On Monday I cycled home from work, and it turned out to be the best ride I have ever had! Nothing was planned any differently, so I was expecting a normal ride home from work, but when it started snowing about an hour before I left work, I started to hope that it would snow whilst I was cycling home, and it did!

It had stopped completely before I left work and when I set off it was drizzling. But as I cycled down the road, the drizzle started to turn into the odd flake of snow.  About five minutes later it was snowing properly, and it wasn’t just a few flakes or light snow either, it was a full on blizzard! It was magical!!

After struggling to see whilst cycling, due to the massive sized snow flakes and the frequency of them, I stopped on several occasions on my way home to take some photographs on my phone, hoping the phone wouldn’t get too wet, and also a couple of videos, as I saw it as a once in a lifetime event. The photographs didn’t turn out great as my breath was showing due to the temperature decreasing rapidly during the blizzard! It made the photos have a ghostly feel to them! But the videos came out OK.

I ended up cycling home on one of my slightly longer routes which took me past the outskirts of Roborough Village and along a woodland road/path, with great views of Dartmoor. It was great to see the fields and path covered in snow, and everything was so white and bright. As we don’t have much snow in Plymouth, I tried to take as much of it in as I could, so rode slower than usual, also because I was worried that where I cycled was getting slippery with the snow building up on it as we had had very cold weather already which had been causing icy conditions.

When I got home I felt that it was a great ride but was over way too quickly, but it was also one that I will never forget!

Here are some of the (not great) photos I took on my phone.

[See image gallery at sgtworld.com]

Here are three videos of the various stages of the snow cycle.

1 – Just after the snow started to come down thick.

2 – Blizzard conditions (for Plymouth).

3 – Looking out over the snow fields of Woolwell towards Dartmoor in the misty distance.

For you stats lovers (myself included) here are my stats for the year so far, now that I have hit 150 rides.

Cycles – 150

Distance – 482.7 miles

Time – 49 hours 47 minutes

Elevation Gain – 25,486 feet

For my 100th cycle, I hit 328.9 miles for the year, which is the most I have done on any of the bikes I have had. Am hoping to easily hit 400 miles by the end of the year and hopefully 150 rides! I have also ridden for 34 hours and 33 minutes this year and had an elevation gain of 17,720 ft.

Here are the stats for my 100th ride of the year –

So keep visiting my blog to see when I reach the next target!

The upward trip to Clearbrook was interesting as once I had gone through the tunnel on Drake’s Trail (which wasn’t as dark as previous), there was a sign up to say that the cycle path was closed ahead due to a fallen down tree. So I had to leave the path and go on the road and up the steepest hill you can imagine! It was hellish and I couldn’t ride up at all, so had to push the bike up the majority of it! It wasn’t just me though as some road bikers up ahead had to push their bikes up as well and they were clearly fitter than me! Once I got to the top, I had to have a bit of a rest as was dead on my feet. Once I had recovered though, I made my way along the road and cycled down into Clearbrook, stopping outside of the village hall for a rest, an energy drink and some biscuits. The sun was shining and I have to say that it was a lovely scene (photographs can be seen below).

After about 15-20 minutes, I got up and started on the journey home. It only took about 40 minutes to get to Clearbrook, which was a lot less time than I thought it would be, so I knew roughly how long it would take me to get home. I let Kelly know I was on my way back and set off. The trip home was eventful as, whilst I was probably going along at my top speed, a big dog jumped out at me on the cycle path and I ended up skidding for about 2 metres and only just missing it! The owner could only grunt and didn’t apologise at all so I wasn’t best pleased, especially as my rear brake had locked so I had to give it a bit of a kick to get it loose again! Wasn’t happy at all!

When I had made it back to Bickleigh, and was just cycling up the hill towards Roborough, I heard an Owl hooting in the trees nearby. I decided to stop and turn around, so cycled back to where I had heard the noise. I waited and listened for several minutes, and even tried to make some hooting noises of my own, but couldn’t see or hear an owl anywhere. In fact the only birds I saw were a Jay and a Wood Pigeon. I have a feeling it flew off just as I stopped the bike to turnaround, as I think I caught a glimpse of a large bird fly off out of the corner of my eye. Shame really as it would have been really cool to see a wild Owl, especially as it was mid-morning and they wouldn’t normally be out and about at this time.

All in all, it was an enjoyable first trip to Clearbrook, and I am looking forward to doing it again and possibly even further up to Yelverton!

I didn’t try and make any good times, as my main aim was to cycle to Plym Bridge to see how full and fast the River Plym was running (stats below).

I was a bit disappointed when I did get there as it didn’t look too much different than usual, but I still took a few photographs and a video (see below) and stopped for a drink and a couple of biscuits.

Further along the trail, just before I got to Plympton Park and Ride, I bumped into a load of deer on the trail.  Unfortunately, before I could get my camera out, they had run off and the one that was left behind jumped over the nearest hedge.  Bit of a shame really!  It then started to pour down with rain so I had to take the nearest shelter!

Once it had stopped, I started to make my way back up along the trail, on my way home.  I stopped on a few occasions to take some more photographs, especially at a waterfall which I have now christened ‘Drake’s Trail Lagoon’ (see below) where I was keeping my eye out for a Dipper that I didn’t see unfortunately, but hit the proverbial brick wall when I made it back to Bickleigh, so had to walk a part of the way to get some energy back!

For the first time ever, when I arrived home, I had to wipe my bike down before taking it through the house and into the shed as it was dripping with wet mud and was absolutely minging!  So was I actually though! haha

I had a great time cycling though, and will be trying to do it again next month where I will attempt to cycle to Clearbrook and back for the very first time!  So come back soon and see how I have gotten on!

For my first cycle, I had a great time and the weather was perfect.  I stopped several times to take some photographs, which you can see below, as the views in certain parts of the trail were great.  I recorded my cycle on Strava and the whole trip was just under 10 miles, so a good exercise as well!

Here is the first part of my trip to Bickleigh Viaduct.

Here is the rest of my cycle.

Here are some photographs that I took between Bickleigh and Clearbrook, from the trail.

[See image gallery at sgtworld.com]

Here is the video of me cycling through the darkest tunnel I think I have ever been in!!

My second cycle along Drake’s Trail was after work, so I wasn’t at my fittest! This time I cycled from work down to Plym Bridge and then on to the cycle path. I wasn’t sure where I was going down there and had to follow some other cyclists to get on to the trail, but I found it in the end! It was all uphill from there all the way to Bickleigh, and took longer than I thought it would. Half the reason for that though, is because I stopped off to take a look at a breeding pair of Peregrine Falcons along the way at Cann Quarry.  The National Trust have a hut and some telescopes pointing at the nest, so I took a look and was amazed to see the female parent and two chicks.  It was a great watch and I had to tear myself away from it in the end to continue my journey to Bickleigh.  I would recommend stopping off there and taking a look – here is the link to the website about the Plym Peregrines.  And here is my write up of it on my Birding Blog.


The rest of the journey was pretty steady but I wasn’t going too fast as I was trying to take in the wonderful surroundings.  I didn’t take my camera with me so didn’t take any photographs, so I will have to do that on my next cycle along this part of Drake’s Trail.  Once I did get to the access point at Bickleigh, I was pretty shattered, and did a bit more walking for the rest of the way than I would have liked!

Here is my cycle from Plym Bridge to Bickleigh.

Next time I go out for a cycle along the track, I would like to go from Bickleigh and then down to Plym Bridge and back, and hopefully I will be doing this soonish!

Here is my bike!

My Mountain Bike

Since my birthday, I have ridden into work on several occasions and feel that is has helped me get a lot fitter than I was! I record my rides using the Strava App so I know how well I am doing (you can find this on the homepage of my site!). I had a few issues with the bike to begin with as I was struggling to know when to change gears but I am getting the hang of it now. I still can’t change gears properly though and did have to take the bike into Halfords to have them checked, but im just not sure whether there is an issue or it is just me not changing gears correctly. I would rather not take it back to Halfords though, as it cost money and they were useless!!! All in all though, I am enjoying using my bike but just need some nice weather now!!

As well as cycling, I am still jogging home from work – usually once a month. The last time I jogged home was in March, and I got a personal best!! I was really pleased with this as I felt that I was going really slow and I also had a pain behind one of my knees, so it came as a huge surprise to find out that I was about 30 seconds faster than my previous PB, and broke the 34 minute barrier as well! My actual time was 34 minutes and 43 seconds which was great! It was also freezing cold so not ideal conditions, so hopefully after another month or so’s cycling, I may be fitter to go even faster!