Capital Trail 2017, words pics and a wee film...

Event;
Another superb weekend organised by Markus of what has already proved to be a superb route taking in a great selection of SE Scottish trails..

Weather;
It was a bit on the warm side on Saturday but cannot complain with big blue skies and small fluffy clouds drifting by...

My ride;
5 Days on from finishing the Capital Trail and i know now why i was struggling to ride during the weekend and had no leg strength and weezy breath on hills and sweating on an unhealthy scale that i have not recovered from until the last few days as i have now been down with some lergy that left me short of breath and lacking strength when cycling last weekend and this week walking on a weeks holiday in Argyll with Jeni.
I rode the entire route with friend Ben and Jehtro until Peebles where after i opted to skip the Glentress route.  This was favoured also by Ben and also Lewis who had now rejoined us and the three of us rode for home, also skipping the new Granton loop.

Today has been the first sign of improvement but my own health  did not damper what was an ace weekend with friends old and new cycling a superb route around the Scottish Borders...

Our distance;
Ben`s Garmin read 91 miles for Saturdays riding,  and 140 miles total once back in Edinburgh

To finish is to win...
The complete Capital Trail is a real challenge for your average Joe Bloggs rider to complete in 2 days. To some it`s fairly easy, but for your average rider it`s a big challenge. Well done anyone who enters and pushes there own fitness and strenght outside their comfort zone.
And there is no shame in skipping some sections of the route to finish at a sensible time on Sunday.

Some friends will not enter with the distance of 250km to try complete in 48 hours with the combined climbing, and would rather ride it over 3 days with 2 nights camping, and i think this would be a great option and i too would rather do this and see more of the local scenery and it`s history and err night life with more time to stop and sample local beers etc...


Any hows here is the pics i took and where needed some words...

8am Portobello and were off!...

First major climb up and over Lammer Law into the Lammermuirs...

The old Roman road towards Melrose

Eildon hills...

Selkirk...

Climb to 3 Brethren...

Day 2 and climbing up to Kailzie hill...

Breakfast time!...

Glentress loop skipped it was north to west Linton via the old Droving route...

Monks Rig  climbed and on top of the Pentlands...

Granton section also skipped and we rode into Portobello...

Happy to get back!...

And sleep...

Was a warm one...

Some  film,
Song is `New Seeds` by Boards of Canada


Capital Trail 2017 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

More soon...

Packed for Capital Trail this weekend...

 Looking forward to the 3rd year of Capital Trail this weekend!,
The old Surly Pugsley has been sitting a few days ready to go,  in `KramPug` 29+ mode with Shimano Alfine 8 speed Internal gear Hub (IGH) the bike has only needed the Alpkit Kanga bar mount added as the bike sports the Alpkit Koala seat bag now and of course it`s original 9 year old Epic Designs full frame bag,

Keeping the weight down;
You can easily ride the Capital Trail carrying no meals or stove to heat food and drinks with the amount of shops and food available on the route, but having no interest in racing, and missing all there is to see riding through the dark hours as well as the laughs and banter along with meeting new friends i opt to carry a stove, some instant meals, as well as trail mix and some Gel bars,
Who knows you could have a mechanical, or help a friend with one, then miss the shops, pubs, or restaurants, so nice to have the option to call it a day and camp and eat wherever it is on the route,

Bar bag;
Attached to the Kanga bar mount harness is a 13 Litre Alpkit Airlock bag with an Alpkit Hunka XL Bivi bag with  rolled up inside my cheap £30  Karrimor 1 season bag, and old Thermorest 3/4 sleeping mat,

Frame bag;
So keeping the weight down i`m again riding with 2 empty bottles on the forks that will get filled before going to camp, or could be used if we get heatwave weather,
In the lower compartment of the frame bag is the MSR stove and Gas cylinder with wind breaker,
Packing it tight to stop rattling is a Alpkit Arro windbreaker,

In the main compartment there is left to right an Alpkit Ti mug with packed tight inside a flint and steel sparker, Gas Cylinder stand, 3 instant coffees and a light powder meal pack (Vegi Cottage Pie), and 2 instant Porridge cartons, a long sleeve top on top of that lot with keep stuff from bouncing around.  There is loads more room in there i could of packed with water proofs or more clothes but there in the seat bag...

Seat bag;
weighing next to nowt in the seat bag is a synthetic down Alpkit Heiko primoloft jacket, and Paclite Alpkit Gravitas jacket and Parrallax trousers...

Trail munchies;
Half of all these packs mixed up and split into the bar mounted Alpkit  Stem cell pouches...

Usual tools in the Alpkit 20 Litre waterproof Gourdon back pack with 2 Litre water bladder added,
Phone, wallet, Midge net, Alpkit Viper II head torch,  travel tooth brush and paste, Plasters, 4 Baby wipes in sealed bag (wash or wipe!)  and that`s about it!...

See all going tomorrow for a fun weekend!...


More soon...