The Pentlands
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 9:58 pm
We had a few days up around the Pentlands and took the fatbikes.
We got there Thursday lunch time so headed out for a quick loop that I'd worked out from the map. From West Linton we went past the golf club and pulled up to below West Water reservoir. Things were very slushy.
The ride was mostly on good tracks but what you can't see in the image below is the block headwind - next to bottom gear on the flat
This was the first, and easiest of several fords.
Finally we turned to ride with the wind plus it was downhill so the speed suddenly shot up. Then we came to a big ford. Even the wide "shallow" bit was well over hub depth so we looked around and found a narrow spot where a hop and a jump got us across. A very muddy farm led to a pleasant grassy track heading back east.
The final bit of the track was much more interesting (and muddy) plus we were chasing the setting sun in getting back before dark. TBH you could have done this on a gravel bike in the conditions.
Come Friday and I remembered that I'd forgotten to take my CamelBak out of the van. It was -3! A quick dunking in a sink of hot water sorted things out. The target for today was the Thieves Road which crosses the Pentlands from West Linton to Midcalder. The first part was on road up to Baddinsgill , mostly clear but the sharp frost had set the wet sections solid so one or two short sections of walking to get past them.
Once past the houses it was a farm track that had been driven on so was sheet ice and, err, fun. The fell gate gave access to the track's continuation, less compacted now but still the occasional ice section.
There were a few climbs which were mostly ice so we just walked them. With the gain in height the snow began to get firmer and tended to cover the ice a bit better so we could ride much more.
Then the vehicle track ended and we'd a rough sunken bit of single track which undulated around the hillside and was only about 50% rideable.
When we got to Cauldstane Slap we'd a decision to make. Continue down the other side and either return the same way; head up on to the ridge at East Cairn Hill and follow it round or turn round. We decided on the latter as we'd taken two hours to get here and we'd no idea of what the other two options entailed or how long they'd take. A bit of lunch and we set off back. A warm front had passed through, we'd probably ridden right along at the same pace, what had been completely unrideable was now definitely so and I managed all but one iced burn back to the double track.
Some of the big iced patches were still ice so had to walk down hill :x Back at Baddinsgill we took a track on the other side of the valley back to the village. The snow cover was being stripped almost before our eyes.
We got back to the accommodation to find that someone had driven into the back of the van
so the rest of the day and quite a bit of Saturday was spent sorting things out (fortunately the other party left details) and ended up getting the train back as the van was/is undriveable.
No big mileage on either day but nice to get out in the snow.
We got there Thursday lunch time so headed out for a quick loop that I'd worked out from the map. From West Linton we went past the golf club and pulled up to below West Water reservoir. Things were very slushy.
The ride was mostly on good tracks but what you can't see in the image below is the block headwind - next to bottom gear on the flat
This was the first, and easiest of several fords.
Finally we turned to ride with the wind plus it was downhill so the speed suddenly shot up. Then we came to a big ford. Even the wide "shallow" bit was well over hub depth so we looked around and found a narrow spot where a hop and a jump got us across. A very muddy farm led to a pleasant grassy track heading back east.
The final bit of the track was much more interesting (and muddy) plus we were chasing the setting sun in getting back before dark. TBH you could have done this on a gravel bike in the conditions.
Come Friday and I remembered that I'd forgotten to take my CamelBak out of the van. It was -3! A quick dunking in a sink of hot water sorted things out. The target for today was the Thieves Road which crosses the Pentlands from West Linton to Midcalder. The first part was on road up to Baddinsgill , mostly clear but the sharp frost had set the wet sections solid so one or two short sections of walking to get past them.
Once past the houses it was a farm track that had been driven on so was sheet ice and, err, fun. The fell gate gave access to the track's continuation, less compacted now but still the occasional ice section.
There were a few climbs which were mostly ice so we just walked them. With the gain in height the snow began to get firmer and tended to cover the ice a bit better so we could ride much more.
Then the vehicle track ended and we'd a rough sunken bit of single track which undulated around the hillside and was only about 50% rideable.
When we got to Cauldstane Slap we'd a decision to make. Continue down the other side and either return the same way; head up on to the ridge at East Cairn Hill and follow it round or turn round. We decided on the latter as we'd taken two hours to get here and we'd no idea of what the other two options entailed or how long they'd take. A bit of lunch and we set off back. A warm front had passed through, we'd probably ridden right along at the same pace, what had been completely unrideable was now definitely so and I managed all but one iced burn back to the double track.
Some of the big iced patches were still ice so had to walk down hill :x Back at Baddinsgill we took a track on the other side of the valley back to the village. The snow cover was being stripped almost before our eyes.
We got back to the accommodation to find that someone had driven into the back of the van
so the rest of the day and quite a bit of Saturday was spent sorting things out (fortunately the other party left details) and ended up getting the train back as the van was/is undriveable.No big mileage on either day but nice to get out in the snow.
