Craig of Affrusk and Scolty

 

40.8km/25.5 miles (inc my usual commute) with total ascent for day 2218ft/672m

When I woke at 5.30am this morning - well I say woke, I slept like a bag of crap last night - to the sound of the rain being thrown against the windows like some giant hurling buckets of water at us, I knew my planned  Durris Forest ride might be in jeopardy. When I set off for work at 7.30am, it was still pitch black and blowing a gale but the rain had stopped. It didn't brighten but stayed dreich all day - 4 deg C, ever present drizzle/intermittent rain and a gale. What better weather to persuade someone who hasnt been out on her bike sice October to accompany me up a couple of local hills then! (as an alternative to Durris, which really - for the effort - deserves good weather for the view). But my friend Sue is one of those people who will, anyway. Which is why we get along so well.

So off we went up the [barely a] foresty track deep into the woods of a local hill known as Craig of Affrusk. For the first km or so it was straight up but good track and then it just turned into a maze of forwarder tracks (thats the big tractor like vehi-cules that you see in forestry) so it was a mix of mud, grass, mud, mud, some fallen trees, some mud and just incase we weren't having enough fun, some more mud. The pic below is Sue on a grassy bit. She got a puncture but we fixed it and set off again. Some of the forest was fenced off and looked like it was under new managment, with big 8ft high gates so we ended up being unable link the next loop round Rhindbuckie Wood and set off back down the hill again. Really good fun. 

 

Got to the bottom and it was getting dark and raining heavily now but decided we had time to nip round one of the easier routes up Scolty Wood. Its mostly hardcore forestry tracks so was a nice easy finish to a great afternoon. Of course though, I had to get home - which wasn't so pleasant tonight. Torrential rain made visibility sodding awful and I was soaked through by the time I got back.

Bloody great day :)