Sunday, August 13, 2006

Top of the world










The awful hand

The weather was set fair for today so Graham and I arranged a real mountain outing on the bikes.
We planned to cycle up the highest hill in southern Scotland The Merrick, just short of the magic 3000ft mark but cycleable most of the way up and all the way down.

I was surprised the little cafe at Stone Bridge was open at 10am, but we were straight off up the hill, forest tracks all the way up Bennan then a part push up Benyellay where the Merrick came into view.
Great run down Neive of the Spit then the last slog to the trig point.
13deg centigrade and a 14ft/sec breeze made it feel a bit cool, we did a cycle loop at the top, had a bite to eat then shot off down the hill.
The Merrick summit is smooth and fast, short climb up the Spit then rough stuff to Bennan.
The forest track from Bennan is steep and fast in places but with some really rough bits ready to deliver a snake bite puncture, but we made it down without mishap, 2.5hours up and 1hour back down.

Final stop the cafe for a tea and cake before the return car trip.

Route description here.

Today pictures here

2 Comments:

Blogger Jinxx said...

That sounds like an insane but enjoyable run down.

7:44 PM  
Blogger Whee said...

The insane bit is the ascent, the descent is just lots of crazy thrills.

8:29 AM  

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