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Another lovely sunny day for a bike ride. I'd arranged to meet some friends from Worcester, at Cannock Chase.
Bundled the bike into the car and had a trouble free journey to Cannock, arriving in time to bundle the bike back out of the car, ready for my friends to arrive about 10 minutes later.
They have a 9 yr old daughter and so it was a gentle ride planned, following the green (Fairoak) trail and the blue (Sherbrook) trail.
It was packed at the Birches Valley Car Park and we soon realised why as there was a Memory Walk for Dementia, taking place, which made it even slower going than it would have been. The gravel trails were mainly in good state, with a few loose trickier bits, for my Hybrid bike at least.
There is quite a bit of climbing to start with, certainly for a 9 yr old anyhow!, before it flattens out along the Sherbrook Valley, where we stopped for a bite to eat. Whilst doing so we were approached by a distraught lady who had lost her Springer Spaniel. We hadn't seen it, but vowed to keep an eye open. She said that the dog didn't have a collar on though! Seems rather irresponsible to me, but I'm not a Dog owner and so probably not in a place to comment really. We then had a dog running up the hill towards us (not a springer) again with no collar on it, with no owners anywhere in sight. Phil tried to stop it, but it clearly didn't want to stop and continued off into the distance, at speed. About 5 mins later the owner came running up the hill, shouting the dog and so we told him in which direction the dog had gone and he continued to run in the hope of catching him.
We finished our lunch and continued on to Abrahams Valley, where I mistakenly tried to cheer up the rapidly tiring Jess, by saying I think it will be flat along here........hmmm it was the hilliest part of the ride. I think she let me off when I decided to do a bit of "off roading" on some more technical bits of the ride and made her laugh!
We crept along the remainder of the blue route, with a few tears and whines from Jess, but she did very well really!
Sue and Jess had a moment, when we reached the stream, with both getting stuck half way and ending up Paddling
Back at the Visitor Centre we indulged in Coffee and Cake, having done 12.7 miles with a surprising 870ft of climbing.
Bundled bike back in car and had a good drive home.
Fabulous day
True indeed, like we had a fabulous time yesterday riding around Loch Rannoch!
a "ohhh, it's a stag, hellooo" break, plus two more picture stops.
True indeed, like we had a fabulous time yesterday riding around Loch Rannoch!
I'm a day behind, had to stop editing pictures last night, as work was looming in the morning.
Four of us set out on Saturday to meet @SatNavSaysStraightOn plus hubby Stuart on holiday in Loch Rannoch: me, @Fubar, @Pale Rider, @User9609.
The weather stayed fair for the whole day, which is unusual for Scotland in October. I had waterproofs at the ready, just in case, ended up taking my upper layer off.
I was met at Rannoch station by @SatNavSaysStraightOn's hubby, who showed me some interesting local ... stones!
Here is the Frog Stone:
View attachment 106511
I did stop several times to take more pictures, Stuart was a model of patience with this slow coach
Still, the 10 miles to the holiday cottage were reached much faster than had I ridden them alone
I was the last one to arrive, met the rest of the posse, all apart from @Fubar and I were meeting for the first time, which was lovely, nice to have banter face to face with folks you feel you already know from forum banter.
What a feast of homebaking @SatNavSaysStraightOn put on the table for us, ignoring the twinges of her bad back: thanks so much for your effort Emma, scones are lovely, forgot to taste some of the soda bread!
Our ride around the Loch was at Pat 5mph speed, loved every minute of it, being shown the wildlife, looking at the scenery.
@SatNavSaysStraightOn's trike is awesome, and so is the rider!
... hope this embedding media feature works.
It was a 3 hour train journey each way for me, well worth it for the pleasure of this ride in such good company.
Suddenly, it's 2 hours to my train back, we are 18 miles from the station: will Pat 5mph make it? @Fubar had already left to catch his train, while I'm still chatting away.
Well, I made it in one hour 15 minutes (why are moors always up a hill?), including a comfort break
At the deserted station, a deer family made an appearance: yes, more photos
More pictures here. Actually I took many more, but it seems I have reached my quota on CC, so will link of a FB album in the future.
Useful fact if you find yourself in the area: Rannoch Station does not lock their toilets after the staff goes home.
silly but satisfying. 
Turn right at the top of the bank and head towards Home Eden and home.
Sure enough, three quarters of the way round, just as I was indicating left and about to change lanes, some twonk in a red Audi accelerated past me only inches away from me to my left.. I was on my best behaviour and let it go. Too nice a ride to go getting all het up. Feeling chilled. A nice ride.
Donger
