Spokes Ride to Livingston Village

A lovely day for the Spokes Ride. Temperature is much warmer than last month, and no snow forecast. Twelve of us set out of Edinburgh along the canal. The path is quite narrow, and there are cobbles. Its also very busy as the sun is out, and it feels like summer. Coming off the canal on a bridge, one rider falls. They are riding a road bike with toeclips, which they are not used to riding. As they feel uncertain about riding the bike, they opt, sadly, head home. (They normally ride a hybrid, so they are fairly experienced)

Eleven riders carry on up to Baberton Mains, over a railway crossing to Heriot Watt University, then on to the Long Dalmahoy Road (beside the famous Dalmahoy Golf course, but you can't see the golf course from the road, too many trees) For once, there isn't a strong headwind. Its still a very long road though, seems to go on for ages.

We regroup at a road junction near Haggs Farm, then carry on along Long Dalmahoy Road to Kirknewton. From here t Livingston Village, the route involves lots of junctions, twists and turns, so I slow the ride down  so everyone can keep together along Linburn Road and Main St, then down Station Road to the A71, which is a traffic light controlled junction, and we all get across the road to East Calder. (I presume the road is still called Station Rd, but there's no road sign.) Then it's down Langton Road to Main Street East Calder to Mid Calder. Here we turn on to Pumpherston Road to cross over the River Almond

We join NCN route 75 here, a mostly off road route through Livingston to Livingston Village, and lunch at Livingston Inn.

After lunch, we head south along the . I do make a mistake, turning right instead of left. However, as I know the part of Livingston we are in is being redeveloped, and there is no way through, we do a 180 to head in the right direction. At Murieston Road, we rejoin the road to head out of Livingston, on to Castle View Road then Harburn Rd., a bit of a headwind here, to Harburn (another posh golf course).

We regroup before turning left on to the B7008. this road climbs slowly to Harburnhead and Camily Hill, before it drops slightly down to the A70 This is the main blip. The A70 is a very quiet A road. A bit bumpy in places, and, as you can see from the blip, stats climbing right away. However, the wind is behind us. It doesn't take too long to get to Harperrig Reservoir, where we stop again to allow a regroup. It's also very picturesque. I've blipped the reservoir, so the Extra shows the Pentland Hills heading NE towards Edinburgh.

Where we stopped is not the top, so we head over the pass, which immediately gives a view of Arthur's Seat in the distance. We are travelling quite fast, but we are not going to follow the road all the way to Edinburgh. At Glenbrook Road, we turn off the A70 to head for Balerno and the pub. It was a bit sad the beer garden at the pub was shut because of renovation works though. So a swift half, then home.

A great day out. A bit of summer weather makes all the difference. smiles all round.


The ride can be seen at Relive here