February 2019 Round Up and Video.

February 2019 Round Up and Video.

Video here.

They say March is supposed to come in like a lion and out like a lamb; this February came in like a polar bear and out like a semi-naked sun worshipper. We began with snow, which thawed to cold and frosty before ramping up to mid-summer by the latter days of the month, culminating in our trip to Scotland (blog here) where temperatures were in the high teens centigrade. Only the 28th let things down by being damp and misty. The first false spring of winter has been and gone, plenty of time for more snow yet.

Owing to some unaccustomed efficiency only one ride remained unblogged this month, the aforementioned 28th February, which ended a week of sunshine by having a proper old-fashioned pea-souper. “Don’t worry” said the weatherman “It’ll clear by eleven.” I rode around Roseberry Topping for a few hours and never saw it once, indulging in a spot of selfie-filming as I went. For those interested the link to the route is below.

28th February 2019 route.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a small selection from the Terra Trailblazers Facebook album, which can be found by following this link.

Ae and Dalbeattie in the False Spring of 2019. Pictures and Video.

The Ginger One has finally got his finger out from where he normally keeps it (shudder) and organised his long-awaited Scotland trip. A few months later than promised, in the False Spring of February 2019, an overexcited quartet was crossing the border, to the land of Irn Bru and those ever so tasty breakfast haggis slices. The village with the shortest name in Great Britain today's destination, Ae, or more specifically, it's forest and the next day was to be Dalbeattie; we rolled into Ae car park as the temperature was heading past the mid-teens centigrade. Disappointingly the cafe was closed but less disappointingly the car park ticket machine was out of service, so we were three quid up straight away. I shan’t bother describing the routes because we only did the standard red routes (with black excursions) and let’s be honest trail centres tend to blur into one anyway. Both days were superb, for Ae, the standout section has to be the orange graded Omega Man, downhill finishing section and for Dalbeattie, The Slab for those with big cajones and the wee (fluent at the lingo now) play area near the end.

The weather was better than the many summer days, we had beer, pies and a night out in Dumfries and two excellent rides with (mainly failed) attempts at stuff way out of the league of gentlemen on the verge of middle-age. A Monday night out in Dumfries, in February, you are guaranteed not to be jostled in the pubs, if it wasn’t for Wetherspoons quiz night we would have thought we were breaking a curfew or something. 

Day One Ae Forest 25th February 2019 route

Day Two Dalbeattie 26th February route.

Video click here

Lots of photos below.

Ae Forest

Dalbeattie