Cleish Hill

A special Spokes Ride to  Loch Leven's Larder today. Hopefully the weather will be kind, but it's a lot cooler than expected. Summer seems to have disappeared for a bit.

If I wrote out the route in detail you might be here for a while as it was over 100km. There were eight of us, mostly on road bikes.

The route out was along National Cycle Route 1 to South Queensferry and the Forth Road Bridge. Route 1 through Dunfermline isn't very good. We veer west from here to head through Rosyth,and the to the west side of Dunfermline. It means we go through Pittencrieff Park, which is preferable to busy roads. We take a quiet A out of Dunfermline, then the B915, and we rejoin NCN Route 1. There's the climb over Cleish Hill, which I did last month on my ride to St. Andrews. At the top, I stop to take my blip of the riders.

On the descent, the brakes fail on one of the bikes. Fortunately neither rider nor bike were badly damaged, After some cleaning of cuts and realigning the stem, we were off again.We cycled to Kinross, then took the path around Loch Leven (The Heritage Trail) to Wester Balgedie  and Loch Leven's Larder for lunch. (Extra)

After lunch, we carried on around Loch Leven back to Kinross. Over Cleish Hill, some dark clouds are heading our way. We take a different route back to the Forth Road Bridge. We head south. there is a wee rain shower on the way. We turn off the A road on to a B road through Kelty then  through Hill of Beath to Crossgates down to Inverkeithing.

We head through Inverkeithing, then up to the Forth Road Bridge. One rider is feeling the effects of cycling further than he is currently used to, he hasn't ridden a bike for two months, so I let everyone go on. Two of us coach the worn out rider slowly through South Queensferry to Cramond Brig. The grey clouds are now moving in, and the wind is getting a little wild. The ride ends at Cramond Brig, so we all head home.

The whole route can be seen at Relive here.

Home not too late. which is just as well. The conditions become pretty stormy for a while. I have a nice cup of coffee.