Cycling UK Forum

Remembering LEJOG this year hasn't this tiny hill got 2 cemetery's either end??! I still think the beeftub after Moffat was a hard climb..wouldnt want either with the rain lashing and the wind howling!!

spike2446 wrote:Remembering LEJOG this year hasn't this tiny hill got 2 cemetery's either end??! I still think the beeftub after Moffat was a hard climb..wouldnt want either with the rain lashing and the wind howling!!

I think your correct, I seem to remember climbing a set of steps to take the picture up thread and the cemetery behind me don't know where the other one is though.

Malc

A good youtube clip of the Berridale Braes

heading south

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNjp7k0xmJ8

Malc

Excellent!
That took me back to the three times I've cycled it and the many times I've driven it.

It was good reminiscing where I've stopped for breathers when on the bike and when on the Chopper!
Great hill and a worthwhile hill to climb.
Hills make it ALL worthwhile.

Update on the proposed road improvements

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/sys ... bition.pdf

The final day of my lejog was the section from Inverness to JoG. I can't say i noticed any hills only a few undulations. I do remember the howling head wind and continuous stair rod rain however. I was brought up in Plymouth and every way out of the city is uphill so i probably got used to Devon and Cornwall hills from an early age.

rjb wrote:The final day of my lejog was the section from Inverness to JoG. I can't say i noticed any hills only a few undulations. I do remember the howling head wind and continuous stair rod rain however. I was brought up in Plymouth and every way out of the city is uphill so i probably got used to Devon and Cornwall hills from an early age.

Good point, well made. I walked only one hill in Scotland (went along top via the crask) but Cornwall! I don't do out of the saddle climbing due to knees but do have very low gearing (rohloff 36x16) and perhaps it was the fatigue? but defiantly the hardest riding in the country, I started hating downhills because of the inevitable. Give me a long slog in the highlands any day. The worst bit was taking the coast road from Penzance to LE, pretty but the A30 back felt flat. Devon is not as rough, for some extra miles you follow the ridges or old railway trails.

Been through Berriedale twice this Summer. The descent from the North is interesting on a fully laden bike.

Back at the Ord of Caithness, the old road is still open, almost, and forms a good gentle way up except for....http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4557741

Here the last few metres to join the old and new roads is blocked by fence and whins. Best of all the non path is signposted at both ends by a cycle path sign, one for Warrington.

Once through Berriedale to the north there is a lovely road from Dunbeath to Braemore and on to Glutt, Dalnawillan and Loch More. Mostly private but with a high quality gravel surface.

Fasgadh wrote:

Back at the Ord of Caithness, the old road is still open, almost, and forms a good gentle way up except for....http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4557741.

Actually that path is on the section between Navidale and The Ord of Caithness and not at The Ord.

Report the problem to Bear http://roadworks.bearscot.com/#defect-form-panel

I hit it on a bad day in April 2014 .... Visibitlity was down to a few metres for about 20 miles before it .... my parents were driving to the end to meet me and actually passed me without spotting me in high vis with 3 sets of lights on!

Interesting day on a bike ...probably the only time I have ever been really scared on a road bike ..... The A9 in blanket fog is not something I would repeat!

Im going inland next year. Having said that - I didnt think the Braes was particularly hard to cycle up - and I am certainly not a climber

This was taken on my first LEJoG in 2009 just north of Berridale



quite bizarre looking at the underside of the cloud at close range

Both my trips on the northern A9 this year were notable for light traffic. OK, busy compared with anything around Altnaharra, but nothing too unpleasant. Further south in Easter Ross is another matter and there were short sections that I had to use from one yellow road to another that were pretty frightening.

Remember this road from JoGLE in 1986. Southward descent quite interesting on fully laden tourer but going up out of it caused problems for the rest of the trip. I was out of the saddle and the strain pulled the back wheel out of the forward facing dropouts. I came to an inelegant halt turning the air blue, I had made a special effort to tighten the skewer when I was doing my last minute checkover. Anyhoo, for the rest of the ride I had more than my fair share of left hand rear spoke breakages. Eventually a rt side one bust and I couldn't get the freewheel off. Luckily I was close to Bridgewater so I went into the bike shop to get it properly sorted.
It turned out that the axle had cracked and was only being held together by the cone locking nuts. I must have overtightned the skewer and so the force exerted in the climb out of Berriedale had cracked the axle allowing the wheel to twist out of the dropout. then the punctures started, the new wheel had a proud spoke!!!

further update on the Berridale Braes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-39378777

Malc

Then and now.
Just imagine what it used to be like.