Ride 14/02/2015 Ben Buck.

It’s another reasonable day, cloudy but little wind, which means I can have a second shot of getting up Ben Buck. Couldn’t do this 2 weeks ago because of gale force winds up there but today was the day. Ben Buck is the second highest hill in the Ochils (679m), after Ben Cleuch (721m), and is a good candidate because of the the dirt track that leads most of the way up their. Not an easy ride as it’s quite steep in places and the track has a lot of loose gravel and stones which made me wheel spin quite a bit but I did manage to cycle about 95% of the track, snow and some very rocky sections had me walking but I did make it to the end of the track. Unfortunately when the track ends the fun begins as you now have to ride over moor land which was wet, boggy and snowy and I ended up walking most of the way here, but on the OS map the gradient is reasonable so it wasn’t too arduous a task. Its quite flat at the top with some good views over to Ben Cleuch and Burnfoot Hill with is wind farm on. I was tempted to go all the way up to Ben Cleuch as it’s not far but by the time I got to Ben Buck it was after four o’clock and I wanted to get down again before it got dark. I was also high enough to have the clouds whisping around me, especially up at Ben Cleuch but it doesn’t show that well up in the photos I took. Anyway I made it, climbing more that 2000 feet and am satisfied with that and it was a lot more fun to ride down hill than up it