothing for it but to get back on and pedal until I hit dry land again. I now felt dafter than if I&#8217;d turned around in the first place, but in the spirit of discovery, I ploughed onward.<\/p>\n<p>The track post-puddle was quite manageable, which made me think that this whole venture would be so much better if repeated during the summer (that is assuming we have a dry one). Trying not to be disheartened, I ignored the muddy bits as much as possible and completed the off-road section by turning left at Kingside farm and along the potholed track to the A703.<\/p>\n<p>There I turned right onto the main road, and then left a short while later. This took me to the start of a straight section of road that I had noticed on the map, which would take me onto a network of small roads as an alternative to cycling along the A703. As it turned out, there was a gate with at least three signs making it clear that entry was a no-no. Unusual for Scotland, but it was apparently due to Bio-Hazard. That was quite worrying, making me think of secret government weapons testing, as per Gruinard Island, but I think the reality is more likely to be intensive factory farming.<\/p>\n<p>In the opposite direction from the danger area lay a section of woodland planting with a circular walk. I went part way into there and stopped for a sandwich. My feet were now starting to get cold, so I decided not to explore there any further and headed back to the A703. I headed south in the direction of Peebles and straight into the face of the strengthening wind. Even on the downhill bits I felt like I was crawling, so I was pleased when I was able to take the left turn for Gorebridge. This road climbs quickly in a gently sweeping switchback, making me search for the lowest gear, but wasn&#8217;t steep enough to stop me altogether. Soon after that I reached the access gates for Portmore Reservoir, where I stopped and scoffed the other half of my sandwich.<\/p>\n<p>From Portmore to home is usually quite quick, but the wind had other ideas, blowing either from the side or into my face. I was getting slower all the time; my feet were now like blocks of ice and my muscles sore, and to cap it all, the bike was making an unhealthy squeaking sound. Finally I got home, having made the 26 mile trip feel more like 56. A long soak in the bath brought my feet back to life, but reviving the bike is going to take a bit more effort!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are some roads and tracks quite close by that I&#8217;m aware of from the map, but have never tried. Today, I decided to try out several, hoping to open up some new route possibilities. Colette wasn&#8217;t able to join &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/?p=249\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adp-stuff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}