Kilnaglory case analysis, part 1
Getting a a fair bit cooler, so no longer have "too warm" as an excuse for early starts. On the other hand, "wait for it to stop lashing down and for a promised weather window to open up" is very much back on. Such it was recently,though it wasn't helped by me then having a "fruit at the bottom of the bowl" moment with my cycling gloves. (Yes, I should at least have parallelised those two (in)activities.) Just in case I start a fatbotb(!) tag for my own future reference, "in the pocket of the jacket I was wearing last that I've just stuffed into my backpack" is a good one to check.
Last Monday I started out Curraheen way, but on getting to the fork at Kilnaglory decide to go left, on up the hill. My thinking was that as it was rather cooler than it'd been it was a reasonable occasion for slightly more exertion, and the very moderate amount of daylight I had left might argue for a steeper cycle rather than a longer one. After the first "turn", it gets heckuva steep. Couple of cyclists past me in the other direction, going one huge gravity-fed clip. Wheezed on up a couple more turns, after which it isn't quite so steep. (That'd be about the spot of the rather purple sunset panorama, up top.) Up and along to Ballinguilly (I believe it's called, though there's little "there" there -- certainly nothing so declassé as a sign, though there was a woman out walking her dogs) and the staggered/t-junction there, at which I turned right. Past an older couple walking the same direction, though I'd say the "passing velocity" was modest enough. Stopped for a breather at Knockburden Crossroads. I wasn't intending to linger, but not only was I 'reovertaken' by the walkers, a local popped out of his gate to have a word. Friendly one, this time (about evening out recent encounters, I think). Truth to tell, I had been somewhat swithering about my route: right, and more-or-less directly back to the Killumney-Aherla road, or ahead, which I couldn't quite tell how hilly it might be, and couldn't recall whether I'd been that way before. My local guide assured me that it wasn't very hilly at all, though he did evince some concern about the light. Taking him at his word on the former -- and my life into my hands on the latter -- pressed on ahead.
Road was indeed gentle enough. In due course, joined back up with the larger road, in a rather complex junction caused by four roads crossing and re-crossing in a slightly offset manner. Shortly after that, came to a fork in the road, and took a left, the more major of the two, as I'd planned. Or so I thought. Cycling on several K, I was surprised to still be going up. Wasn't the road due to be going back down to the valley floor road? Eventually, I reached another crossroads, and after some perplexed peering at a signpost (for "Aherla", "Killumney", and rather ominously, "Bandon", and sitting down and using my front beam as a torch to look at a map (which maybe I should have done a turn earlier!), realized I was at Begley's Forge (or Begley's Cross Roads, according to OS), significantly farther south than I thought I was. And rather high up. The simplest remedy would be to backtrack, but I dislike doing that on general principles, so the only other alternative was to take the "Aherla" turn. Didn't look too bad, so what the heck. Along another K or so, then right again at "Black Crossroads". Still going up! But then, rather steeply back down. And rather bizarrely, busy. Several tractors with large trailers coming and going up and down and across the road. Must have been doing some sort of late-night "rush" harvest, I can only assume. Road wasn't that great. At one point, I put a foot down, and it almost slid out from under me: the tarmac ended rather nearer, and rather more crumblily, than I'd thought. At another, I hit a pothole (or bump, or something!) hard enough that my beam light somehow managed to turn itself off. At least it didn't fall, as it's somewhat apt to.
Onwards and downwards, and it flattened out a bit. A while later, with very little warning, was at the A-K road junction at Kilcrea Cross -- no signage or lights, of course. Bit of a relief; though I was still on a dark road, but at least a flat, more open, and more familiar one. Curiously enough, yet more tractors harvesting things a little farther along! Must have been a good night for it. (Hay (or straw?) by the looks of it, when I ended up back there later in daylight.) Onwards through Killumney to Grange Crossroads. Decided to go left there, to join the main road sooner, and because "left" was a lot better lit that "straight ahead", immediately. Little cat sitting on wall. Not too keen on saying hello.Not a route I'm especially fond of, as it means going on the pavement to get around the "cul de sac" closure, then over the footbridge, which is a little dizzyingly high and narrow for my tastes; not one I'm generally inclined to cycle over, except possibly the on- and off-ramps. Walked all the way, in this case. Back along the N40.
Bike computer (replaced and working fine, so far) says 34km. Average speed shockingly slow: not even counting "stopped time". Not surprising the time spent either labouring up hills, hard-braking going down 'em, or generally picking my way around. I reckon I must have been very close to 190m up -- the hill between Begley's and Black XR is 195m spot height (and there's a barrow at the summit!), though the road goes around 1/2 sides of it, rather than right over the top.