Map my ride

Steven Lockhart of walkers cycling Kilmaurs put me on to 'Map My Ride' through their forum so I gave it a try and the result can be viewed here.

Watefalls and Fungi

Biglees waterfall

Yesterday (Friday) was wet so it was a case of getting out and about with wellies and a brolly into the tree lined gorges and waterfalls on the edge of the moor. First waterfall was Biglees, due to the recent dry weather there wasn't a lot of water going over it but it was lovely in the autumn colours. PM went up Fairlie glen in and out of all the little rock pools below the falls.
In the end I was out over five hours in the rain but thanks to the brolly and tree shelter I stayed remarkably dry. Took a few photos of waterfalls and fungi while out and put them into a SB video.

More wandering on Kaim

Yesterday's video upload has lost sound, tried uploading again but it went completely skew wiff so I'll leave it until I have a fresh video and try agian.....
....third time lucky, view the video here with a bit of today's (25thOct) cycle added.

PM today was gloriously sunny and still, so I went back up Kaim hill to admire the views and look for some more challenging lines in the quarry. I may have found one if I have I'll call it the Cobra because its twisty with a bite. Looks like I may spend a few bright winter days up there sorting it out.

Anne's skiddling with wine at the moment (tea may be a bit late) she's mixing last years plum (strong) with this years pear (light) and the mix tastes very nice indeed. She's just started some clove and ginger for christmas (at my request) so the house is smelling a bit like a witches den.

Kaim Hill Rock Ramp

The 'Ramp' in Kaim Quarry

What a beautiful day for a spot of mountain biking, over scarey Glentane and up to Kaim hill summit for the big downhill run.. I stopped off in the quarry for a snack and to try out 'The Rocky Ramp' for the first time. I did some work on it a couple of weeks back, filling in a nasty crack and smoothing the run out hoping to make it possible....now was show time! if I could work up the courage.
From the top it looked a bit frightening so I walked it with the bike a couple of times before giving it a try, I succeeded second time but had to do it a few more times to get the video angles I wanted. That done I dashed off down the rest of the route......my oh my 'The Rocky Ramp' was quite a challenge but thankfully I'm still in one piece!

Video here.

Failford to Stair

Fungi at Failford

Anne and I had walk from Failford to Stair today, first for some time. I hoped to get some autumn photos and Anne was hoping for lunch at Stair Inn. Luckily we both got what we were looking for although I struggle a bit with autumn photos, colour is just not enough and colour with composition needs a keen eye. Hopefully I got a few nice ones, they can be viewed here on flickr but I may also put them on JAlbum for comparison......well thats done see it here but if you've seen flickr don't bother.

Autumn in the local Glens

Fairlie Castle Falls

Yesterday was a bit showery for the bike and since I'd swapped cameras with Graham I was keen to give his Fuji F30 a whirl. Graham wants shoot some video below water and I have a waterproof case for my little Ixuss, hence the swap.
I took a walk in the intermittent sunshine down the Glen in West Kilbride trying to capture the autumn colours and Later I went over to Fairlie Glen to do the same.
The Fuji has shutter and aperture controls so its easy to use slow speed exposures on waterfalls to get that nice soft flowing look.
I took the tripod along and tried it on the falls in Fairlie, got a few nice shots for my effort but a wide angle lens would have been handy, I had to paste together about five frames to get a full picture of the Castle Falls but it looks fine.

View a video here.

I may get round to uploading a few stills with JAlbum...... thats it done view here.

Maybole to Culzean

Culzean Castle

Due to the forecast Graham decided it would be best to get out today (Saturday rather than tomorrow) in south Ayrshire cause thats where the sun would shine. Didn't work out that way but at least it was dry. I thought maybe over Carrick hills along Croy shore into Culzean would be good but the tide prediction for the beach section at Croy ruled that out so we did the Lochspouts Culzean route with a short extension to Maidens. I was hoping for some nice autumn colours in Culzean but that didn't really happen there was no sun and I was so fixated by the idea of coffee and cake at the centre I didn't notice. I did take a few pictures but they were pretty rubbish due to crap light so I'm just going to delete the lot.
Still a nice day out on the bike though.

JAlbum photo HTML album

I was hunting the internet for some photo software to give HTML slideshows and came across JAlbum. I've loaded a couple of albums to try it out and they can be viewed from the links below.

Misty Law

Dunoon Walks

I haven't decided if I'll use it yet I suspect I'll just stick with flicker, it takes slightly less work to upload as the photos don't need resizing but I like the JAlbum idea, perhaps I'll use it for my web site photos.

Autumn colours near Dunoon

Autumn leaves

When I was across the Clyde last week I cycled through an arboretum above Kilmun and thought at the time it would be nice to come back for a walk with Anne. Yesterday PM the sun broke through the gloom and we decided to get over there before the leaves were all blown off the trees, good decision the colours were great, it was lovely and still, warm and sunny.
We followed the three marked walks above Kilmun from the forestry commission car park. Steep walking but what a great selection of trees, some of them are British Champions.
We nipped into Ben More Cafe just before closing then took another walk up a hillside track not far from the garden, coming back down through Pucks Glen. Lovely tree lined gorge with loads of little waterfalls and a footpath all the way.
A lovely afternoon see the video here.
Flikr photos here.

But now its time for some bike maintenance, all that splashing through puddles last Sunday hasn't done the wheel bearings any good, I'm off to strip and regrease them. Just as well its a bit drizzly out there otherwise it would have to wait!

Seaside Safari

Hermit Crab

After Sunday's MTB up Misty Law the I got back home about 3.30pm so decided to go down to Seamill shore and see what I could video in the little rock pools.
It was quite entertaining watching the hermit crabs squabble over a crab carcass, I was hoping to video something a bit bigger but no luck except for a brittle star which slithered quite nicely and a green water millipede of some kind.
Good fun view the video here.

Misty Law

Splash on Misty Law descent

WOW!what a day Sunday turned out, super clear, warm and sunny. Graham and I went over to Castle Semple beside Lochwinnoch to take our mountain bikes up a 'mountain' called Misty Law in the centre of Muirshiel Regional Park.
As you'd expect there was lots and lots of climbing but mainly on a good(ish) rough track virtually all the way to the top and boy was it worth the effort what a view! Arran, Ben Lomond, Arrochar Alps, Ben More, Stobinian...... the list goes on and on but we didn't just come for the view we were here for the downhill trail, lots of rough stuff with fabulous water splashes. This isn't a trail to keep your feet dry but on a day like Sunday it was absolutely marvellous to be splashing down such a great track.
Do it, its great but only after a dry spell or you may well drown!

Video here.

Route description here.

Dunoon

Kilmun Chainsaw Art

After a bit of a dull start the weather perked up nicely this morning, the forecast from the web looked good so I decided to cross the Clyde to Dunoon, geogrphically in the Highlands of Scotland, the highland boundary fault runs down the Clyde toward Arran so Dunoon is on the Highland side of the fault. I had decided to revisit some trails and see if they linked together to form a route behind Dunoon but the forestry people were out in force. The first off road near the ferry was disappointing...no trails. Then up Bishops Glen forestry people were chopping down trees and the track was closed. I doubled back up another track only to find it deep in mud because of forestry work. Followed a dead end, retraced my route then took another track blocked by forest working. Looped around for coffee and cake at Ben More Botanic Garden and finished the day with a nice forest ride to the east of the Garden, best bit of riding all day.
Nice weather shame about the tracks but thats the way trail searching goes sometimes.

Flickr photos here.

Video here.

Local trails in October sunshine

Portencross Peir and Arran
Just had to get out today, it was beautiful not a cloud to be seen and really still.
Managed to drag myself off the computer genealogy sites by tenish and set off for a bit of MTB pottering. I only did about 25km but with picnicing, admiring the scenery, searching rock pools, taking photos and videos or just sitting in the sun I was out for 5 hours. What a great day!

Yet another SB video here all from today's filming, it shows I even managed to clean the stream crossing in Fairlie Glen, a very rare event indeed.