midweek trailride

after the wasted weekend of bad weather and booze i got out on Tuesday night,a warm evening but a bit overcast,riding pugsley i wasnt heading for the beach but a local ride down around the old ww2 airfield that was RAF DREM during the war,i wanted to just ride so took pics `from the saddle` mostly as we went,i pumped up the pugsleys tyres to a firm 15psi -still only a quarter of the 29er tyres road riding pressures!!!,ive been running them at 10psi and lately 7-8psi for the beach and had forgotten how faster it is when pumped up,it steers round corners better too!,so off we go,leave home and 2 miles into a gale force wind onto the first trail,typical old road- 14feet between hedges,rough tar grassed over

it then loses a hedge and at a crossroads we head straight on,onto a tarmac farm road,the farmers combining in the field,below,5 years ago he`d be out yelling "get off my land!!",now thanks to the open access laws we can cycle all paths and tracks,

the field looks over ripe now

over my right shoulder is a nice view over my house to north berwick law

the road turns downhill now and we freewheel down beside young lime trees that line one side,a bit like roads you see through french farmland

taking advantage i ride onto the wheat field stubble and bomb down hill,first stubble field ive ridden pugsley on and it laughs at it!

we come to the small railway station and village of Drem.over a gate and a backroad over a railway bridge of the GNER -great north eastern railway, follow the railway line east out of edinburgh on a map and where it takes a sharp 90 degree turn south thats drem!

the farm here is now renovated to houses and cutting through takes us onto a tarmac road to no-where...,drem airfield is ahead and the road must of had something to do with nissin huts or something which are now gone

see the long hedge going left from the road end ahead?,looks just like a big hedge...

until you go in through a gap and discover it actually another old road whose hedges (14foot statuary gap) have grown into meet each other..
old roads were often beech hedged then later with hawthorn aswell (the thorns are a curse to cyclists!) as both helped absorb water and keep the roads drier pre- tarmac days hence why many main roads nowadays have beech trees which would have growen from the hedging,many roads in east lothian have treestumps which mostly were beech,oh and it was a scotsman who invented tarmac too! (john macadam)
we emerge strangely in the middle of a field-another wartime mystery road! and across the field beside the old drome is a long air raid shelter-now flooded
we cut across the remainder of the field (theres a trampled horse track) and along the edge of the field and pass another airraid shelter..

then at the end of the field..

and we come to about 40yards of brand new trail!!,inbetween two fields...

notice the rabbit fence,it must have been built in the winter and the adjoing field boundry paths will be put in after the fields are harvested,the surface is blaze(windust)this is great in winter a is all weather ridable..

and the next gate is still bolted to prevent opening which ive seen before on unfinished trails..

after the gate the trail runs along above a ditch for about ten yards..

before turning right to,i presume will bridge the ditch..

and continue down a field boundry into the old airdrome..

browsing the council website today theres a report of a core path from gullane to drem being built...this is it!,perfect,an all weather route-as the crow flies for me too aberlady nature reserve and the beach-sweet!!
along the field boundry and were on the western side of the old airfield riding along an old airfield road section..

which underneath runs big pipes from here..

for about a quater mile to here..

once the vegitation dies back im going to film riding through here using HID lights for part of an `urban adventure tunnel biking` film im going to put together which will be fun,the road runs the perimeter of the airfield,riding down a field boundry theres a path through a small wood..


to the main road where see the small hut,this was one of several road blocks around here in the war and the hut housed a flamethrower!!,no messing back then!!

following the road east across a field in the drome is some buildings..

over a gate and a concrete road leads across to them so i went to take a closer look..

each build has several open rooms like this..

i dont know what these would have been as they seem bit low for veicles and have whats like a blast wall in front which would have prevented veicles anyway,
this other building had lots of smaller rooms...

note the old airvents and the lead drainage pipe!,amazing that hasnt been taken for scrap value...
riding on around the remaining ring road,the main grassed runway was ahead in the now fields...

supposidly the reason the airfield was decomoishend after WW2 was the hump in the middle of the site,it wasnt totally flat and had caused a few mishaps with landings,dont quote me on that though!,i know there was a narrow gauge railway to the airfield from gullane railway station which supplied the ordinance (ammo)
around the airfield road and along a breaking up section..

to the big hangers still here,one used by a haulage company the other seemingly unmaintained...



being only 3-4 miles home and with a gusty taiwind i headed home by road on backroads with old signs like this...

note the distance given to an 1/8th of a mile,
while i soaked up the view to the west across the east lothian plain..


some pics from my last trail 2 miles from home..


i felt a bit dissapointed about how little is left of RAF drem,famous for two things; the first german plane shot down over britan in WW2 was a fighter from drem and ground airfield lighting first developed and used at drem airfield,knowen as `the drem system` is still knowen as today (thanks trav for that info!)




its a shame the control tower and lots of the buildings are now gone,also sad that places like this have had no measures to preserve them and even a monument or plaque to all who served here and did there bit,i would of liked to have got some amazing pics of preserved stuff like there is at east fortune airdrome (3 miles from drem),home to the museum of flight,anyway i still ended up doing 18 miles over 2 1/4 hours,
ive beeen searching about online and if anyone found this intresting heres more info of RAF drem;
wartime progect
wikapedia
after seeing this theres alot ive missed!!,i know some is on private property so not easily accessabile
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=RAF+Drem&m=text
maybe theres alot more about here than meets the eye,i grew up 4 miles from here and went to school 3 miles from here yet we were told nothing about around here!

british weather!,hangovers and guilt

ok so am a bit cheesed off!,weekend off and the weather was crap,i had planned going camping up glencoe somewhere on the motorbike but by wednesday the forcast wasnt looking good,ok i thought will just go local cycling and do a 25 mile road cycle,camp then satuardy do the last 40 miles of the southern upland way long distance (coast to coast path) which finishes 12 miles down the coast from where i stay,sunday i could lie in ,do a bit campfire cooking then cruise home
problem 1; friday lunchtime the heavens opened,like totally,
problem 2: get home thought `sod it im going anyway whatever the weather` and discovered the bob trailer doesn't fit the karate monkey 29er!!


so it was not gonna fit on the pugsley either for sure

the yolk bit was about an inch too short so im guessing then they make them for either 26" or 700cc wheels,ok no probs i dont yet have racks on the karate monkey so will just take the pugsley and pump the tyres up for the road miles,
problem 3; strongbow cider!!, well the rain wasnt going off in time for me to ride the hour it would take over to the borders before dark and find somewhere to camp on friday evening so i had a pint of strong bow,i had a couple of bottles in the kitchen,now if id been stuck in an office all week id have probably just headed off in the rain glad to be outdoors whatever,but when you work outdoors aswell as spend alot of freetime outside its harder to motivate yourself to go out in bad weather-though i usually never regret it once out riding,
and so friday evening was spent watching cool stuff on youtube to the early hours while looking outside to sideways rain and trees bent 90 degrees wondering whats happened to summer?,
sat morning dawned- 2 empty strongbow bottles,a sore head,dry mouth and still raining!,what is it about drinking and the terrible guilt and self loathing the following day?,the rain went off by lunchtime and the wind increased to gale force,oh the perfect excuse to cancel going cycling.time for a film sesssion- the bourne collection as hadnt watched them in a while,i even lit the fire,felt like mid winter once the fire was roaring,
sunday was really windy too,i went a short ride on the motorbike up to the new windfarm in the local lammermuir hills,will go make a film there soon,
i dont watch alot of tv but a favourite series this now is griff rhys jones `rivers` which ive found fascinating,thanks to dumbfangeld modern technology-BBC i player i can if the link works share this with you folk which are reading this overseas to the UK,what i was intrested in- though its just a brief mention is a WW2 dummy airfield that was just outside london as whitekirk hill on which the golf course was built where i work was a dummy airfield in the war and im trying to find out more info about that, heres sunday nights programme;an interesting in site into some of londons history i find victorian engineering amazing and the canals are featured on the programme,enjoy...

weekend staying local-motorbikes,rotovators,swimming with pugsley

working on a golf course i have to work every 2nd weekend in summer,every third in winter,its part of the job,only 2 hours max though but early starts,least its job and finish,so it ties me down for going away for a weekends camping as often as i would like too,so i have just adapted to doing more on my doorstep,probably how ive now explored every corner of the county of east lothian,and as said in a earlier post i cant be botherd with the drive down to the borders much now to go to the trailcentres of glentress or innerliethen (there 4 miles apart but both listed as one (tweed vally)
anyway home from work 8.30am(6am start!)satuarday and a glorious day

time for a day out on the motorbike!,id got my `as new` alpinestar boots via ebay and they arrived at work once i left friday affy,ive got the bike set up more or less as i want now,larger tank(20 litres instead of 10 litres) to give 250mile+ range,still to lower the gearing a bit and fit a MT21 front tyre (50/50 road/dirt). still to find a smaller square (instead of big round) speedo to allow a large baja lamp i got on ebay to fit as i often ride at night and standard traille headlights are hopeless,
i ended up doing about 75 miles between 9am and 4pm around the county backroads,riding a couple of easy greenlanes too (old unmaintained tarmac roads now grassed over)soaking up the scenery of lots of wheat and barley fields,nearly ripe for harvest,
you see alot cycling,more wildlife esp,but you pass through so much changing scenery on a motorcyle,im not interested in roadbikes really,just big trailbikes,ive always had big single cylinder thumpers,genuine dualsport bikes capable of going places at a reasonable speed and distance but can also tackle a bit off offroad tracks and trails,
motorcycle trailriding has become a real hot potato esp in england and wales due to irresponsible riding/too large groups,noisy bikes and using motocross tyres,if you cant get up somewhere on a road legal tyre you should really just not bother as the consequence in land damage can sometimes be irreversible,i dont like being looked at like satan by walkers and a couple of times too by mountainbikers!!,i walk and cycle too and theres a place for doing them all sensibly,i dont go anywhere popular at `peak times`,
despite much documetation of non maintained vehicular rights of ways,there are non signed(except two ive found) but there are loads,mostly knowen as such locally and its really down to whether the landowner where a route passes through is botherd or not,so as landownership changes sometimes places and routes become accesable/unacessable,
theres a few folk up here in scotland just doin there own thing,keeping it quiet and enjoying themselves, i just love old roads/routes and there history.


i should of stopped and took more pics but i was enjoying the ride,last summer i hardly used the motorbike because of the awful weather,i spent nearly every satuarday at glentress, glad of the all weather tracks,wish though i had got my pugsley 4 months earlier for the swamp like local trails!,
i went looking for the ROC post near torness power station,couldnt see it despite being able to stand up and look over the hedgerows,they were cold war bunkers built around the uk- no more than 10 miles apart,around 1500 were built in the 1960s,the idea being if a town was nuked,blast force,and fallout would be recorded and the info relayed to headquarters where evac measures would be relayed to other towns which may get fallout due to wind direction etc..,i did a film about them,using an accessible bunker 9 miles away(referred to as posts)...



it is 1 of 6 knowen posts in the county,3 have been demolished and filled in,one has welded latch hinges,ive seen pics of this one near torness on the roc website
so i know it is locked but just wanted to find it,after a few laps of every backroad
around roughly the area in its picture southwest of the power station i gave up and went to see my friend louise,she was getting a hand from a nieghbour to rotovate a area of garden where she will raise a garden next summer,her pal liz across the road was going to rotovate an area of dead grass to re-sow,i offerd to do it as it was like concrete,hard going the first half hour until i either-ran out of sweat-or got conditioned to it!,

louise raked and stonepicked it after i passed over it a few times,its good soil,though a bit stoney,she filmed me rotovating

liz had went to the local lifeboat day in dunbar and when returned was overwhelmed with the garden finished,its a good feeling to help out friends,my reward,smoked herring!,fresh from the stalls at the lifeboat day,a few friends arrived and everyone had a beer and food and a good chat,also a bonfire for the kids

by the time i headed home it was nearly midnight,id been up since 5.30am and up again the same again time sunday!,but its good to get out and make the most of good weather ,help out friends and i found out exactly where the roc bunker is from a nieghbour!,cant beat local knowlage!,

PUGSLEY;
sunday the heavens opened about 11am,15 mins after i went out on the pugsley,it was really warm so i decided `what the hell`after slowly getting wet sheltering under a tree 10 minutes it was obviously on for a while and kept riding for what ended up a 3 hour, 18 mile ride down to john muir bay,just before the rain started i rode around a setaside field which had been spread with a recycled mulch material,

it was full of wood,bark,and smelled of the tideline-proberly seaweed,it stuck to the tyres until the debris rubbed on the forks and chainstays,check out the width of the tyres!!


they soon cleaned off in the wet long grass through the woods before i got onto the beach,it was absolutly chucking it down!,i was soaked to the skin but unlike half the year no wind chill and i was lovin it after the muggy weather weve had lately,
i spent most of the time riding out on the mud flats being low tide

it was kind of like cycling halfspeed-two wheelspins for every wheel circumfrance distance forward in the slimey mud,


but it did not bog down-amazing bike,id lowerd tyre pressures to 8psi,normally i ride them at 10psi as often ride over rocks between beaches,only 2psi diffrence i know but a big diffrence in float on soft stuff,i quickly took a few pics when i could when the rain lightend,i rode out along side what looks like an old causeway

but was proberly an estate boundry wall at sometime before the bay silted up as some of the stones are dressed (hand smoothed edges) theres small shelters built on it with them,by wildfowlers,

deft need to look at a waterproof compact camera,i was just reading about the panasonic camera in jill homer`s blog(up in alaska),
if i had a waterproof camera-my old tachyon wont switch on and is sent away (hurry up tachyon prizes!)i could of filmed the carry on of me cycling through the river tyne, i couldnt see how deep it was,it was a bit murky with recent rain,

i was about a half mile from the sea where i had a shot of crossing,

i rode in diagonaly downstream ,the bottom was firm sand i could feel rock in bits, luckily the water didnt cover the tyres and i rode right through,laughing my head off at what this bike can do,feet were wet already so didnt matter,water was warm too

i rode along the sandbank above the tyne now on the john muir park side to a row of wood,dont know if this is a bit of a ship or a lenght of bank erosion wall washed downstream,

i took a pic then put the camera in the framebag to recross again where you see in the photo

i wish i had got on film what happend next..,i rode in about 10 yards and the front wheel went under the water,i felt my pedals hitting soft sand and next thing pugsleys started to float!!,i jumped off and my feet sunk into soft sand and i felt the sand inside my shoes,i was sinking fast and pugsley is now floating on its side!,oh-oh i thought and started to wade through quickly to avoid sinking,it was nearly chest deep before it got shallower,i had a kind of panic,scared,giggle attack!!,like i was in too deep but safe in the knowlage if the sand had started to trap me i would of just jumped on pugsley and paddled!
back out i rode to rock pools and washed the sand off my socks and out my boots,the empty gastank bag was wet as expected but inside the main framebag was dry,saving my camera,nice one eric at epic designs on a well made bit of kit!,i was home half an hour later,(still raining),i saw one of my nieghbours,`where you been today?`he asked,
`you will never believe it ` i just said!,need to to the same again before the temperture drops and set the camera up,make great viewing of pugsley floating!