Yesterday was a day to forget but today was a whole different story, a day of cycling at its wonderful best! Big climbs and fast descents was the story of the day and with very little traffic it was just sheer bliss! I headed for the Campsie hills to my north which is a haven for hikers and cyclists at the weekend but on a week day I had it almost all to myself, how I love retirement!
![Beaming face with smiling eyes :grin: 😁](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/7.0/png/unicode/64/1f601.png)
I headed up the iconic Tak Ma Doon road, don't you just love Scottish names?
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
It starts at around 200ft and climbs sharply to just over 1000ft, once you reach the top you get amazing views on a clear day! It wasn't very clear today though but I wasn't complaining!
Now comes the amazing descent where today I hit 42.3mph, you could easily hit 50 mph here if you knew there was nothing coming in the other direction but I wasn't taking any chances! The ford has to be taken very slowly if you value your life!
Once you get to the end of the road its time to turn for the Carron Valley Reservoir which supplies millions of homes with their precious water, I have never seen it so low as today! A sign of the dry spell we have been having since the middle of August, I'm sure that will change soon...
As I was heading along the twisty road I could see some nasty weather in the distance, was it beyond my turn off to the south? I will soon find out...
A little further and I could see a rainbow which was pretty close to where I was turning!
As I reached the foot of the big climb over the Crow Road which is very popular with cyclists, especially at the weekend I was surprised to see the roads were still dry! Part way up the climb you can see what I missed!
Further up the climb and it was still dry despite the darkness, the photo makes it look much brighter than it actually was!
The descent is just breathtaking when you reach the summit, I didn't stop for photos as it was just too much fun! My luck was really in today as I returned home fully dry and beaming from ear to ear after one of my best rides for quite some time! Over 4000ft of climbing and you could tell from the sweat was that dripping off me, who says you don't get a workout on an e bike?
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)