Across the void... Gin Head Rocks again...

It was a 0.7meter low tide on Saturday morning and it was time to do the yearly ride across the rocks exposed below Gin Head to the west of Seacliff along to Canty Bay and on to North Berwick...
Dull and overcast with spots of rain, can`t have it sunny all the time!...

I have only ridden along here 3 times, it is easily the hardest rock riding on our coast, but more so it is easily the most dangerous as the rocks are completely covered at very high tides and with the nature of the riding makes it a dangerous place to ride as some of the coastline is cut off at high tide,
It takes over an hour to ride this stretch of coast to Canty Bay, with six hike a bike sections, every time i have rode here new areas are scoured free of rocks or other areas covered with the storms and strong swell that comes in here, huge boulders are moved about like tiny pebbles with winter storms. There are no lobster creels close to the shore here for good reason.
To ride here alone is dangerous , but with other friends riding further west and no one else i had a choice of not riding here when the tide was very low or going for it on my own,
I admittedly wanted some me time and some solo riding as did not get out on the coast mid week due to long hours at work on Tues/Thurs and only got in a quick ride on Thursday evening..,

Been real tired the last couple of weeks. Getting up at 5am is not a problem if you get to bed early, but not been sleeping good and just feel constantly tierd.
The tiredness showed today as there was nothing in the tank, and i could not ride the rocks properly today on the big Moonlander and had several falls on the greasy rocks - it was also more greasy than ever experienced here, maybe the rain had not helped but there was a green slime on a lot of rocks and in places it was like ice... i felt out of my depth and even on the Moonlander struggled to get into the groove, but as it always is it was fun to ride out here on what is an amazing bicycle,

Don`t buy a Moonlander to ride flat hard sand beaches, take it to soft dunes or to places like this and it will amaze you with where it will go, even with a tired pilot as today, and it was still fun although i was not on the game...

count how many birds on there...

Gin Head...

Film i did of here a while back...


Canty Bay...

Wrong day to do the job perhaps but i soldiered on to North Berwick and rode out onto exposed rocks on the east beach... love it when you can ride out here, the beach is busy but no one out here...

And around by by the harbour entrance too, with the chunky Nates tyres on my SURLY Pugsley you can probably ride into the harbour across the mud flats...
The Victorian Harbour stone came from the quarry on the south side of North Berwick Law, it has stood the test of time...

 Riding west to the Eil burn i parked up and sat on a big rock and chilled listening to my i pod, and soon enough friends Jason, Barry, Derek and Stef appeared cruising down broadsands and we rode to Cake Cafe for food...
Was a slog home on the road and trails into a strong headwind, i just felt tired and burned out. Enjoying work this now but need to get better rest and sleep at home, esp when it is affecting my cycling!

I stuck the Go Pro camera on for the ride to North Berwick, not brilliant viewing with no ride by filming but you can see the severity of the rocks here, and how slippy it was!

Song is `Supernova` by Nico
click on the cog icon to view in HD

Mid Week Trails - Morham to Gifford

Friend Colin had a loan of my Pugsley for the weekend of FORTH FAT,
I drove over mid week for a trail ride loop around his back yard and took the Moonlander, not the usual choice for xc trails but why not?, maybe be not good through muddy areas but float is good on most trails even with the big smooth 4.7"  tyres.

Inland from the coast here in East Lothian the soil is usually heavier red clay and often wet off road on trails.
The recent dry windy weather has left many areas real dry and the trails and tracks are fast rolling.
I followed Colin through a farm of junk including an old Rolls Royce, dry rough hard core tracks, along old overgrown trails recently cleared, new paths, snaking woodland single track and down along an old winding river through an estate that's woodland is full of huge ancient trees and old stone bridges...

Roll the pics;

Its a hard life, but someone has to do it...

The trail  of the evening...
Song is `A New Dimension In Sound`  by PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING

Sat evening low tide on the Carr Rocks with the Moonlander

I headed to the coast on Saturday evening  for a ride across the Carr Rocks at Seacliff on the Moonlander Fatbike now with the Jones steel Truss fork fitted.
A 1.2 meter spring low tide allowed a visit out to the exposed wreck of the SS Poderosa that ran aground here in 1896, just one of many ships wrecked here on the infamous rocks....

Not all wrecks here were accidents,  some were caused by `The Pagans of Scoughall`  who lured ships onto the rocks at night in storms with a lantern tied to a horses head and leg and walked along the cliff tops, ships at sea would see the bobbing light which looked like a ship at anchor and seeking shelter from the storm would come in to shore, and meet their fate on the rocks. You can read more about the Wreckers, and the SS Poderosa wreck here on a previous blog post;
http://coastkid.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/East%20Lothian%20Whisky%20Galore

If your a RUSH fan then check out this film of their track `The Wreckers`




The Jones steel Truss Fork recently fitted is an improvement riding the rocks, once up to speed the comfort and steering is better, the front end does not flip flop like before, it romps across the rocks giving confidence to push it more over stuff i would previously think `i`m going over the bars here...`

Moonlander heaven...

Plenty of granny ring action here...

Soon be time for nesting birds out at the navigation marker so no admittance , so i took the opportunity to ride out, finding a new way through some of the sections it is now about 70% ride able to the marker, but i must stress it is dangerous out here as the rocks are covered at high tide, and it was silly to go out here an hour before sunset...

Love this bike and what it can do, it really opens your mind to new riding possibilities and pushes your skills...

Shot some film, mostly with the Go Pro, and some with the compact, as with the last film something is going on with my PC and the films are not publishing in HD, i don`t know what is going on and hope to sort it out,
most people watch stuff on phones anyway and they take a lot less time to publish and upload anyway...

Here is one amazing bit of coastline, you will find out how techy if you make it to FORTH FAT and choose to take the Sunday hard option here east of Seacliff -;)

Song is `Take my Soul` by Thievery Corporation