the Schedule - Overruled

The Schedule said I had to do three hours on the mountain bike on Saturday. My Daughter said I had to take her to the Lough Shore. My Daughter won.

I loaded her and her brother into the bike trailer, Granda borrowed my marin, and we took the scenic route down along the river, through the castle gardens and down to the shore; ate ice cream, watched the pirate ship race, saw a demonstration rescue by Lough Neagh Rescue and lay in the sunshine.

I couldn't help but notice a girl in the crowd with her arm in a sling and a plaster cast all the way up to her shoulder looking awkward holding a wee baby. That wrist surgery's never far from my mind these days.

Martin does a lot of his training with weights on his ankles. Personally I don't see the logic in this, because the weight's balanced - so when you have to pull one weight up, the other's pushing down, cancelling out the effort. Pulling a five year old and a three year old behind you in a trailer, on the other hand, now that's a definite training enhancement.

The problem is that my straight line cycling fitness isn't my biggest worry. I really need to improve my off-road skill, so tomorrow I'm heading down to the Mournes for an overnighter, taking my new £10 Lidl lightweight tent, sleeping in my as-yet-not-used Scottish Silkworm sleeping bag liner, and cooking on... I'm not sure which of my too-many stoves I'll take.

I wonder where my compass is.

hunting for routes

Around my local area there are loads of leisurely cycle routes, and a few well trodden mountain bike trails. That's all very well, but I really do like to explore, to find out new things, to go places where nobody's been for a long time, and to believe I've achieved something slightly different.

I was looking for a suitable new route on the map when I noticed that there's a dismantled railway running from Randalstown to Toome. There's not much information available about it on the internet (which is good from an exploration point of view) except that it originally went from Randalstown to Cookstown, was built in 1856 and closed sometime around 1959. On the map it does run all the way to Cookstown, but there are significant sections missing.

The most obvious monument to the railway's existence is the amazing viaduct in Randalstown, so I started there. The viaduct is now part of one of those leisurely cycle routes and it just joins up with the main road, the original railway having had houses built over it. Following the route on the map a bit further
I did find part of the railway, at the point indicated by the blue arrow, but by that time it was dark. Looking down on it from above, by the light of my bike light, it looked like impenetrable jungle. I couldn't even see through the trees to get an idea whether there would be a rideable track on the ground.

My curiosity has been aroused, so I'll go back later and see how much of this dismantled railway is accessible. Who knows, I might find out new things and achieve something slightly different.