Fair to say the weather since my last BAM has been a bit hit and miss, mainly miss. My bike riding has been somewhat curtailed as I've been down to Mum and Dads a fair bit this month as Dad is having a very hard time recovering from a knee opp and both needed some moral support. "The last one wasn't like this!" he said. You were 56 then Dad, not 83...
I've managed a couple of longer rides and plenty of commuting so my mileage tally is no worse than other years, but I am itching to get somewhere less local and more mountainous!
A fine day (more or less) round Loch Rannoch. Alan Goldsmith had asked me to check out a track which avoids the wrecked bridge the route usually crosses out of Rannoch forest so an ideal excuse to do this fine circuit.
The bridge itself is fine, the abutment looks to have settled somewhat thanks to scour around it's base... Once upon a time it would have been partially barriered off and folk could take their chances, but we seem to be getting more risk averse in recent years. Annoyingly the gate into the forest is locked so no chance of people making their own judgements as to whether they can cross.
Anyway, with Dad currently safely in a respite care home for now this weekend was clear. The weather up North looked a bit iffy for Saturday and I had a ton of stuff to do in any case so local it was.
Even less imaginatively I used the same spot as last month. I'd thought of heading deeper into the woods but the prospect of a rare sunny day for the Sunday meant somewhere with a morning view was needed and this one would be perfect. A mighty fine night followed relaxing after fraught family dealings and total mayhem at work. Hazy Jane helped....
Dawn brought forth a deafening dawn chorus, which was nice, spring seems to have started! Then I snoozed some more and woke up thanks to screaming motorcycles on the Glen Devon road, at 8.30. I'd no idea if is this was GMT, BST, or TT but I didn't care, had a leisurely breakfast and headed for the hills
Top spot this, in fact nicer than my more usual spot further east, which doesn't have a view. But it needs an easterly or else the rain comes in through the trees, as I found in August 2021. That said there wasn't a breath of wind all night and I could hear the clank of the nearby windfarm.
Look, it's still winter! In fact there were some bigger bits of snow on various north facing slopes, but as the saying goes - enough to be noticeable but not enough to be of any use.
Looking more wintery on the high hills up north, but for the first time since 2010 I've not been able to get skiing at all this winter. Opportunities were there but only if I could sneak away from work during the week, which has not been an option, sadly.
Later on I dragged the Triumph (motorcycle) out for some pleasantly quiet burbling around various back roads in the sun - why announce your presence to the entire world?
Back to easterly dreich tomorrow and mebbes even more winter so glad to have got a dry one in. Hopefully Cairngorms next month but all is in flux until fatha is safely home.
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