A repeat of the Foray into Highland Perthshire - 11th November 2018

Wanting a 3rd 200 for the month I checked out the weather forecast for the weekend on the Friday, and seeing a rubbish Saturday and nice Sunday decided to get stuff done on the Saturday and ride Sunday.

Stuff duly done and the route slightly adjusted to allow receipt based proof of passage in case of GPS failure I woke to a day that was clearly iffy in many different ways.

In the woods in Lowland Perthshire

After struggling to wake up I set off along the Tay Coast, my legs felt heavy and slow, and the dark clouds in the distance didn't give me much hope of as nice a day as I was expecting.  As a regular ride opener for me I know the route well, climb from the house to Muir Dens, descend(ish) to Newburgh, flat(ish) to Kintillo, long slow climb to Forgandenny, choose between Invermey and Forteviot, through Dunning, past Maggie Wall's, stay on the wee road to save a flat crossing of the A9, into Auchterarder.

So many of my routes follow this because it's the nicest start to a north or west bound route, from here today we're heading north.

Buchanty looking North

Out of Auchterarder it's a pleasant undulating ride through farmland to Kinkell Bridge, the climbing starts to ramp up from here was we climb out of the Scottish Midland Valley, easily at first then as we cross the A85 at Fowlis it ramps up to the toughest climb of the day through Fowlis Wester village and onto Buchanty where Glen Almond eases us into the Highlands in the Sma' Glen. 
Autumn lingers here, trees still showing their Amber leaves, the heather still brown, but a taste of winter was in the air, mist ahead, dark clouds behind and a chill wind from the east, but the climb keeps me warm.

The Sma' Glen

The village of Amulree sits out here, alone in the wilderness at the foot of Glen Quaich where it widens to Strath Braan.  Speed picks up as you begin to descend towards Dunkeld rolling past the once derelict hotel now being redeveloped into homes and an inn.
All too soon the Aberfeldy junction arrives and it's time to get the climbing legs back in action to climb Glen Cochil until you're just shy of 400m above sea level.
It's taken the best part of 24Km in lumps, bumps and ramps to get to this height from 87m near Fowlis, but it's going to take only 5km to lose it all on the way into Aberfeldy.

Climbing to Amulree

Sunset at Rannagullzion

Almost Home

The threatened rain begins as I descend the already wet road, taking too much care at times, the rapid descent punctuated by road works.  The town is quiet for once and I lunch at the co-op before having observed the main road deciding there's no need to use the more scenic north road.
The ramp in Logierait doesn't feel as bad as normal, but it turns out I'm not trying as hard.  The rest of the road to Pitlochry feels the same, easy but I'm not putting as much effort in as normal. It's been a long year.  In Pitlochry I manage to miss the turn off for the Moulin, my glasses not helping visibility with the rain running down them.

Mildly cursing my error I turn, something that would normally be impossible in Pitlochry due to the flow of tourist traffic, a rainy day in mid-November proving great for a quiet ride.
In the rain I plod the climb out, still not feeling so bad, but still seemingly hardly trying.
I reach the first summit, the rain spoiling the achievement, ruining the view and leaving a pothole hiding layer of water on the road surface.  I knew on the way up that the descent into Strathardle would be restrained today, though the road has a good surface visibility through my glasses proved to be the limiting factor.
 

Rolling through Kirkmichael I realized there's two pubs in the village so no need to be dependent on the shop at all, I don't stop.

The climb over to the A93 at Bleaton and then over Dalrulzion Bridge at Bleaton Hallet the river in spate below and then the sharp dig to High Rannagullzion; they like their Yoghs round here. Finally the descent to Alyth marks the beginning of the end, I stop at the co-op for a late second lunch and a sweet I had promised myself.  Now riding dark wet roads I'm riding with light traffic after being alone for so long; the climb onto the muir from Newtyle saw the heaviest traffic of the day, three cars in a minute!

Riding the muir road towards Muirhead I see a stream of cars approaching the village from the Blairgowrie road and I consider taking the shorter but sharper Dronley road, but decline. In the village it's relatively quiet for such an important route into Dundee, by the time I reach the summit of this last climb in the darkness of the woods between Camperdown and Templeton I've had little to trouble me. The plunge into Dundee begins, 131m of descent from here to the bridge, watching for traffic exiting Campy, across the Kingsway flyover Circle, Dunsinnane circle and onto the Lochee Bypass, hardly needing to slow traffic is so light, the only climb of the descent is found as a sharp dig on the bypass takes you from south road up to the village limit at the railway bridge, the council have signed the bus lane badly, the first two signs say local buses only, the third and final says bikes and taxi's too. On the lochee road plunge I drag the brakes, not due to road conditions but because the car in front dare's stick to the speed limit!  Another clean roll across the Dudhope circle and I'm onto the Inner Ring Road, through the tunnel, the tunnel light bright compared to the outer surrounds and back into the wet darkness, finally I'm stopped by the lights at the East Dock Street junction, but from here it's a gentle pedal through the docks and a walk up the steps onto the bridge.

That's BR number three for November complete and I really need a rest, so for the remainder of the month I'm promising myself some easy riding, just enough to keep the fitness up for a crack at the Kingdom Come 400 at the start of December, it'll be... Interesting!