November ride this coming Saturday

We've got our November ride this coming Saturday (11th). This should be a particularly interesting ride because our leader, Julia (Loecherbach), has succeeded in finding a lunch venue which we never visited before as a group (as far as I know). It is the spacious self-service restaurant at Dobbies Garden Centre in Lasswade. They do a good range of soups, sandwiches and snacks, and the service is reasonably fast. There are also seats outside for those of us who want to brave the November temperatures for a picnic.

The route will be fairly straightforward: about 22 miles in total. There will be a couple of moderate hills, just before and after lunch, but nothing else to worry about. We'll head out via the Innocent path, the River Esk walkway and Dalkeith, returning by way of Danderhall and Gilmerton.

The meeting time and place are as constant as the Northern Star: 10:30 at the north end of Middle Meadow Walk. And as usual the ride is completely free and open, so there is no need to reply to this post.

Lighting up

Now that the clocks have gone back, this would be a good time for us all to check that our lights are in good order. Sunset on Saturday will be at 16:15. Although the ride should have finished by then, it might well be dark by the time you get home. So be sure to bring your lights on the ride, and check that they have plenty of juice.

Christmas ride

Some of you have asked me if our traditional Christmas morning ride will take place this year. Yes, we will definitely have a ride that morning. I don't have any further information just yet, but will post full details here in due course.