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

http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

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!