January joys into February blues

January was a great month for me on the bike. I managed to clock up 1060Km which would be a good effort any time of year but was super for a winter month. The weather was generally wet and windy but with a bit of Rule #5 and pre planning meant a good time. The highlight of the month for me was the Mere Two Hundred audax ride. This was a generally flat trip from Cheadle to Ellesmere and back. Last year the weather was dry on the day with ice and snow first thing in the morning followed by a quick thaw and floods. This year was a battle into a strong south westerly wind and at times driving rain. It was one of those days where had I been by myself I my have called off however I was having a lift down so no backing out. The return journey was much nicer now with a tail wind and a little blue sky. It's amazing how quickly you forget the hard work and the cold wet feelings when things start to go your way.

February is going to be a much quieter month with only one good ride out planned. This will be the Newport 200km audax towards the end of February. Lots of commuting will hopefully keep the base fitness ready for this event.

I discovered a fantastic little online shop this month called Mamnick. This I think is a one man shop based in the Peak District. I ordered a tie slide and an over shirt from them and both are fantastic. They are a great example of what happens when good design and top quality materials are used to make a product. I am looking forward to many years of use out of them.

Sunday Ride with New Shorts

The plan for the day was to ride 100km with a few little lumps and bumps with an old school friend. The route we took from Lancaster was to take the flatlands out towards Blackpool then follow the river Wyre back in land to near Inglewhite then back north and home. Details of the ride can be found on Strava. This was the same ride as I had done the week before and the weather conditions were very similar. The main difference this week was a change in riding partner. After 100km there was a difference of about 15 mins difference and several personal records were set on the segments. A coffee stop was taken at the ever popular, for cyclists, The Barn in Scorton. When we arrived there must have been at least 50 bikes stored outside but still plenty of room and quick service inside.

Rob and me in The Barn Scorton.

Gear Review

Suogi Liquigas Cannondale Bib Shorts

I received a pair of these bib shorts, from Probikekit, recently and it being the middle of winter was wondering when I would be able to wear them. I used then initially on the instrument of torture, sorry Turbo Trainer, in the garage and they were perfectly fine for my short work out in there but how would they fare on a real ride. Well this Sunday I managed to get out with these on with a pair of padless bib tights over the top. When I use a pair of bib shorts there are a few fundamental properties that I want. These are:

1) Comfort on the pad

2) A good fit

3) They stay where they are supposed to.

So how did these do?

Comfort on the pad was excellent. After a 30 min turbo session I was sure that they would be good and after a 4 hour ride I knew that to be the case. There was no discomfort or numbness which can come about from either a poor thin pad or one that is just the wrong shape. I was more than happy to wear these for several hours and would even have no problems wearing them for the 200km audax ride that I have coming up at the end of January.

Fit was also good. With Lycra bib shorts they will stretch to virtually any size and shape and the main consideration to take into account is height as you do not want them pulling upwards. I am 6ft 1inches and 182 lbs and the size large fitted like a glove. There was plenty of give in the material to ensure a snug but not tight fit.

So lastly did they stay where they were supposed to? Yes they did, the silicone gripper around the legs kept them just at the correct place, which for me is along the bottom of the muscle line.

The build quality is very good with excellent stitching and no signs of wear after a few washes.

Score for me is 9 out of 10

I know that some people regard team kit as the worst thing in the world but if you want a comfy pair of shorts for wearing all day then you wouldn't have to look much further than these and if you like the colours who cares what anyone else thinks.

PBK Cycling shorts page

Weekend Warrior

New years always bring new resolutions for some it's lose weight or give up smoking.  For me this year it's cycle as many miles as 2013 whilst also doing more running and fell walking.
In both 2012 and 2013 I managed to cover over 7000 miles on the bike. This was a combination of the daily 20 mile commute, cycle touring, sportives and Audax riding. I am very keen to keep this as a minimum for the year however I feel that I need to do more other things to improve my overall fitness not just cycling fitness.

Review

PHD minimus vest.
For those who have never heard of PHD it is a small outdoor company in the north of England who specialise in down clothing and sleeping bags.
I bought my mimimus vest in one of their seasonal sales and used it primarily for light weight backpacking. It is a fantastic piece of kit which ticks all the boxes. Lightweight
Warm
Comfortable
I use mine in the evening when camping as it's a little to warm to walk in it. So as I am sat round cooking food or chewing the fat in a cold Scottish bothy this is the first piece of kit to throw on. It is also super useful for when you pack the wrong sleeping bag (or son nicks the warm one) to bump the comfort rating. A dry shell outer means that you do not have to worry about the odd spot of rain but I definitely would not use it in a proper downpour.

Lots of cycling and no walking (blog)

Hello

Well since the start of the year I have managed to cover 2125 miles on my bike. This puts me in first place in the Merlyn Cup. I have managed this by my commute to work and also some longer rides on my days off. The shortest way to work gives round trip of 17.5 miles, however I have now managed to make it a 32 mile round trip. This I am enjoying doing as I can put in 50
Mins of hard effort and try to get a higher average speed each day. The longer rides that I have done have included two sportives, firstly the Lakeland Loop on 10/04 and then the Bay Dash on 17/04. The Lakeland Loop is a 69 mile route starting and finishing at the New Dungeon Ghyll in the Langdales. The route takes in some great lake district climbs with the hardest climb coming after 58 miles, this being Hardknot Pass. The weather was perfect for the event and meant for a fun day out. My finish time was 5:01:30 which put me about 180th out of 600 so very happy with that for my first ever sportive.
The following Sunday was the Bay Dash, this is a 63 mile ride from Halton army camp out to Cark in Cartmel, coming back over the climb of Tow Top. This ride took me 3:30:45 which was the fourth fastest time of the day so extremely happy.

I finished work this morning and I am now not back in until 4th June. The plan now is the TGO Challenge, I leave for this on Thursday morning on the 9.06 train to Glasgow. I will be walking wit Nat again, this will be our 3rd crossing, and we will meet up with Peter Molenaar in Aviemore and walk to the coast together. I will give a more detailed route from the train on Thursday and try to update a few times on route.
Gear review section
Montane Superfly XT Jacket



I bought this coat back in January from http://www.climbers-shop.com/ . The customer service from these guys was good, keeping me up to date with the progress of the order. The coat itself is a hard shell waterproof jacket made from Event fabric. The coat has two large chest pockets and then two lower pockets at waist height. The problem with these lower pockets is that they are unusable when wearing a rucksack as the hip belt covers them. The hood on the jacket is very good, it is very adjustable for wearing with or without a helmet. Overall I am very happy with this purchase as it performs it's main task, keeping me dry, very well. I would recommend this.

Thanks for reading.

Jayme.

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Lake District (blog)

Hello everyone.

It has been a while since I last wrote anything however I have had a busy few days so I thought that I would keep you up to date. Peter the Dutchman came over on Wednesday and we went up to the Lake District. A shopping trip to Ambleside was the first order of business and I managed to buy my self a new 150 weight long sleeve Icebreaker base layer. I like it a lot as it is nice and light and also quite warm. Peter was very impressed with the new light weight Paramo clothing particularly the Quito jacket and Velez light weight trousers, however the Quito jacket only came in Orange or Green which is not what he wanted and the trousers do not have the option of a long leg length so did not fit correctly. Peter did manage to buy a new rucksack saving 1.5kg off the weight of his old one, and also a new pair of inov8 light weight sandals for river crossings.
Then we went off to Elterwater to the YHA there, this is quite a nice little hostel that is relatively cheap, also in the village is a lovely pub called The Brittania. The food and beer here is very good highly recommend, and surprise surprise this is where Nat found us when she arrived at 21:30 after a long drive up from London.
Thursday was the day we had planned for our walk, and what a good walk it was. From the village follow the path that crosses Slater bridge in Little Langdale, then around to Greenburn beck and onto the ridge overlooking Wrynose pass. From here it was onto the summit of Great Carrs, Swirrel How, Coniston old man and then back to Swirrel How for a walk down the Prison Band and a descent back into Greenburn and then to the Three Shires pub for a well earned beer.
Today was a day for a bike ride. I have a cyclosportive planned for mid April thy goes over a few Lakeland passes, with this in mind I thought that a ride from Skelwith Bridge to Eskdale green and back again would be good practice. This meant a route taking in both Wrynose and Hardknot passes in both directions. The journey up Wrynose from Little Langdale is the hard way and I was definitely feeling it by the time I got to the top. At the summit I had a couple if cars behind me who had been there since the bridge so I pulled over to let them overtake, this is when one of the cars stopped an this big bloke got out and came towards me, I thought he was going to hit me for holding him up, I could not have further from the truth. He extended his arm and said he wanted to shake my hand as I had done so well, it dis not feel like I had done well as I was shattered. The descent and climb of the easy side of Hardknot went well an this just left the descent of Hardknot and a return journey to worry about. On the way down, just after the twin hairpins if you know it, my front brake stopped working and the rear brake started to overheat and loose efficiency. This led to a very scary attempt to stop without hurting myself. 15 mins later and front brake adjusted so that it worked well I was able to carry on. The ascent of Hardknot from Eskdale is great, a hard steep start then a gradual climb before the 30% grade finish. It's the twin hairpin bends when you start to feel it, but the whole ascent only lasts for 15 minuets so it is not too bad.
That's it from me today, thanks for reading.

Jayne

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Stuff and nonsense

Well it has been a quiet week, not much happening at all. I have hopefully sent off my final route plan for the TGOC, this year We have Alvar and Ann as out vetters and as usual there comments and corrections are very useful. I have included a link on the side of the page to a small sheet which in the fullness of time will show a brief route plan and also distance and ascent for each day.

Maths joke now. There are 10 types of people in this world.
Those that understand binary and those that don't.

No bike rides this week, excluding the usual commute, so nothing much to say on that front. I have yet to finish work on the modifications to the old bike, it will run at the moment as a single speed as I have not re-cabled the rear derailleur yet or set the front derailleur up either. I plan to finish that this weekend if the weather is nice, but not so nice that I can go out for a ride. As we go to press I am about 200 miles ahead in the Merlyn cup I hope to extend that lead to about 500 by the time the TGOC comes around as I will have nearly three weeks of from cycling and do not want to fall behind like last year.

I have also rediscovered the wonder that is E-Bay. I have been selling surplus outdoor gear that is now too large for me. A couple of waterproof jackets have now gone and this has given me enough money to purchase a new waterproof that fits (yippee). I went for a Montane Superfly XT, I know all you super light weight gear freaks will be shaking your heads and the Paramo lovers will be tutting, but I have always found Montane gear to strike the right balance for me between weight and performance, and let's face it, it could be two weeks of god awful rain and wind in Scotland so a good rain coat is essential.

Not sure if I have mentioned this in an earlier blog but a bloke called Peter Molenaar is coming over from Dutchland in March for a few days if walking and gear shopping in the Lake District. I met Peter in Ryvoan bothy on a very wet and windy day in 2009, we were both on the TGOC. We met up again latter the next day and walked together to Ballater. Then on TGOC 2010 we bumped into each other again just outside Mar lodge and again walked together for a few days over to Clova and then Tarfside. This year we have actually planned to meet up half way across in Aviemore and walk to the coast as a threesome from there, which should be nice. Any way in March he is coming over and as he has never been to the Lakes before I was trying to think of a good walk that would show off the area at it's beat. Any ideas?

That's enough for now.

Bye bye

Jayme

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TGOC Planned

Well that's it another weekend over and hopefully the bulk of the planning completed. We have decided to start at Lochailort and then work our way across to Roybridge and then Aviemore. Hopefully arriving in Aviemore on the Thursday to meet up with Peter who is a buddy from our previous challenges. Then the three of us will walk together over the Cairngorms to Breamar then Ballater and on to the coast. There will be no stop at Tarfside this year as we want to finish further north. The plan I think is to stay accommodation in Roybridge, Aviemore, Ballater and camp or bothy the rest. Overall I am very happy with this plan and will report back when I have done the more detailed planning on the computer.

This weekend there was also a couple of walks completed. The walk on Saturday was from Hathersage up onto Stanage edge and then Burbage with a short loop back to Hathersage. This was shorter than I would have liked to have done, however the weather was not the best so it was ok. Today we walked from the village of Litton down Cressbrook Dale to pickup the Monsal Trail, at the Monsal viaduct we headed south west and looped around and eventually ended up at Litton Mill where it was a short walk back to the village. This was a really nice walk through lovely steep sided valleys with a fantastic little brew stop at Cressbrook Mill.
I am now on the train on the way home.


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Buxton walking and TGO Challenge planning (blog)

It's now the weekend that I have been looking forward too for quite a while now. It is the TGO Challenge planning / walking in the Peak district time. I have decided to get the train down to Buxton and then a bus to the little village of Litton where we have a cottage booked. There will be five of us this weekend, my TGOC buddy Natasha, her partner Paul and a couple of their colleagues
Will and Richard. I have met all of these before and they a good bunch.
So here I am now on my second of three trains this one to Manchester Piccadilly. It is an hours journey and there is no heating or toilets on the train. It feels about minus 5 sat here and I have to sit next to an obnoxious woman who has told me 5 times that she has a first class ticket but is slumming it in cattle class because it is warmer. Do us all a favour and bog off back to first class. The plus side is that I have managed to buy a coffee on the train so all is not woe.
I will keep you up to date over the weekend about our planned route.
Went for a really nice bike ride on Wednesday after nights. I had a few hours in bed got up at lunch time and went out to Knott End. Th weather was perfect, sunny hardly any wind and warm enough to get out in shorts and a short sleeve top. It was just great. I managed 43 miles at an average of 17.5 mph so I was very happy with that. The other us side is that for the first time this year I am leading the Merlyn Cup, I have just over a 10 mile lead from Robert. No doubt he will be out this weekend and retake the lead, but it's nice to be out there for a day or two.



My Wiggo cycling top.

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Bike upgrade/repair (blog)

Well it was reasonable weather today so I decided this afternoon to try and replace all the running gear on the old bike. I had a new bottom bracket, crankset, rear cassette, rear derailleur, chain, and rear gear cable. The front derailleur was only changed last year.


Getting all the old gear off the bike proved to be the hardest part of the task. The pedals would not come off the crank arms, the crank would not come off the bottom bracket and then this would not come off the frame, well not without fighting every step of the way. Eventually I managed to strip it all down apart from the pedal on the left hand side which seems to be seized solid (I will take to work to use a vice when on nights). So then I had a pile if old parts like this.


The rebuild then started with the BB going in with a generous coating of anti seize on the threads, the crankset next then the rear cassette, derailleur and chain. I have now run out of time / light for today so the cable and the final set up will have to wait until next week. Here's hoping that we get no snow as I will be using the bike for work all weekend.


All the fitted components are looking good.

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Winter walking (blog)

Yesterday I went for a walk with Simon in the lake district. We originally planned to park at Scales and do Sharp edge, however when we arrived there the weather was very poor. This meant a different walk was called for, so we went round to Glenridding and the weather was looking a lot better. The walk then became a nice plod up to the base of the north side of Catstye Cam. We then scrambled / climbed up the north side to the summit. A quick lunch just of the summit led us the to drop down to Swirrel edge, thus was a lovely icy winter ridge to walk along. The photo below is me on Swirrel edge. Onto the summit plateau of Helvellyn where the sun came out. On the summit there were plenty of other walkers out enjoying the winter conditions, including 4 lads running in shorts, brave fools. A brief stop to take some photos and then the descent via Striding edge. Striding edge was just a treat to walk on in crampons, most of the rocks were covered in a nice layer of ice which gave perfect conditions for the scramble. After Striding edge we continued onto Birkside moor and then glissaded (Bum slide) down the snow gullies. An easy finish into Glenridding back to the car and then a beer at the Eagle and Child in Stavely capped off a great day. The only down aide if the day was that my sore right ankle is still hurting whilst going up or down no pain when walking on the flat, not sure what I have done or how to fix it, I have stopped running to give it some rest.


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Happy new year (cycling blog)

Well folks happy new year.
The old year finished with crowning of a new Merlyn Cup cycling champion, Andrew won with a total of 3481 miles for the year. Robert was second with 3475 and I came in third with 3171. Until I had the mechanical problems before Christmas I was hoping to have covered 3400 by the end of the year so still would have been third.

So new year, new Merlyn Cup. I went out today and covered 60 miles including the hill at strawberry bank, Cumbria. I could tell that I had not done any big bike rides for a few weeks as my legs were aching for the last 10 miles. Still a good start to the year as last January I only covered 180 miles all month.
There were a few problems today first I got a puncture after only 5 miles, new inner tube fitted and back on the road. Second I think that I had a tight link on the chain which caught on the derailleur causing minor damage to the chain. So a link was taken out at Bowland Bridge. This is where I noticed that the rear rim looked like it has a small deformation on it. This may have been caused by the over-tightening of a spoke when I had one fitted back in the summer. So it looks like I will have to buy a new rim, bummer.
Does anyone know somewhere in north Lancs or south lakes that supplies 700c rims suitable for disk brakes on a cyclocross bike.
Speak again soon.

Jayme


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Ice climbing at Tebay

Hello and welcome once more. Today I tried something new I went ice climbing near Tebay, Cumbria. My climbing buddy Simon went on a course last winter in Scotland and was keen to teach me some new skills. So off we went for a couple of hours of fun.
The temperature when we got out of the car was -8C and never really warmed up from that. Still 3 coats and 3 base layers keep you warm enough.
As this was my first time we were staying on easy stuff and Simon was giving me instructions all the way. The first few goes were very hard as my technique was poor, but after the initial couple if slips off the ice I soon got the hang of it. Now I know that I climb to a reasonable standard on rock but this is so different, there is not nearly as much looking round for holds like I do on rock it's just look, hit, pull and kick. That's about all there is to it on a top rope. Now after 6 climbs up this small piece of rock I can say that I love it, its so much fun and so different to anything else that I love it.


This is the ice

Jayme

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Cassettes and snow

Hello

Well please ignore my last posting about having two bikes available for use. Set off for work on Thursday morning on the cyclocross bike with the new chain fitted and all was well for the first mile or so, my problems occurred when I tried to shift out of the small cog on the rear cassette. In every other gear the chain was just slipping around the cogs, I made the decision to carry onto work the short way and to stay on the small cog and just shift on the top and middle gear on the front gears. This was fine until I reached the prom and the headwind hit me. This was a very hard ride so I decided rightly or wrongly that the problem may be that I had not quite counted the links correctly and I has left the chain to long, so I decided that at 06:15 in the morning on Morecambe promenade that I would take a link out of the chain. 10 mins later and I was ready to set off again. Guess what - no improvement. Now this is where my day got slightly better, someone on my shift who has a large estate car drove past and saw my frantic waving. He stopped and gave me a lift into work and home again. Thanks Huw.
Now my problem seems to be that the rear cassette is worn and
needs replacing. A quick check on the Internet and a replacement 8 speed rear cassette is about £20 so not to bad. This will be my job for this week before Christmas to try and get the bike back on the road.

This had now left me with one more day shift to do and only my old bike, which is set up for snow and ice, available. So I used it to get to work and guess what, in the afternoon it snowed, yippee. So this was my first trial of the snow tyres and I found them to be really good. There was about one inch off snow on the ground and the tread on the tyres cut through really well. Not sure if there was any ice under the snow but I never had any wobbly moments so all in all a great first test ride.
Speak again soon.

Jayme

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New inner tubes

We often have problems with punctures in our family. My wife seems to like to get at least one per week. I think that it is cycling along the canal towpath that is the problem, lots of very small and sharp stones and also thorns off the trees. I have now got fed up of fixing these little blighters so I have invested in a four of these Nutrak Self Sealing Inner Tubes. Two for my winter bike and to for her bike. I ordered these from chainreactioncycles.co.uk and they arrived on Tuesday morning. The first problem was that I had been sent 3 self sealing inner tubes and 1 normal one, a quick phone call to customer services and they said the correct one would be sent out and I could keep the other one by way of an apology, problem sorted.
So this morning I went out to change the tubes on my bike and hers and this is when the next problem occurred. Two out of the three inner tubes that I had were passing air at the valve. This meant another phone call to customer service and they want me to post the faulty ones back to them. So wasted hour there.
The other job I had this morning was checking the stretch of the chain on my good bike. So far this bike has done 3000+ miles on it's original chain. I used a Park Tools CC3 chain checker which is a simple go - no go gauge. It measures between 0.75% and1% chain stretch and I found that mine was well past the 1% mark. Old chain off and new one fitted without any problems. So now have both my bikes set up and ready to go.

Work tomorrow :(

Jayme


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Bike ride towards Pilling

I went for a nice bike ride this morning. A distance of 41.8 miles in a time of 2 hours 25 mins. I was quite happy with this as it was a northerly wind which was good at the start of ride, against me at the end and a cross wind for the middle. I took a route that went through Lancaster to Pilling and then Stalmine, Rawcliffe back to Pilling and then home. Most of the ride is fairly flat with just some undulations on the way out of Lancaster. I had a scary moment in Pilling as I went round a corner at 20 mph+ I went over a double metal manhole cover which gave a two wheel slip. I am not quite sure how I managed to stay upright but some how I did. I took the Marin Lombard out today, this is a cyclocross bike to which I have fitted a pannier rack (for the commute) and Schwalbe Zodiac 700C / 35 slicks. These are great for the road and in my very unscientific way think that they speed me up by 1-2 mph. The problem does come though when as above you loose traction on a bit of metal or a White line in the wet, this was never a problem on the tyres that came with it.
Total milage for the month now is 77.8 and 3147.9 for the year.

Cheers Jayme


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Winter Climbing

It's a nice day today so the big thaw is well and truly on. It's probably warm enough for a bit of rock climbing on Monday. I fancy a trip to Trowbarrow Quarry for some nice trad climbing however if it gets cold again then it is time for my first attempt at ice climbing. My climbing partner, Simon, has invested in a pair of ice climbing axes and after his course last winter is keen to get out and use them. He knows of a spot in the Lakes where you can ice climb next to the road on a top rope so that seems a good way for me to learn what to do. The other optionthis time of year is to go to Kendal climbing wall. This is a fantastic facility with a huge overhanging main wall and a great selection of small climbs of various grades. I will let you know how it goes.

New bike tyres

Well over the last week or so we have had lots of snow and ice. After slipping and sliding about I decided to purchase some ice tyres for my bicycle. The ones that I went for are the Continental Nordic Ice 120. These are a knobbly tyre with metal studs around the edge. The idea is that the knobbly bit works in the snow and the metal stud grips on the ice. They were ordered from snowbikers.com and came very quickly thank you. Fitted them on Wednesday to my old hybrid bike as I do not want to take the good bike out in the icy conditions. First impressions very good, you have to try hard to get a front wheel skid and gives good grip when setting off on ice. The problem came when I tried to test the back brake. I have not used the hybrid bike for a good few months and found that the back brake cable was seized and I was unable to brake, not the best situation to find yourself in on ice. A quick trip to Ribble cycles and a new brake cable set and Park Tools cable cutter/crimper was purchased. New brake cable fitted and I am good to go. Only one problem now The Ice Has Gone. So now have to wait another year for the right conditions to use them.


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Me

Hello and welcome to the first of hopefully many blogs by me over the coming days, weeks and years.

I suppose I should start by telling you a little about myself. I am male, married and mid thirtys. I enjoy many outdoor pursuits including Hillwalking, rock climbing, fell running and cycling.
At the moment the main hobby is cycling and i have just covered 3100 miles so far this year and am in a competition with some friends called the Merlyn cup, this is a simple who can cover the most miles in a year and at the moment I am in third place 200 hundred miles behind the leader,

Stuff and nonsense

Well it has been a quiet week, not much happening at all. I have hopefully sent off my final route plan for the TGOC, this year We have Alvar and Ann as out vetters and as usual there comments and corrections are very useful. I have included a link on the side of the page to a small sheet which in the fullness of time will show a brief route plan and also distance and ascent for each day.

Maths joke now. There are 10 types of people in this world.
Those that understand binary and those that don't.

No bike rides this week, excluding the usual commute, so nothing much to say on that front. I have yet to finish work on the modifications to the old bike, it will run at the moment as a single speed as I have not re-cabled the rear derailleur yet or set the front derailleur up either. I plan to finish that this weekend if the weather is nice, but not so nice that I can go out for a ride. As we go to press I am about 200 miles ahead in the Merlyn cup I hope to extend that lead to about 500 by the time the TGOC comes around as I will have nearly three weeks of from cycling and do not want to fall behind like last year.

I have also rediscovered the wonder that is E-Bay. I have been selling surplus outdoor gear that is now too large for me. A couple of waterproof jackets have now gone and this has given me enough money to purchase a new waterproof that fits (yippee). I went for a Montane Superfly XT, I know all you super light weight gear freaks will be shaking your heads and the Paramo lovers will be tutting, but I have always found Montane gear to strike the right balance for me between weight and performance, and let's face it, it could be two weeks of god awful rain and wind in Scotland so a good rain coat is essential.

Not sure if I have mentioned this in an earlier blog but a bloke called Peter Molenaar is coming over from Dutchland in March for a few days if walking and gear shopping in the Lake District. I met Peter in Ryvoan bothy on a very wet and windy day in 2009, we were both on the TGOC. We met up again latter the next day and walked together to Ballater. Then on TGOC 2010 we bumped into each other again just outside Mar lodge and again walked together for a few days over to Clova and then Tarfside. This year we have actually planned to meet up half way across in Aviemore and walk to the coast as a threesome from there, which should be nice. Any way in March he is coming over and as he has never been to the Lakes before I was trying to think of a good walk that would show off the area at it's beat. Any ideas?

That's enough for now.

Bye bye

Jayme

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