RabH
Well-Known Member
A much nicer day today with a less than 5% chance of rain for a nice change, winds were showing as westerly and around 18mph which was way off the mark! The wind was easily 25-30mph at times but it was a lovely sunny day so I made the most of it, I was intending to head over the Campsie hills but I had a change of plan when I reached the foothills! I made my way down to Falkirk and took the back road to Bonnybridge, then up the climb to Denny and up into the Carron Valley! On my way down to Bonnybridge I had this stunning view of the Ochil Hills!
As I was heading along the Carron Valley I noticed the River Carron was flowing very quickly so I suspected they had opened the dam at the reservoir and I was right!
As always I took many photos as I made my way along the valley!
Carron Valley Reservoir with the Campsie Hills in the background!
The roads were even starting to dry up!
The first descent, shame it was into a headwind though!
Fully dry road on this descent!
Looking back up the hill I had just descended at high speed, this really is a fun part of this awesome road!
I was supposed to be heading up here shortly until I had a change of plan!
Another fun part of the road just before arriving in the valley floor!
I had covered 34 miles when I reached the foothills of the Campsies and my first battery had only a few miles left, so I decided to continue along the valley and skip the big climb and make my way to Killearn! I made it to almost 40 miles before switching to battery 2, I had some nice views here also!
There were still remnants of snow on the mountains to the north despite the recent mild spell!
The village of Balfron!
The stunning views just kept coming!
At Killearn it was time to turn SE towards Strathblane, some cracking descents followed by some big climbs and I finally had a tailwind which I would enjoy pretty much all the way home! This was the main reason for my change of plan!
From Strathblane I headed east towards Lennoxtown and then SE to Kirkintilloch, the tailwind really was so much fun! I continued towards Twechar and stopped for my last photo of the canal before heading up the big climb through Twechar!The descent at the far side of the village is a real blast, although I had a headwind for half a mile or so before turning east again towards Cumbernauld! From there I used the back roads to home, I was so glad I changed my route as it worked out perfectly with that lovely tailwind for 38 miles!
I noticed something very strange today, my bike odometer has lost almost 4000 miles and is stuck on 40697 miles! Its recording the trips fine but not updating now, my actual mileage is 44494! In other news I have just had my best February ever with a total of 668 miles from 10 rides!
