Good Friday Cycle Path and Photo Epic.

Once again I'm all behind with updating this blog, even worse, I lost an hour during the night somewhere and I can't find it anywhere. I hate it when that happens.

But anyway, all the following happened on Good Friday, and a good Friday is exactly what it was.

The weather forecast had promised Friday as being the best day over the Easter weekend, and it was right too. I had made plans to go into Truro and up the cemetery to visit the graves of my parents and maternal grand parents, and had originally planned getting there the long way round through the lanes, to avoid the main road, as I usually do. But, awake early, I decided to throw caution to the wind and get out quickly, and use that dreaded main road before it got busy. With that in mind, I stood Fatso down, as he had been the first choice of motive power for the trip, but now I wanted a bit of speed to get the main road part over with as quickly as possible, I took the Jamis 29er instead.

The only fly in this plan's ointment was the fact the cemetery gates wouldn't open until 9 am, so thinking unusually fast and clearly for me, even more so given the early hour, I thought I'd kill time by exploring a couple of shared bike/pedestrian paths, new and old.

So off I duly set into the early morning sunshine along bike path number one (the bridleway out of Trispen heading towards Truro) and piled on the coals as I belted along the main road, keeping a wary eye in the mirror for heavies approaching from behind.. As it happened, that short section passed without incident, but I still wouldn't entertain the thought of riding it at a busier time.

The bridleway from Trispen/St Erme towards Truro runs out at the top of the hill and dumps the unwary cyclist onto the busy, and narrowest part, of the A39.

The A39, thankfully free of trucks and buses at that hour, but still quite a few cars heading towards Truro.

So there I was, arrived in the outskirts of the big city and with about an hour to kill. Riding in I'd decided I'd go on after the cemetery and ride a couple of other paths too, and make a morning of it. The reason the cemetery had to feature early on in the proceedings is purely down to the gert big hill it is situated on. An ugly affair if you have to pedal or walk up it, but coming from home I would be approaching it coming down the hill, so I was determined to stay upstream as it were until the gates opened.

So I made my way round to the first shared path that is newly shown on the council's maps, linking a new build development on the edge of town with an easy route in for those on a bike or on foot. Very nice it all is too, though the start and finish of the loop on Moresk Road need better signposting really, but still. The path is nicely wide, has smooth tarmac along its entire length, and is lit at night. It travels around the edge of the Treffry Road housing development, squeezing in between the 'shoe box on end' houses and the main railway line. But it is a pleasant ride or walk for sure, and a welcome addition.

 Treffry Road shared path. Shoe boxes to the right, the Paddington mainline over the fence on the left.

Some nice bendy bits for the enthusiastic rider to enjoy.

The houses round there look very grim to me. I've driven around them on the roads in the past and shuddered at the thought of paying good money to live there. The tall and narrow houses all seem tightly packed in and looking straight at each other across narrow roads that are choked with cars parked right outside front windows. At least on this morning, the houses I was passing were on the edge of the estate, so had some semblance of space around them.

From there, and still with time to kill, I had a nose up a lane towards Buckshead I know to be a dead end, but have long wanted to have a mooch up. To the right of this lane, heading away from town, what was once fields lining a valley is now all tarmac and construction site as it is now the home of the new Park and Ride scheme, and shortly, also a new Waitrose, plus more housing I believe. More habitat lost for the wildlife, more water absorbing land tarmaced over.

 Buckshead Lane in the early sunshine looks idyllic, but just over that hedge on the left is the new Park and Ride, and supermarket/housing building site.

Buckshead Lane Snowdrops.

Having had a look up the lane and returned the same way, I then made my way to another path that runs up to the side of Penair School. This path used to be a country lane, but for whatever reason, traffic is now barred from it (probably because of the school and kids walking along the lane) but it makes a handy cut through. So that was path number three and it still wasn't nine o'clock yet. So I had a wander along one lane that leads to St Clement, before turning back along a second lane that leads there, and finally made my way to the cemetery where at just before nine, the gates were already open.

Traffic restrictor poles at the end of Penair Lane are a tad narrow for wide bars. The bars on the Jamis are only 660mm but only just fit through. Anything wider will require a wiggle.

On a sunny and still day, the cemetery here is quite a pleasant place to be, sat on the side of a hill and offering views down to the city. But it is also therefore pretty exposed, and the memory of my father's funeral, with the wind piling the heavy rain in horizontally still stays with me. Flowers on graves don't last long in winter that's for sure.

Truro Cemetery.

Visit over, I went for a brief ride around the city centre, juddering over the cobbles (should've bought Fatso, or let the tyres down a bit on the Jamis) and dodging the shoppers waiting for the shops to open at ten o'clock. I want to go back and ride around Truro a lot more, and take more photos too, especially of the big pointy place, but an overcast day is better, as every time I stopped to check out a photo opportunity the sun was in entirely the wrong place, apart from once where the statue of the drummer was concerned.

Lemon Quay, Truro. Below all that paving lies the river and large ships would berth here in times past to load and unload cargo.

Now here, for once, the angle of the sun was a benefit. You see miladdo here with his drum, is in his birthday suit. He is without attire and wears not a stitch. He's got his tackle out that's what but fortunately Big Jim and the Twins are in the shadow and modesty is maintained. (He's nothin' special in that department anyway... ahem...)

See a photo tour of Truro and inevitably you will see these phone boxes. Far be it for me to pass up on a photo cliche though, so here they are.

Mooching about the streets of Truro.

 Big assed pointy place and a passing roadie heads out for a ride.

Around Truro.

So with the new theme of the ride still in mind, and bored of riding around the streets already, I hooked up with NCN Route 3 briefly, and made my way along the river side past Tesco and down to Newham. Newham is still home to a motley collection of scruffy buildings and ugly yards, but also once saw a busy little railway yard, station and freight terminus. Opened in April 1855 as a 2.5 mile branch off the main line just west of Truro, passenger services ceased in 1963, but the line remained open for freight until November 1971. Although the rails were lifted soon after, the track bed has been used as a popular walking and cycling path ever since.

NCN Route 3 passes through Truro and I followed part of it from the city centre out along the old Newham line.

NCN Route 3 leaves the city Centre beside the river and round the back of Tesco.

Finding the start of the old line needs a keen eye to spot the NCN signs if you don't know the layout of the immediate area, and involves riding through a small car park to find the start of the path at the far end. From there, there's a road to cross, but then it's a pleasant ride all the way around the south side of Truro and up the side of the Chapel of Rest, or County Hall as it is otherwise known. This is certainly preferable to tackling the narrow roads and steep hills out of the town centre, as the rail line climbs imperceptively, before one last short sharp hill towards the finish.

The old Newham branch line.

There are possible clouds on the horizon though, as rumours exist of new housing developments encroaching on the old line, and/or a park and ride scheme that would see the track bed turned over to the exclusive use of buses. I really hope neither turns out to be the case – if anything, the council should be upgrading the path, maybe with tarmac and lighting to encourage more to use it.

 Halfway along the old Newham line NCN Route 3 turns left at an old level crossing, but I stayed on the old track bed and headed for the western side of Truro.

The bridge over the A39 Falmouth Road. Some Cornish nationalists once hung over the side of this bridge and painted 'Free Kernow' (Kernow being Cornish for Cornwall) on it for traffic to see as it passed below. Only thing was, they painted it as they read it, and so to that traffic, it appeared upside down. And backwards. Oh the shame of it...

The old line was busy with cyclists and walkers all enjoying the good weather. Good to see I'm not the only over dressed cyclist around too...

For cyclists heading south or west of Truro, the old Newham line is a real boon. Why dice with traffic and slog up silly steep hills when you can have this instead?

A quick hop across the busy main road and down Dobbs Lane in Truro led me to Coosebean Lane, along which is found the start of a newly constructed shared path, fully lit and tarmaced, and bike path number five of the day. The idea of this is to whisk cyclists and hardy pedestrians away out of the town to the west, and away from the busy roads, and it is a great idea. The path climbs most of the way west, but not too steeply, and as the name suggests, all is green and peaceful. At the far end, the route continues west using roadside pavements as shared paths, but that wasn't for me on this day. Having reached the end of the Greenway, I turned around and went back the way I'd come – Hoon time! The smooth tarmac, welcoming gradient and sweeping curves make for an exhilarating ride, even for a slow old giffer like me. I wish these paths had been there when I was kid riding around town on my old ten speed 'racer' that's for sure!

 Great to see some proper cycling infrastructure appearing around the city now, and this Coosebean Greenway is a superb example of what can be done.

It was good to see plenty of folk out walking and cycling along this newish path. It does mean a bit of climbing when heading west, but it's not too bad at all.

 Heading into town though, the path runs downhill is just crying out for a darned good hoon! gentle trundle... ahem...

Good visibility on the path means a bit of speed sedate and dignified progress can be made safely.

Now would be a good time to apply the brakes... 

I honestly felt like going back up just to enjoy the hoon ride back down again. 

Arriving back in Truro, I had to figure out a way home. Going back the way I'd come in – along the main A39 was out now the roads were busy, so I made my way across the edge of town and along a lane to Idless, and from there, up through a strangely deserted Idless Woods and back onto home territory.

Heading home via Idless Woods.

All too often we hear of councils grudgingly coming up with cycle paths that in reality, nobody wants to use because they're dangerous, or full of pot holes and roadside debris, or they don't go anywhere people need to go. These new paths in Truro are a very welcome addition though in my opinion, and the people behind them are to be congratulated. They are smooth, rubbish free, and well lit by the look of things, and serve a useful purpose, actually going somewhere residents need to go. They also make me really jealous, as we here in the village I live in could really use a dedicated cycle path into Truro, rather than rubbing shoulders (almost literally) with the trucks and buses on the narrow, but direct, main road. In parts, there is a shoulder along the roadside, outside the white line marking the edge of the road, but it is covered in gravel and broken glass, as well as the usual rubbish lobbed out of car windows, and is also too narrow really to be called a cycle lane.

All in all though, I had an enjoyable time poking my nose around and hooning about the place like a teenager again. I must go again some time soon.

Hmmmm... Once again, the route is too big to fit on a decent sized map on here. I'm trying out a new map site too, as this one allows off road routes to be plotted.

Once again though, a fuller map can be found (hopefully) HERE

I've just had a look at the preview for this update and a couple of the photos look soft and fuzzy, and remain so even after re loading them. Don't know what's going on there, but I need my dinner so it'll have to wait!

Wednesday's Ride Is Full Of Woe.

Yesterday, was a plain day. Rather appropriately as it happens, given yesterday was a Wednesday, a neither here nor there day if ever there was one. Wheeling Fatso out yesterday morning for a tentative ride after my recent back trouble had eased, I couldn't help noticing the weather was outstandingly... dismal. Some beggar had dropped the contrast and saturation sliders down a few notches while my back was turned, and rather than the glorious colours and bright sunshine of my last couple of rides, I was faced with a day full of dull. Stratus Opacus is the rather apt name for what was lurking in the sky, with not a clue as to where the sun might be, hidden as it was behind the all encompassing thick murk that obscured all but the closest features of the landscape.

Flat and dull... and this was after some tickling of the contrast and saturation in post processing.

I felt cold too as I set off, thanks to a light, but still invasively chilly, north north westerly, so it wasn't a promising start to my brief ride, and to be honest, it lived up to that lack of promise magnificently all the way through.

Elsewhere on this lane, the road was covered in fine, powdery soil where recently it was rim deep in water. This part always has general rubbish up the centre of the road, and it can be fun bozzing along on it too, especially where grass grows in the middle as well, as things can get a bit squirrely and squirmy on a narrower tyred bike.

There was nothing really wrong with things, it wasn't pouring with rain, or even drizzling. Nor was it blowing a hooley, or setting the fields ablaze with searing sunshine, everything just felt flat, including my mood. There were some plus points in fact, Tregassow Lane is no longer flooded, indeed it is more like a desert through there now, with the road covered in a dry and dusty, fine powdered soil where recently there had been deep water.

My back was ok too, always a worry just after a flaring up episode, but my short ride was thankfully completed without any extra pain.

I struggled for photographic inspiration as well, hardly surprising really given how lifeless everything else was turning out.

Messing about with the cameras at a junction.

All of which sounds like one big moan, and it isn't really meant to read like that at all, as things could've been far worse of course, and I was glad to be out on a bike again after a short lay off. It's just it really was a bald day, shorn of colour and interest, and lacking life seemingly in all respects. Even the peace, that which I normally crave, seemed a stifled, flattened and smothered quiet, rather than the tranquil and natural calm I normally appreciate.

But still, tomorrow is Good Friday, the weather is set to be better (it's puddling down at the moment) and the roads will be quiet (until the DIY shops open anyway) so another ride is on the horizon, and hopefully that horizon will be a lot further away than it was yesterday.

A quick seven miler around a variation on my usual loops, As usual, the full map is lurking Here

Pleasure and Pain in the Lanes.

As I suspected I would, I managed to fit a cheeky ride in yesterday amongst all the cleaning prior to the Landlord coming to sort out the decorating.

Amazing how Daffodils grow in weird pockets of isolation, but where there's a wheel there's a way...

While it was another beautiful sunny day, it wasn't all joy as all that cleaning has played merry hell with my dodgy back, and the soundtrack for the ride wasn't dominated by water rushing down the rivers, or the birds singing or whatever, but rather by various grunts, 'ooohhhhs', 'ahhhhs', and the occasional 'woo ya basket' as bumps in the road took their toll. Speed then, even by my pedestrian standards, was low, but I was still glad I made the effort, although I really am hobbling about and bent almost in half today as a result.

I did a lot of interval training on this ride. Well ok, that's a euphemism for stopping a lot to have a rest, but still. So the photos aren't up to much, they're whatever I found when I came to a halt.

I did play about with this one in Photoshop Elements though, hence the odd colours. The vignetting on the left was done in camera somehow though.

One delight though came at a bridge I always stop at for a linger, where someone was burning wood on a crackling bonfire nearby, and the wonderfully aromatic smoke was drifting across the lane occasionally as I set the tripod up for a mincing and wincing, grimace laden, ride past selfie. A wonderful smell, almost up there with Castrol R in my list of top pongs.

Selfie time - pleasurable pong not shown. (The person who can come up with scratch and sniff photos will earn a fortune...)

I must find out the name of that lane too, or the river at least, as I hate not knowing these things, especially when they are in my own backyard almost.

I've photographed this roadside memorial before, so tried it from behind this time. The plaque just says 'Marcus' and other than the fact it is all well tended, that's all I know about it.

So another ride was in the bag, albeit an unwise one as it turned out, but still, that's what Ibuprofen is for I suppose. Only a brief post this one too, as I didn't take many photos and can't sit at the computer comfortably either, but hopefully normal service will be resumed shortly.

Another Glorious Day In The Lanes.

After an utterly rubbish winter both for riding and the weather, the rides are coming thick and fast at the moment. 

The past couple of rides have proved a real tonic, lifting the spirit considerably and helping keep things on an even keel. I also want to improve my fitness, not just for riding but for better health too, both physically and mentally. I've done all the counselling with professional listeners, I've read a ton of books on depression and anxiety, and more than a few web sites too. Plus of course, I'm on the happy tablets. But whilst those pills do help a bit, a good ride on the bike is still the best thing I know for calming things down and straightening things out. It's the best therapy there is.

There are times of course when no matter how good the weather or whatever, I can barely summon up the will to get out of bed, let alone indulge in a physical activity, but at the moment, things aren't going too badly, so I plan to try and make the most of the good weather and get out as much as I can.

So once again I headed out, this time on the Voodoo, with the intention of only really doing one of my short loops, a ride of no more than four miles or so. But... almost as soon as I got my knees in the breeze and nose out into the sunshine, I knew I'd probably end up going a bit further. 

Riding round the edge of the village up towards the church.

This blog is all about reflecting on a good ride.

I started off by mooching up the lane to the church in the village, just to see what's occurring like (answer - nothing much) before heading off along my beloved Tregassow Lane once more. 

It's not hard to see why a bike ride can be so good for the health, it's good exercise of course and that alone lifts the spirit as endorphins get released, but tuning in to the ride - listening to all the sounds around you such as the birds, a lone tractor in the distance working away in a field, and the crackle of tyres on gravel coupled with a nice rhythmic cadence really make for a relaxing time. 

I've also found when I'm in a proper bimbling mood, really ambling along slowly, I can allow my mind to tune in to all those things and let the autopilot ride the bike. When this happens, great things do occur! There I was, pottering along the far end of Tregassow Lane, thinking about all sorts and just looking around, and the next thing I knew I was at the top of the hill... a hill that used to see me bale out every time, and took ages for me to conquer when I first got back to riding. Today, I barely even noticed it.

Looking this way and that at what I know as Four Turnings Junction.

Almost the same thing happened nearer the end of the ride, when I also rode all the way up the beast that is the hill out of Lanner Mill. Once again I just got into the granny gear early on and let my mind wander. I did need to put in a bit more effort near the top as my legs started to protest a bit, but once again, an ugly hill that I used to dread was ridden up and over relatively easily. At other times, when I concentrate on what I'm doing, I seem to suffer more on these climbs - looking at the top to see how much further I have to go (blinking miles usually!) to the summit and so on. Other times I can just concentrate on the front tyre and keeping it moving, that works too, but the best by far is just switching my brain onto another channel while the legs are left to just get on with it.

Up near Ventonleague, just west of Carland Cross, there are apparently more than 30 Bronze Age Barrows. This one (the lump in the field behind) I believe is the biggest, and is known as Warren's Barrow.

The sunshine was a lot hazier than on Sunday, and also there was a light easterly breeze that added a chill to the air, but it really was just great being out and about in the peace and quiet. It soon became another of those rides where I didn't want to come home so kept adding bits as I went along, but all good things have to come to an end, and I found myself heading back towards home, regretting not making a right turn earlier in the ride and extending it even further.

Climbing the bad ass hill out of Lanner Mill. It doesn't look much but it is a long 'un, and just around that bend things gets really ugly as the road tips up even more. But, with the right frame of mind, it can be done! (Please note: Other hills are available. Other riders who are fitter, won't even register this as a hill, probably, but it's my personal Mt Ventoux, so there!)

So despite that small regret, it was a very relaxed Back Road Bimbler that arrived home in time for lunch. So good was my mood that I decided to eschew (good word) my daily bowl of Chicken Noodle simmer soup in favour of Sardines on toast topped with two poached eggs. By crikey I like to live life recklessly sometimes!

 A splendid display of Daffs at Lanner Barton farm

Arriving back in the village, I still wasn't quite ready to go home so had a quick blat up the old A39, but this time the westerly section towards Truro, that I rarely use. That's tarmac beneath the dirt, on what used to be a very busy main road.

So that's the good news - It's been good weather, I've enjoyed some good riding time and even had a healthy (ish) lunch. The bad news is I have to start spring cleaning the house in readiness for it being decorated. Oh joy. Expect some more diversionary rides soon!

A good old trundle about, with the bigger map available Here  The details accompanying the bigger map only show 912 feet of Ascent - clearly some mistake there... ahem...