coastrider: Blackcastle Transmitter loop xc cycle...

We cycled a nice 22 mile loop up to Blackcastle Transmitter Mast today, We were doing a recce ride for a future MTB ride with the new Dunbar Cycling Club recently started that we both joined.

It has been 6 months now since I moved in with G and love living here with everything I need on the doorstep, from car free shopping by bike, a local good bike shop, JMCP and Tyninghame for Fatbike rides, to the John Muir Way and river Tyne trails, then inland to the hillfoot trails, which lead up onto the Lammermuirs.

There is a growing membership of the Club which already is catering for road and off-road cycling with bike rides from the town. A weekly MTB ride set at a social pace which we have both been helping get up and running by mapping and creating some off-road routes and also leading on to get the rides up and going and hopefully others will once they learn the routes take on leading them also. G`s `Dunbar On Yer Bike` Facebook` group will still be doing social bike rides and plenty of folk will float between either rides that suit them. Our plan to help organise the Club rides is so hopefully Club riders will volunteer to lead these pre planned routes once they learn them. If half a dozen riders do this then no one gets tied down to giving up their time every Sunday morning who also have other commitments.

Todays ride that G marked up to recce will be the longest route yet combined with more climbing which when the weather is right - dry and not blowing a gale makes for a lovely route. Risk assessment is done before and after a planned route is ridden and changes then made where needed. Routes try to mostly follow signed trails or Core Paths which are mapped by East Lothian Council which are clear to see on the ground in use and aspirational Core Paths which may be passable. Why we have been out doing recce rides as some that are Marked on Maps as Core and aspirational paths are not always passible as they are not being used by anyone. The idea is not to create some endurance test where folk are slogging over unused trails or carrying bikes etc, the less locked gates and styles the better as more riders are riding heavier to lift electric assist mountain bikes these days...

East out of town on the cycle route we rode to Dunglass then onto a lovely Core Path to Oldhamstocks then the climbs towards the Mast that was slowly getting closer...

A tough climb up the service road to the mast, doable ok if you get into low gears and take your time, we chatted all the way up, that is what the pace of a social ride should be, and nearing the mast the reward is stunning views of the Shire...