Tuesday 26th March -
http://app.strava.com/activities/45939182
'twas one of those days today where it has snowed more than it has been anything else, yet we have less snow now than this morning!
The 43km ride started in a blizzard and ended in a blizzard. In between there were several more blizzards, hail storms and numerous disturbed buzzards, several flocks of fieldfares and 1 cormorant - I am assuming it is lost given we have not seen one here before. We also spotted 2 roe deer, a couple of white throated dippers, several docile pheasants that could not be bothered to move out of our way and 2 daffodils that have decided it is time to flower - they are confused - it is most certainly not.
We had decided originally to do the Schiehallion road (big climb, hairpin bends, very exposed) but somewhere between the first blizzard which lasted 8km and the turn off less than a km later, we decided against it. It was probably a sensible decision, the headwind has not been kind again today and it was hard work even at loch level.
Around Carie Walks my OH (currently not known in this household as the better half) decided an off road excursion to see if his route up to Glen Lyon was an option for another day.
A touch of nice light on the distant mountains - too many trees in the way to get them out of the photo... sorry...
Forestry commission tracks are not the best of things to follow uphill in snow in a blizzard and this one was more like superglue, ielding to the tyres, letting them sink and trying hard to hang onto them as you swore and cursed and tried to continue in those granny gears every one swears blind they never use
that was until we met the 'snow line'. (We are currently on our moutain bikes with the winter studded tyres, but they are at tarmac pressure (i.e. max) and for a variety of reasons we didn't have a pump with us to re-inflate them afterwards if we were to drop them to sensible levels for snow.) Once we met the snow line, it the forestry track became more like an ice-rink and after 2 forestry vehicles came through rutting up the snow & ice badly, I called it a day and pushed my bike to where he was waiting "Why didn't you say something?" he said. My thoughts were not printable and best left not mentioned....
Coming back down the track was almost as slow as going up it - at least it has clarified one thing, my cracked ribs still hurt even with the painkillers. Any ideas of off-roading for me are out for the moment.
Getting back to the holiday home, it was blizzard after blizzard and a case of head down, no talking, until we found a spot of sunshine which was womderful for the 5 mins it lasted, then we were hit by yet another blizzard and left confused as hell when Schiehallion's summit was visible yet we were still in a blizzrad at the time. Still it added to the day's picture count but leaves the picture a touch fuzzy, such was the nature of the weather today.
Once back at the holiday home, the sun has come out again which is typical - so the last photo is from the holiday home looking away from the latest blizzard and into the sunshine...
Extra's...
Later that evening, there was a brief patch of magical light as the sunset. Magical in the fact it was visible, clear & had that wonderful soft/saturated colour to it that evening light sometimes has in those last few rays, making up for a hard day on the bikes.
