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

[Stefan Mikes]

We call it the ‘Minsk Sea’, although in reality it’s the Zaslavskoye Reservoir, created back in 1956. In Summer a lot of sport activities here !

We have a similar reservoir near Warsaw (1963). Only yours seems to be bigger

 

[Chargeride]

I havent turned the heating on yet, very mild december over here.

 

[stompandgo]

Wow. We were in the mid teens F last week.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

We call it the ‘Minsk Sea’, although in reality it’s the Zaslavskoye Reservoir, created back in 1956. In Summer a lot of sport activities here !

Dima, I've checked the facts Both Zaslawskaye and Zegrzyński reservoirs are of about the same size! (31 sq km). How odd.

 

[RabH]

I had a very hilly and very wet ride last Friday, I think my bike was the filthiest it has ever been after the ride but I had a blast!

Today was another wet one and very windy also but very mild at 8C so I wasn't bothered about getting a little wet when it was very mild, thankfully the weather cleared up after a while! The wind was from the SW and around 30mph so I decided to head out to Bridgend and enjoy a lovely tailwind, I made my way to Avonbridge and took the back road to Standburn! The River Avon was flowing extremely quickly after all the rain!

From Standburn I continued east towards Linlithgow, passing over the Union canal on the way!

When I arrived in Lithlithgow my average speed was 18.5mph, that tailwind sure was fun! Thankfully the town wasn't too busy and I made my way through with no issues and arrived in Bridgend with 24 miles covered, from there I turned south and then west towards Beecraigs Country Park! The 30mph headwind was hard going but level 2 assist made it tolerable, just before the big descent down into the valley I stopped for a couple of photos!

Then it was time for the beast of a climb up to the country park, I stopped part way up for more photos looking back up the hill I had just descended!

A little further up the climb I had this lovely view of the Forth bridges in the distance!

The view to the north!

Then came the steep part and I stopped again part way up for more photos looking north at the Firth of Forth!

Another view of the bridges from near the top!

Looking east at the big descent I enjoyed earlier!

Looking back down the hill I had just climbed, the camera makes it look almost flat but its a 15% gradient!

I had this view looking north from the country park, Linlithgow viaduct can be seen in the foreground and the now closed Grangemouth oil refinery in the background at the Firth of Forth!

The climbing continued as I headed south towards Cairnpapple Hill, the first part is very steep and then comes the corkscrew climb which is even steeper!

After climbing the corkscrew I stopped for a snack and a break and grabbed some photos looking back down the hill!

Now I was looking forward to some awesome descents, almost 42mph on the first one and it was into a headwind! The next descent was a very long one and I had a tailwind almost all the way down although it wasn't a steep one, it was still amazing! At the end of the road I joined the cycle path SW towards Bathgate so directly into the strong wind again! I arrived in Bathgate and I was going to take the cycle path to Whitburn but it was almost time for the primary schools to start causing chaos as they departed for the day and the school is pretty much right on the cycle path! So I made my way through the town instead and joined the cycle path close to Whitburn and then turned north up the cycle path into Armadale!

From Armadale I took the back road to Blackridge, where I turned west for home with 9 miles to go! I made it home just before dark and just had enough time to clean the bike before it got fully dark! What a great ride it was despite the wind and some heavy rain, I have now covered 6889 miles so only 111 miles to reach my 7000 target!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

The owner recommended I would better avoid Kabaty Woods at night because of wild boars He mentioned no wild boar attacks on a human were reported yet but the beasts were aggressive towards pet dogs!

Did the owner mention why he thought the boars might make an exception in your case?
;^}

 

[fooferdoggie]

I saw this while walking. The greatest part is this a scrap piece of wood from my dumpster I made about 3 blocks away.