I forgot to note my ongoing cycling efforts from last week - I did about 18 miles going from home to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh and around it twice. Not too bad.
This week was more interesting. I cycled to Colinton and then took the Water of Leith Walkway to Balerno. It was a great path for a ride and really nice to cycle with no cars trying to mow me down. The biggest challenge was avoiding all the yapping dogs en-route; I even saw a pheasant and a heron(!)
Once I got to Balerno, I took the road to the Thriepmuir reservoir. From there, I was aiming to make it to Glencorse reservoir and then to Flotterstone. I couldn't find it and instead took the road to Balerno again. I was a bit annoyed at having missed my chosen path, so I headed up to the reservoir again and had another go. After realising that although the map showed a fork in the path, it actually meant climbing over a stone wall and then hunting for the path, I found a sign for Glencorse reservoir. The path to the top was reasonably steep but I thought that I was keeping up a fair pace - right until another guy on a bike blasted past me as if I was standing still.
I got to the top and then started the decent - which was hairy at times. Upon reaching the bottom, I saw a sign warning that while ok for bikes, there was a "serious risk of injury" for those taking the path. Cheers. Glad the signed that at the end of the path! :-)
I had the choice to go to Flotterstone (my intended destination) or continue to another reservoir and Penicuik. I still felt ok so headed off along the road to the reservoir. All went really well until I saw the sign for Penicuik or rather the gradient on the path.
If you can imagine the path you can see turning right on the horizon and following that steep incline to the top, you can imagine how steep it was. I spent the next 30 mins walking my bike to the top. Mind you, the view from the top was fairly good: [You can see the path I came from as a light brown line skirting the left-hand side of the hill in the centre of the picture. It is about a 425 m climb.]
As was the view of the descent:
Honestly, it was a lot steeper than those photos make out.
Despite being pleased with myself for finding the route, it turns out that I'm not the first person to have come up with it. A much better description is given here. They describe the path I took (the Old Kirk Road) as "interesting" - too right.
4 hours 20 minutes and 31 miles later I collapsed at home. A really nice day out, although next time I'm not going anywhere near the Old Kirk Road!!