Cousland Park

First Sunday of the month, so its a Spokes Sunday Ride day. I have to move the start to Tollcross as the Edinburgh Men's 10K race is on. The nice weather has meant quite a reasonable turnout, there are 12 riders, plus me.

For the first part, we head down to the Meadows, along the cycle path to Newington, and onto the Innocent Railway path, first taste of autumn colours here. This is national cycle route 1, which we follow out to Brunstane, Newcraighall and Stoneybank in Musselburgh. Then its down to the River Esk path, more autumn colours. We follow route 1 through Whitecraig and on to the Dalkeith path. We turn off route 1 at the Smeaton junction, and follow route 196  up to Crossgatehall.

From there, we turn off "official" routes. Its the quiet A6124 for a wee while, then we turn left on to Hadfast Rd to Cousland. Just after Hadfast, I stop to take my blip of Cousland Park, a private house. A nice long descent follows to the Pencaitland road for a short while, crossing over the Tyne Water, before turning right on to the Pathhead road.

We're not going to Pathhead though, its only so we can go through Belsis wood and experience more autumn colours (sorry I didn't take more photos, except I am leading the ride, so I don't want to use my phone or keep on stopping) which leams a left turn, then a right turn on to the B6371 to Humbie.

As we are early, I turn left onto the road to West Saltoun. This diversion, requires us to turn right, head past the Glenkinchie Distillery and Peaston Bank. At the junction, we turn right, then turn left to pass through more woodlands.

At Keith View, we rejoin the B road to Humbie. There's a descent down to Keith Water, then a climb. Musselburgh Road Cycling Club is having their hill climb race, which I wasn't aware of. There's a rider just setting off, so I hang back, and allow them to complete the course without interference. I stop just past the finish, so the Spokes Ride participants can regroup. Its not far to Humbie from here, a short descent, then a short ascent to Humbie Hub for lunch. Just as well, as the route to Humbis is mostly up hill

After lunch, we follow the B6368 down to Petersmuir road. We turn left. Petersmuir wood is a birch wood. However, most of the trees have already lost their leaves, but its still quite autumnal. We have started out mostly downhill route down to the coast road. From East Saltoun, it's downhill to the crossroads,where we turn right. Not only are we cycling downhill, but wind assisted. Brfore long we are at Samuelston Bridge, where we regroup, which doesn't take long.

From Samuelston Bridge,we head through Samuelston, then north to Longniddry, passing through Birk Hedges, which have also lost a lot of their autumn colour, and past Elvingston. 

Then we follow the coast road through Seton Sands, Prestonpans to Musselburgh. At the other side of Musselburgh, cyclists living in North Edinburgh head through Portobello. I head west to the Innocent Railway Path, then in to Edinburgh and the end of the ride. A great day for a 76km bike ride.

The route on the Spokes Ride can be seen at Relive here.

No work tomorrow, hope the weather is as good as it has been today.