Give Way

This morning, au velo, a road sign taking a break (the pole it was on had been knocked horizontal by a car). It read 'Give Way 50yds' and I thought, chance would be a fine thing. Naturally, I'm speaking social distancing: never let another person get so close as to prevent an unimpeded take-off. And then I imagine some overblown cliche telling me that I'm afraid of commitment. Commitment, however, under the mandate of the inversion, is a form of madness. To be committed is to be strait-jacketted if not placed in an institution. And of course, the strait-jacket is simply the false technology, the accessories and dolls, the tools and toys, that you the consumer have been conditioned to buy into. And the institution (the asylum) of course is society, where all the mad people congregate in their newly contaminated forms. So, by all means, beware of commitment, beware of other people who have been institutionalised (the social and sociable), beware of busyness and business, and get away from commitment, get into stillness, get into that vast unconditioned space called Freedom.

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life... ;)

Exit Through The Car Park

As I got off the train at Central Station today I wasn't looking for a way to avoid the ticket guys waiting at the barriers. I actually had the correct fare in my pocket ready. It was just that as the train pulled in to platform 15 (the furthest west) it also pulled up alongside the rather narrow slipway into the NCP car park. Naturally, I was curious, so I pushed the bike up the ramp, in through the doorless doorway and voila! I slid quietly down and out (imagine the circular slides you sometimes see in the park) into the brightly lit and empty Oswald street. It was only upon getting home that I realised that that was the first time ever I had cycled through a car-park (of course it was!). And that there was nothing quite like it. I felt like a child again, avoiding authority and finding a hole in the fence that led through to a paradise. It wasn't just the fact that I had made off without paying my train fare (I'll pay them next time) but that I had instantly taken the hole in the fence as soon as I saw it. No hesitation, just pure spirit. And it was good. So good that I simply had to write this to tell everyone else how good it was. Try it, next time you pull into platform 15 (I was coming back from Lochwinnoch), and your door lines up with the car park, and you'll see what I mean.

I did it the next day too! (Yep, it was that good). My train door this time didn't quiten align itself with car park exit but who cares... [Ramp straight ahead in picture]

There's something about the polished finish of car park floors that reminds me of holy shrines. They have been smoothed so much by slowly passing cars that they have gathered an aspect to them that loves the bicycle wheel. Just don't go too fast.

No sooner am I ejected out into the empty Oswald Street than I am on the cycle path alongside the river. Another ten minutes and I am at Bell's Bridge, and five minutes after that I am home in my flat in Cessnock. It's hard to believe that half an hour prior to arriving home I was in Lochwinnoch. Never buy a car.... Bike + Train = Brain....!

Top Tier: Mike's Sacred Bike n' Hikes #3

The top tier refers to the highest terrace of the Kilpatrick Braes. Here the cycle begins at Dalmuir or Kilpatrick train stations and involves cycling up the Loch Humphrey path until the gate into the hanging wood. This is just before the very steep shoulder. Look out for trees and the old limerock quarry. Follow this grassy path up past St. Patrick's well and up to Castaneda's waterfall. Here, go up to the waterfall and climb up the five metres of brae face to the next tier. Be careful if you do climb. Otherwise, you can just follow the path for another few hundred metres and it will turn left and up onto the next tier without you risking life and limb. Once onto the second tier above the waterfall, you will see a fallen log above you straddling the stream. This is the corrie of the fallen log. You might see a makeshift path through the brush which you can follow up to the log. This is the third tier. From here, it's simple enough to just walk up to the fourth tier from where we can see the whole strath and more. There are stones and thrones all over the place. Sit down on one and inhale the valley. Now, like the birds, you are a sacred being.

Carman Hill Raindance

Cycling up from Cardross onto Carman Hill Road and then the desolate Carman Hill, I perform a raindance. We've had five weeks at least now of rainlessness and it's time for some rain. The rain makes Glasgow after all and without it, well, Glasgow just isn't Glasgow...

At any rate, it didn't rain, but it's in the post...

And you can do a lot worse than coming up here to this always peopleless hill.... and doing a little dance. 'Always dance alone', the Iroquois tribe of North America used to say. Now's your chance...

Could be Brittany.... (actually Cardoss)... When that overcast sky clears up, you could be anywhere really. Just needs a little imagination.

The old bombed out church on the main road. Carman Hill Road is on the right here.

The old Roman fortlet remains on Carman Hill. For more info. check out Susan Hothersalls wonderful Archeology Around Glasgow.

Shaman rain-dancing on a glacier....

Passing through Dumbarton....

Blairskaith Boogie & Back Via Balmore and Cadder

Cycling is a form of dancing. It is also in the manner of making music a form of playing an  instrument. As such, all these cycling excursions beyond the mop and mob of the city, are 'boogies' and dances, and today, this beautiful May Sunday, we did the Blairskaith Boogie with a couple of twists.

Bottom left, our starting point, Milngavie Train Station. Head straight north up to Mugdock (or Dogmuck, whichever you prefer) and down the Old Mugdock Road to Strathblane. Here we join the Thomas Muir trail east towards Lennoxtown before cutting up into Lennox Plantation and Blairskaith Muir (note trig marker 218m in centre of map). The blue dotted line is simply the insertion of a path that isn't on the map. It's all cyclable and walkable although a mountain bike would be better suited to some of the bumpy terrain up here. Down from Blairskaith, instead of normally heading back to Milngavie station, today I cut through Baldernock School and the lovely Balmore Golf course. (See map beneath) - Cut through Balmore village, and onto the path that cuts through some fields towards Cadder. Here there's a little bridge over the little Kelvin which takes us into the course which is also lovely (moreso because there's no golfers, and walkers and cyclists have retaken the land!). JUst follow the path out of the course and onto the canal towpath. Here, I headed south back to the city (and my gaff in Cessnock) via the towpath which considering it's pretty much flat and all downhill once you get to Maryhill only takes a forty minutes or so. All in all, at a leisurely pace, leaving my gaff at 10.30am and catching the 10.42am train from Partick to Milngavie, it took around fours hours door to door. This little pastoral excursion was so exciting that I completely forgot to drink my coffee!!!

Heading up to Mugdock using two outriders to catch any polis that might be waiting (two weeks ago when I came up here there were three polis wagons between the train station and Mugdock village). The good thing about coronavirus though is that it tends to be car drivers who get stopped and not the (saintly) cyclists, exercise and your own steam being essential and the car being superfluous and non-essential. Never abandon your lifeforce to a machine !

It's hard not to stand here and be amazed at the sheer hulk of earth in front of you. I can see it from my living room window in Cessnock which only makes getting up close and personal all the more amazing. This is on the Thomas Muir trail heading towards Lennoxtown.

Blairskaith trig.

Baldernock School. Take a left into the school and follow the track through to the golf course which has a path that will take you out at the clubhouse.

Balmore Golf Course, the 17th.

Balmore Clubhouse.

Balmore Village. Another example of a car-centred place with a rather dangerous main road (not this one pictured) driving straight through it. Once crossed the road, and past the Coach House, you will find a well sign-posted train (below) that will take you over the Kelvin to Cadder and the towpath beyond.

The idyllic Cadder golf course.