2025 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

Gorgeous photos! Your rounded beach cobbles are a lot bigger than our fist-sized versions.

Well spotted! Now those are pretty interesting. As I'm not a geologist I just thought the council dumped them to prevent beach erosion. Then I saw an info board. Turns out these smooth rounded stones got that way by being rolled across the bay floor over millennia then crunched together by the frequent Atlantic storms, and this beach is of special geological interest. The ruined castle (Minard Castle) was also featured in Ryan's Daughter, Lean filmed all over the Dingle peninsula. He put Dingle on the map.
 
St Bridgid's cross. Find them all over Ireland.
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Very Irish. The photo from an abbey in Donegal Town, Ireland, where four monks (The Four Masters) once wrote "The History of the Kingdom of Ireland".
 
Now that I don't bounce so well, I generally prefer light-colored bikes for visibility. But have to admit, black with red accents is hard to beat.
As Alaskan, I believe, remarked ‘comes in any color black you want.’ Two lights in rear…construction-green headdress sun shield…hard to unsee me even after a few drinks…but I’m on empty country roads and near misses are deliberate
 
Im still waiting for the high storm tide version, that would be insane, the surge can come half way up the dunes.
That would be quite a sight! Most of the sea cliff damage leading to cliff retreat (5 cm/yr on average all along the CA coast) comes from sand- and cobble-laden storm waves scoring direct hits on the cliff faces at high tide. Usually during just a few big winter Pacific storms per year. Puts on a good show.
 
As Alaskan, I believe, remarked ‘comes in any color black you want.’ Two lights in rear…construction-green headdress sun shield…hard to unsee me even after a few drinks…but I’m on empty country roads and near misses are deliberate
It’s good to be seen! Or, in your case, mule, unseen??? :D
 
That would be quite a sight! Most of the sea cliff damage leading to cliff retreat (5 cm/yr on average all along the CA coast) comes from sand- and cobble-laden storm waves scoring direct hits on the cliff faces at high tide. Usually during just a few big winter Pacific storms per year. Puts on a good show.
And surely not a show you’d want to be too close to, Jeremy!
 
Been awhile posting for me. My rides each week take me down pretty much the same path over and over again mostly due to urban area I live in and no desire to share busy roads for any extended period of time. I take them from the house long enough to get to designated shoreline bike paths.

This is the widest part of the Niagara River between Buffalo NY and Fort Erie Canada before it splits and goes around Grand Island and eventually Niagara Falls. Strawberry Island can be seen with Canadian shore beyond. City Buffalo and Peace bridge to Canada is behind my bike hidden by haze from Canadian wild fires.

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My path takes me along portion of the original Erie Canal before it became the Barge Canal. And of course I didn't take a photo of the backside and no idea why the close-up of sign is showing sideways.

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View of twin Grand Island south bridges, first span built 1930 to replace Ferry access and second span in 1950's to accommodate more vehicles.

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Path goes along Niagara River through Niawanda Park heading toward the Tonawanda's where the Erie Canal met the Great Lakes.

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Token view of local Town golf course on the way home.

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Been awhile posting for me. My rides each week take me down pretty much the same path over and over again mostly due to urban area I live in and no desire to share busy roads for any extended period of time. I take them from the house long enough to get to designated shoreline bike paths.

This is the widest part of the Niagara River between Buffalo NY and Fort Erie Canada before it splits and goes around Grand Island and eventually Niagara Falls. Strawberry Island can be seen with Canadian shore beyond. City Buffalo and Peace bridge to Canada is behind my bike hidden by haze from Canadian wild fires.

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My path takes me along portion of the original Erie Canal before it became the Barge Canal. And of course I didn't take a photo of the backside and no idea why the close-up of sign is showing sideways.

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View of twin Grand Island south bridges, first span built 1930 to replace Ferry access and second span in 1950's to accommodate more vehicles.

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Path goes along Niagara River through Niawanda Park heading toward the Tonawanda's where the Erie Canal met the Great Lakes.

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Token view of local Town golf course on the way home.

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Nice pics!
Right now though, I'd say your fire smoke is more localized, not from us. https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/
Things change when you get up in the morning (tm)... :)
 
Nice pics!
Right now though, I'd say your fire smoke is more localized, not from us. https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/
Things change when you get up in the morning (tm)... :)
You are right about today. Winds shifted to the south from yesterday when I took the photos. Now it's time to look forward to some more 90 F weather for the weekend. So far this summer it's been either cooler air from Canada (preferred) and wildfire smoke or a hot humid hell 🥵.
 
You are right about today. Winds shifted to the south from yesterday when I took the photos. Now it's time to look forward to some more 90 F weather for the weekend. So far this summer it's been either cooler air from Canada (preferred) and wildfire smoke or a hot humid hell 🥵.
Yeah, I remember a couple of years ago getting choked/smoked out from Wash/Oregon fires here in BC. It's getting worse everywhere sadly... :(
 
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My luck ran out last Thursday when I got properly soaked on a 50 mile ride, it was another very windy day surprisingly... 😂 Fast forward to today and the weather was so much nicer, still windy of course but not the crazy winds we have been getting! I started on the main roads because it was a Sunday but that backfired very quickly with so many trucks around so I took to the back roads after 7 miles and passed through Allanton and Carluke before heading for Yieldshields and amazing roads like this!

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The main herd of Alpacas were too far away for a photo but I caught these 4 lounging around and totally ignoring me!😂 I then enjoyed the quiet back roads out to Kaimend, grabbing a couple of photos on the way!

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From Kaimend I hurtled down the descent into Newbigging before turning east towards Dunsyre where I had some stunning views of the Pentland Hills, I couldn't stop taking photos...

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I used the narrow back road to Walston which I enjoyed recently in the other direction, its just amazing!

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It dissects the hills and has a huge descent at one end and a huge climb at the other!

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After passing through Walston I had a stunning descent followed by a big climb and the stunning views just continued!

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At the end of the road I joined the main A702 which heads south into Biggar but I spotted a sign saying there was a vintage rally in Biggar and to expect delays so I turned off the A702 and joined the A721 to Elsrickle, it starts with this long gradual climb!

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This was near the top looking back down, shame I wasn't going down it today as it would have been wind assisted! At the top I was greeted by this lovely scene!

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I was sure glad I chose to head for Elsrickle! :D I then took the back road towards Biggar but stayed well away from the town, I had a nice view of the Coulter Hills here!

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I then turned NW towards Carnwath and up the back road to Braehead, a big climb up through the village!

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Then its a cracking descent down the other side on the back road to Forth, as soon as I arrived in Forth I took the back road up the big climb to Climpy! Then it was the big descent down into the valley and on to Shotts!

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At Shotts I had 10 miles to go and enjoyed the lovely new tarmac on the road from Harthill to Salsburgh, it was closed for a month but it was well worth the wait! A big climb followed by a big descent but it was directly into the strong breeze! At Salsburgh I took my usual back roads to home and arrived just before dinner time and feeling pretty tired but totally elated after a truly amazing day on the bike! It really was a fantastic ride and I'm still buzzing many hours later! 😁
 

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