June's rides

Next 20miler ride is Saturday 9th June, 10.30am in the usual place.
I'll be leading the ride, and heading out to Ratho Climbing Centre (which has a cafe and picnic area). Exact route still to be plotted but there will probably be some short stretches on rough-ish tracks, and some short stretches on busy-ish roads - but both only short!

There will also be a 20-miler evening ride, on Wednesday 27th June. Starts 7pm, on Middle Meadow Walk as usual. See http://www.cycling-edinburgh.org.uk/ for more information nearer the time.

May ride to Dalkeith Country Park

Despite the copious amounts of rain over the last couple of days, today we were lucky with a day of sunshine although there was a bit of wind.
Twenty-one people turned out for this ride, led by Ken, to Dalkeith Country Park. We started by heading East, via Holyrood Park, Fishwives' Causeway, Portobello and a pause at the Bandstand in Joppa, then on through Musselburgh (I noticed for the first time that there is a useful underpass under the main road beside the river in the centre of Musselburgh - must use that next time rather than trying to cross the road!) and up the Esk to Whitecraigs, where we entered the Dalkeith Country Park by a back gate.

We had a very sunny lunch in the courtyard - many people had brought packed lunches (especial thanks to Iain for sharing his home made soup!) and the rest bought sandwiches etc. at the cafe. They even got free top-ups of tea and coffee, which is a rare and wonderful thing. We admired the sow and her pile of multicoloured piglets, and the chickens scratched and bathed in the dust.

After lunch we left the park by a different route - a rougher surface (with lots of puddles after the week's rain) but still easily rideable, and out by the back gate near the A1. From there we had a straightforward ride back along Route 1 (Innocent Railway etc.) and were at Middle Meadow Walk around 3pm.
Photos on Facebook which might work but I'm not sure about permissions! 


View 20milers to Dalkeith CP May12 in a larger map

30miler ride to Blackness Castle

Map from last Saturday's longer ride out to Blackness Castle via the Hopetoun Estate. Report to follow...

View 2012-05-05 Blackness 30-miler in a larger map