East Calder Saturday ride report

Neil Greer send in this report about the East Calder Saturday run:

"Three of us (myself, Neil Lovett and Grant Craven) braved the wintery conditions on Saturday and , after all having had some skittish moments en oute to the East Calder rendez vous, decided, initially, on a low level type route. We therefore headed out to West Calder via the A 71 then turned North towards Blackburn/Bathgate.

"Conditions were very foggy - down to just 50 metres in places and road surfaces "challenging"....After climbing up the big hill in Bathgate we decided - maybe foolishly on reflection! - to head up to the Knock as there seemed to be the faint prospect on "the sunlit uplands"...No - not at all - just even more challenging surfaces and the sound of breaking ice at one stage! We then went past the KWM to Linlithgow for a welcome cake stop at Cafe Rondo.

"Replenished, we headed via Threemiletown to Kirkliston where we think we may have passed the other Sat. social ride coming in the other direction at about 11 am (7 or 8 riders?). After dealing with a broken spoke (me!) we then went on to Newbridge and Ratho before returning to East Calder. Overall 38 miles at c. 14 mph - given the conditions, we were pretty happy with that."

"Fingers crossed for next week... "

All ride details on the website: www.westlothianclarion.co.uk/clubruns.html