First warm day of the year

As Met Éireann reckoned it would stay at 12°C all afternoon together with it being the first day without any rain for so, so long and having finally recovered from the flu and it being Saturday, all this spelled the first bike ride of the year. Nothing special and not long enough to warrant the title Foray but all the same at my age even 33.6km and elevation gain 501m seems like a challenge. So it was off to the Wicklow Gap, a good practice run as it has plenty of ups and downs. I took some Galaxy chocolate with me as a reward at the summit. 

My photo was taken on the return and shows my trusty steed, the Valleymount peninsula, blue sky and, oh how beautiful the gorse is when in full bloom.

Camaderry

My track 13.8 miles, average 2.2mph, gain 792m

This is a commentary on my Google album by the same name.

I biked to my starting point where St Kevin's Way crosses the Asbawn Brook, at the end of L8530. I followed St Kevin's Way up and over the Wicklow Gap, hence pictures of Kings River and a footbridge over same where it has dwindled to a mere stream.

I left the Way (there's a picture with the Way marker) to climb Camaderry East Top via the old lead mines. On the way I passed the controlled outflow via conduit from the lower reservoir of the Turlough Hill pumped storage scheme: picture with warning sign. There's a picture of what was a mine adit in the mining area. The track is good all the way and agrees with OpenTopMap. 

I took pictures from the East Top thence to Camaderry proper. Between here and Turlough Hill I enjoyed a quick lunch and was overtaken by a party of seven. They left me to descend by the ESB access road to Wicklow Gap, whilst I went on to beautiful Lough Firib. By this time I had dinged two toes, using insulation tape to bandage them. Hiking barefoot has its challenges as well as its rewards. From Lough Firib to Art's Cross and then down into the glen and back to base.

Formerly I have descended beside the stream - one gets wet but the route is fairly direct even if not "official". This time I thought I would follow the track marked in OpenTopoMap which first crosses the brook and then circles around before descending. Unfortunately this track is decidedly lacking in substance, although I had followed similar tracks successfully up until then.  I ended up clambering through thick heather which is always a bit scary because of the possibility of deer ticks. And I saw (and heard) plenty of deer.

The old military road

My track

Lots of people away this weekend so no meeting. I might have, perhaps ought to have cycled to the coast, but was still feeling the after effects of my Carrauntoohil jaunt so... 47 miles, elevation gain 1102m (two long climbs), maximum speed 36 mph, average moving 11.8 mph.

My route: Blessington -> Manor Kilbride -> Sally Gap -> Old Military Road -> Laragh -> Wicklow Gap -> home.

I took some lunch with me - two eggs, and they were not hard boiled, in fact not cooked at all.

Mullaghcleevaun new route

There are some forestry tracks on the left just before the final ascent to the Wicklow Gap on the R756 heading Eastwards. The challenge was to make it to Mullaghcleevaun from home in an afternoon on bike and barefoot. Because of the off-paved-road segments I thankfully rode my old bike up to the summit of these forestry tracks (red arrow on map), then headed on foot.

The interesting part of my track

Distance on bike 21 miles roundtrip, elevation gain 498m
Distance on foot 6.6 miles roundtrip, elevation gain 407m

It was hardly running - too much boggy peat for that. Surprisingly I met two hiking parties. The chief guy on the second party stopped to talk with me. I was dressed in running shorts, period. He was dressed in typical hiking gear, boots and walking sticks. He asked me if I was all right. He repeated - was I sure I was all right?  I suppose we come for different universes.

On the return journey I mounted my bike and careered down the steep forestry track only to find that its sharp stones had punctured my rear tyre. I had no repair tools so was forced to ride the rest of the way home on the rim. And at that point it started raining... I made it home a little later than planned.

I had a spare inner tube at home, so the bike is now operational again - the rim (being steel) was not badly damaged and I was even able to re-use the outer tyre, though I would not recommend going any great distance on the bike now. Its main use, now I have a decent road bike, is for getting around the farm here. As usual you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

The ridge trail soon after leaving my bike, towards Tonalagee

Same, looking towards where I left the bike

Much of the ridge is peat like this

With wet bits

Mullaghcleevaun summit

Wet on the top too

Lough Cleevaun from high above

A bit to the right and Mullaghcleevaun East Top

Easter weekend

Easter weekend and amazing weather, the temperature in the 20's. Too good to stay at home so having free afternoons I made the most of them and visited some favourite haunts. My method on both occasions was to cycle and then walk / run.  Although not much running. But once off bike I was bare-foot of course. I took a new ascent route through some forestry above Ballyknockan and thus made a round trip. I have a principle that, where feasible, the outward and return journeys should not used the same route.

Saturday track

Ascent through the forest

After the forest I followed a sort of path

Unusual to find company at the summit

He followed me to this pool where I turned back

Mullaghcleevaun in the distance

Descent to Ballyknockan quarry road

After the Sunday meeting and shared lunch I set off again on my trusty bike, this time to explore forestry tracks under Tonelagee. 17.5 miles cycling round trip, max speed 40.3 mph.

My plan was to use the track as a new way to Mullacleavann. But when I eventually got out of the forestry I figured I had insufficient time and so instead turned right towards Tonelagee (3rd highest in the Wicklows). I met three pairs of hikers, and overtook a fourth single man on the way down. I habitually run most of the way down from Tonelagee - it's good for the leg muscles!

Sunday track 6.51 miles

The forest track, Tonelagee in the distance

Showing the layer of peat that covers these mountains

Towards the Wicklow Gap

Having left the forest, looking back towards Mullaghcleevaun

From Stoney Top, the path to Tonelagee summit

Stoney top is hardly a peak in its own right, the descent to the saddle with Tonelagee being slight. The saddle has an area of naked damp peat which is glorious for running barefoot on. I wonder where Stoney Top gets its name from?

Some joker planted this false peak marker

Lough Ouler and me

The quick way down to Lough Ouler

The true summit, Turlough Hill reservoir in the distance

The descent - note the small lake to the right

Wicklow Gap tourist car park

Upper reach of the Kings River, under the main road

The old Annalecka bridge, close to my bike parking lot

Map of the area, my route in red

The map identifies the small lake I saw to the right of the Turlough Hill reservoir as Lough Firrib. No, I have not yet swum in Lough Firrib but I intend to some hot summer day. The red square is where I parked my bike.

You can click on the images to enlarge them.

Wicklow Gap and 20 miles

The day after 16 miles on bare feet I figured I'd give them a rest and exercise my bike, which has been a desultory couch potato for some while now, as a precursor to possible longer rides if I get let out on a suitably warm and still day later in the year.

Although the sun was shining some of the time it was cold. Too cold to stop and take photos. Even too cold at the summit to eat my chocolate bar. Total distance 20.7 miles, max speed 35 mph, average speed 11.2mph, elevation gain 475m. So there.

On the ascent a girl cyclist passed me - I called out asking her for a tow. On reaching the summit I saw that she had turned around and was returning by the way she had come and she smiled when I waved. So maybe I am not so looney for cycling there and back for no better reason than the challenge!

Minimalist running and Wicklow Gap

The beauty of running minimalist (no shoes, minimal clothing) is that I can be running along a beach or mountain track and, if an expanse of water affords, transfer to swimming and back to running without the tiresomeness of having to carry stuff, get dried and or change clothing.

For anyone wishing to emulate, I should add that running or cycling for too long in shorts that are wet with salt water will make the skin sore, and that drying oneself by running is inadvisable if the wind-chill adjusted temperature is below say 5'C unless you are much hardier than I am!

Which reminds me of my temperature scale:
below 0'C - freezing
0'C to 5'C - cold
5'C to 10'C - fair
10'C to 15'C - warm
15'C to 20'C - hot
over 20'C - tropical

This afternoon, after various duties, I cycled to the Wicklow Gap and back in record time in order to be back to enjoy a most excellent curry followed by plum crumble with Ali, and am now feeling suitably replete and worn out.

Father's day

Today is Father's Day which makes me particularly want to honour each of my wonderful children. "My" is undeniably true and yet my part was minuscule. To be a father must be the greatest honour a man can achieve and children must be the greatest investment in this life. By it we understand in some small part what God is like. Thank you Jonathan, Christopher, Sarah, Kate for being who you are, for your love, for your belief. My heart is saying much more but how to write it I know not. I want to include Ali in this list but cannot as it is not Husband's Day.

Sometimes I am aware that I have not posted for ages but have nothing to say. Today my mind is teeming with stuff. Not that it takes many thoughts to count as teeming for me. It's all mixed up with A and T's plights (BTW T's course of hospital treatment has been completed and A's hands are healing well albeit with only two and a half fingers on one hand) and a preface to MacDonald's Phantastes in which Lewis remarks that "the relation of Father and Son is of all relations the most central" and this morning's sermon about the glory of tribulation (as opposed to whingeing about it), patience and perseverance and wot not, and my general malaise. As usual I am finding it hard to even figure what I am feeling myself, let alone try to communicate it to anyone else. It would require a listener with remarkable empathy for me to convey it verbally. Thus is the raison d’être for this blog. That few read it is neither here nor there. The case of the cardboard cut-out engineer comes to mind (see note below).

Why did I cycle 48 miles over mountains yesterday? I suppose that people here think I do it for pure enjoyment. I sometimes wonder about people. In fact the idea occurred to me after lunch, realising that I had no further duties and no set time for an evening meal, but it took me at least 15 minutes to pluck up enough courage - thoughts of all those hills, and of others here who spend their free time lying in the sun doing absolutely nothing, were putting me off.

I finally set off. The incline to the Sally Gap is gentle enough to start with but gradually gets more and more intense - struggling up that last stretch I wondered whether I would make it before feinting or something worse. I told myself I could always turn around. But I didn't. I persevered.

The prize was of course the generally downhill stretch to Laragh with its wonderful wide scenery. Then followed the ascent to the Wicklow Gap, a climb I know well but is still so hard. I purchased 500ml of Club Orange in Laragh for an outrageous €1.60, set myself for the one hour climb, habitually stopped to consume the drink half way at the rocks. Once again I wondered if I would make it. I could hardly turn back now! But here I am to tell the tale.

Why did I submit myself to such agony - was the prize really worth those two climbs? I don't have a clear answer, except that exercise generally is good for one and it's a bit of a challenge. It is sort of mixed up with this glory of tribulation (is this a euphemism for masochism?)

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The cardboard cutout engineer.

Working on some engineering issue at the BBC Research Department there were times when one needed input from another engineer. It was a common experience that, after you had made the effort to find someone and then had conveyed the problem in words, the answer came to you before the other person had had a chance to chip in. And so we reckoned it would do just as well to have a room containing a cardboard cut-out engineer to whom we could share our problems.

The hottest day so far

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year both here in Ireland and in the UK. I celebrated this with a gruelling bike ride over the Sally and Wicklow gaps.  Stats: 47.9 miles, 11.6mph average moving, maximum elevation 498m (Sally Gap), total duration 04:31, one litre liquid, very hot but very beautiful especially the Old Military Road segment from Sally Gap to Laragh.

A brief visit to the Wicklow Gap

A busy weekend - removing carpet in hall stairs and landings and repairing floorboards ready for a new carpet to be laid later this week - but a gorgeous day so after doing my bit I got away for a couple of hours, enough to make the Wicklow Gap and back again. With a cold hot cross bun.

The outward journey took just over an hour, then 5 minutes of bliss atop a large rock enjoying the scenery and enjoying my bun sluiced down with water, and then hastening back again (we have company for dinner).

Total distance 21 miles, maximum speed 40 mph (the downhill behind Knockalt), average speed moving 12.3 mph, maximum elevation 480m.

The outward journey follows part of St Kevin's Way - but I only saw one walker and he wasn't on the official Way. Whilst I condone the increasing number of way-marked paths here in Ireland (I can't think of any when we first moved down from the North 35 years ago) it is still a long way behind the UK. When last in Devon I was reminded of just how many public footpaths there are. This site notes that Devon County Council is responsible for maintaining 3.200 miles of public rights of way, and there are similar sites for other UK counties, like here for my county of birth. Here even the way-marked paths often cross private property with permission but without right of way.

At least there is growing pressure here in Ireland for change.

St Kevin's Way barefoot

St Kevin's Way is a way-marked trail that runs from close to where we live to what used to be a Christian settlement in Glendalough. They claim the trail follows the path that St Kevin and his cronies travelled - perhaps some of the pilgrims were unshod. At our end the trail bifurcates one head being Hollywood and the other Valleymount. My running track took me through Valleymount and along the upper St Kevin's Way to Ballinagee bridge (where we have sometimes baptised people) and then back along the lower trail but not all the way to Hollywood.  Even so it was 15.6 miles, avg speed moving 5.5 mph.

My track, barefoot of course

Looking back to our lake

You have to pay to dispose of rubbish in this country: this is cheaper 

In full view too, the location is behind Knockalt

The downhill looking forward to Wicklow Gap

From here you can access the mountains and Art's Cross

That's the path I have just run along

Looking down to Kings River, about here it started raining

The storm passed into the distance where it dumped hail back at home

Club Orange at Ballinabarny Gap

Bike ride today: Wicklow Gap, Rathdrum, Aughrim, followed the River Ow, lunch stop at Ballinabarny Gap, Knockanarrigan, N81, Piper Stones, home. Total 61.4 miles, max 38.8mph, avg 11.1mph, knees hurting towards end. Consumed one can Club orange (as good as Jusoda was, and so much better than Fanta), one cheese sandwich, half a 200g bar of CDM. And a bit of water.

Ballinabarny Gap, osi

Downhill behind Knockalt caught in morning sun

Bridge over river Ow

View from Ballinabarny Gap

Off the N81 near Hollywood

Piper's stones

Piper's stones