![pixelmix twitter pixelmix twitter](http://www.graemewarren.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/IMG_3858.jpg)
A constant wind is quite wearing though, and being a side wind really, it wasn’t all plain sailing. A week of dry weather and strong winds had meant that the dreaded wet clay was dry and fast and on the whole, and the wind was more behind me than in front of me. The relentless north easterly wind was a mixed blessing. The route linked to above diverged slightly from the current waymarked route in the final third, but I stuck with the GPX route to follow the tracks of dozens of riders before me. I had no real ambitions for a fast time – I knew I would still be some way off of any records, so settled for aiming to finish in daylight and enjoying the ride.
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At least the angry “chirp” from the Garmin saved me from descending too far down the wrong track.
![pixelmix twitter pixelmix twitter](http://www.pixelpenne.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pixelpenne_world_of_warcraft_titel2.jpg)
This was not really essential, but did prove quite handy a couple of times for alerting me when I had my head down and overshot a junction. Not being terribly familiar with the route, I had downloaded a GPX file from which I stuck on my Garmin 800 to keep me on route. Originally intending to ride West to East (as is probably more common), a relentless north easterly wind in early April 2013 saw me changing my plans and hopping on a (very) early morning train to London, and onwards to Eastbourne. I rolled up to the start line and up the aptly named first climb at “Warren Hill” in temperatures of about 2 degrees and glorious sunshine which lasted for all of 20 minutes before it became cloudy but reasonably bright for the rest of the day. For that reason, plenty has been written about the route in the past, and so only a few short words are probably justified here. Given that the track is not yet plotted by Ordnance Survey, I have posted the GPX file for use when planning your own route.The South Downs Way has become something of a classic in British mountain biking, particularly for the “double” efforts of a number of ultra fit endurance riders in the South. The track down over the side of Newton Hill is steeper, but works okay as a descent, and allows for a bit of variety on the return leg. For going on to the summit, the usual walking path apparently crosses this track a bit before the point where I turned round, but I must have missed it when trying to keep my head down out of the rain. A couple of short pitches (about 70m of climbing at 450m) required walking, but the rest could be grunted up in a granny gear. Definitely not as rideable as the local climb up Ben Chonzie, but a lot quicker to get up (and down!) than walking the whole route in from the road. The track is pretty much as you would expect for hill tracks made for these kind of schemes – rough and steep. This looks like a munro where the top section will be a steep walk, but I planned to just ride up and down the track this time round (and didn’t even bother packing the walking boots).
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Instead, I decided to stick to the main track built for a recently constructed hydro scheme, and get some much needed riding in the legs, scoping out the route for a ride next time I have a work commitment down this way. Beinn Bhuidhe is the only munro in the “Arrochar Alps” area I have not yet climbed, but a look at the forecast convinced me that ticking off the summit today (on my own and in driving rain) would probably not be a sensible idea. A quick post to share a track that isn’t yet on the OS map…Ī work appointment in Dunoon this morning led to a 200mi round trip for a couple of hours of work, so the only sensible thing to do was take a half day and pack the FF29.