Minirolls Musings

Wriggly Doggy

This morning we discovered the blackout blinds had frozen to the inside of the windscreen. After chiselling it off and scarfing down a haggis and egg sandwich we set off for Dalwhinnie.

Fishy Fingers and Ebikes

Today we went back to Wolftrax, our favourite bike park in… well actually I’m happy to just say it’s my favourite. Aimi agrees with whatever I say…

2 solid days riding and one intense evening in a row finished me off physically so this morning dawned, and then 5 hours later I got up. This sounds horrendously lazy, but dawn in summer in Scotland is at about 4am.

Some tasty bagels later and apparently Aimi was still feeling energetic so got a lift to Fort William and tromped off up Ben Nevis on her own – nutter. I had a day of blogging, movie watching and bike maintenance planned, with no urgency and plenty of chatting and eating in between.

Or so I thought…

Inverse Karma

Have you ever tried to do something nice, and then immediately after, something bad happens?

Normally, for those who believe in such things, the act of doing something good builds a karma debt on the universe so that at some time in the future this is repaid with good things happening to you. Or at least that’s how I understand it? Do good things, and good things happen – Right?

Trashy Blonde In Glencoe Woods

One of the major advantages of using an uplift service is that you haven’t had to spend 80% of your day pumping uphill – obviously. The not so obvious but really enjoyable side effect of this is that your butt hasn’t been pounded to death by an uncomfortable saddle. I’m not sure why MTB saddles have to be so uncomfortable but the day after a ride, my butt is usually so sore, I can’t look at a bike again.

Butt today is feeling good!

Midges and Mountains

Rise and shine
Milk that tastes like wine

Drive over to Glen Coe
Up Nevis Range we go

To look at Top Chief track
Now there’s no looking back

Over rocks and holes
To reach our MTB goals

Dyfi Bike Park

After a hard days ride uphill yesterday, today we were going to Dyfi bike park and getting an uplift. This is where you pay a chap to drive you and your mates up the hill in the back of a Landover, with the bikes in a trailer. You then spend 20 mins coming down the hill, back to the start, where you catch another Landy to the top again, rinse and repeat. So much easier than pedaling to the top, and before you say it’s cheating, I did enough uphill pedaling yesterday not to feel even slightly guilty about it!

Snowdon Struggle

Well that was equal parts exhilarating and exhausting!

It’s funny how the human mind has the capacity to ignore, and even forget, the suffering of the human body, when the suffering is in pursuit of a goal. For us, it was the summit of Snowdon. This was not the end goal, but actually the start of the reason we had travelled here; to descend on mountain bikes.

Snowdon Preparation

Oh god what have I agreed to…

Steve has been pushing me to come mountain bike down Snowdon for a while and finally I had relented.

Home Sweet Home

We had spent the night in a Brecon car park with a Victorian river garden adjacent. We walked the promenade and around the quaint village and enjoyed a rare, warm and dry evening in Wales. Just because we were in a van in a carpark doesn’t mean it was all stodgy pasta and plasticky water. Oh no no!

Category: Mountain Bike