August's ride to Balerno

Aug 2010 to the Reservoirs

Despite there being not one but two competing shortish easyish bike rides today, a good number of people turned up for our ride, including several new faces, including one chap who stood to win a bet with his sons that he would actually make it out and get all the way round (he did - we await news on whether the bet was honoured!). Ken led us out along the Water of Leith, including parts through Craiglockhart Hill that I'd not been along before (quite a nice path, with just a few steps to carry bikes up). We stayed on the WoL all the way to Balerno, where we had lunch - some in the beer garden of a local pub and some who sampled the wares of the farmer's market.

After lunch we had a long hill to climb up to Red Moss nature reserve. My chain fell off as soon as we hit the steep bit (or that's what I'm telling people) but we all made it up eventually. The weather was glorious and not too hot, and we had some lovely views of the Pentlands.

At Red Moss we turned to head back towards town, past Thriepmuir, Harlaw (pause to enjoy the view, toilets, Ken's chocolate cornflakes and fix a puncture), Clubbiedean and Torduff reservoirs. It was at about the highest point on the route that I noticed that my rear disc brake had started to leak hydraulic fluid. Not the best time, with all the downhill ahead of us - but it got me home safely and is booked into the bike shop for fixing when the part comes in.

At Bonaly people started to peel off and head for home. Eventually only about 6 of us got as far as the Leamington Lift Bridge at the end of the canal. Then I went shopping for bike stuff.

Today was quite a long day as we had plenty of stops to recover (climbing hills) and chat. It was a great route though, thank you to Ken for leading us.


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