Scotland MTB Trip - Glentress and Innerleithen - 8th/11th Aug 2010

Back in March, myself and a mate in work decided we should go on a trip up to Scotland to taste the delights of the trail centres they have on offer up there.  Since the only ones we have been to have been Grizedale and Llandegla (purpose built I mean) we thought it made sense to go up to where everyone is harping on about how good they are.

It was decided to hit Glentress and Innerleithen since they were close to each other and had plenty to do, since we were only there for 3 and a half days.  The other deciding factor was that the other sites in the 7stanes setup were far apart (well they looked it on the map) and we didn't want to spend much time in the car, especially coming back to the accommodation after spending all day on the bikes.

I had found accomodation in the form of Mountain Bike Apartments, in Innerleithen.  The apartment was literally a 5 min bike ride from the Innerleithen trailhead and 5 mins in the car from Glentress.  £280 for 3 nights wasn't too shabby and between 4 people it was a bargain. (it was initially 6 but 2 pulled out with lame excuses.. I mean REALLY lame!)

A couple of weeks before the trip I had some sort of injury on my foot which made it difficult to walk, initial prognosis by the doc was gout!, but as it turned out it is not and I am still waiting to find out what the hell it is as its still hurting.  The problem with this was that I could not get in some last minute training for fitness/stamina so by the time I turned up to Scotland I was unfit and I couldn't last long without the foot in pain.  Luckily I wear 510 Karvers which have a stiff sole so I didn't need to bend my foot when walking, but this in turn burns the calves like nobody's business when walking uphill!

We drove up in two cars, Martin (original attendee) went to pick up one guy from Manchester and I went to pick up another from Warrington, then we set off and met in Forton services, as Martin had satnav he could direct us to the flat.

We made really good time, I think it only took us around 3.5 hrs or something from Forton services so we were there at 12.30pm and even after stopping again just before leaving the motorway.. Martin's weak bladder!

We got there, unpacked at the flat (1st storey of a terraced house with an extension at the back plus two rooms in the attic) then went to the pub!  2 hrs later we had a massive bbq, and then decided to hit Innerleithen!.. Not such a clever idea since we were bevvied and fed to thew hilt and any sort of excersize would result in feeling unwell.  We decided on cutting short the XC loop so we could get the fire road up to the top of Caddon Bank, with its awesome downhill rollercoaster and downhill speediness!

Next morning (Monday) we eventually got up, had a good brekkie courtesy of Phil, and did the full inner loop.. well two of us did (the fitter two) myself and Chris did the shortcut just before Minch Moor as we were both cream crackered and soaked, did I mention it was raining all day?.  We stopped at Resolution Point which looks over some weird looking circles which turns out to be ovals.

The downhill from there back towards Caddon Bank was awesome, chris came off, I was lucky but i had been biking for a while and although not a speed demon downhill I am getting more confident.

Martin and Phil did the minch moor loop and after seeing their videos I am gutted I didn't go up there too.  Oh well definitely next time we come to bonnie Scotland

Tuesday was Glentress day.  We headed off in the pouring rain.. again, and parked up.  We met up with a "local".. I say local, he lives in Greenock, but since he is Scottish, that counts .  Andy visits Glentress on his Demo 8 at least twice a month so he was our best guide option, better than the map since he pointed us to some nice bits you would normally miss if you just followed the coloured routes.

Since we were all a bit tired, we opted for the Blue route, which, after riding it, feels more like a red than a blue to what we are used to down south in England!  It was great fun even though we were soaked to the skin, and felt a bit sick seeing a bunch of cyclo-crosses caning it uphill on their skinnies.. gits.  What made it worse was that Andy was bombing up the red route on his demo 8 quicker than we were.. just shows what not being a fat git makes a difference

I must admit, even though to most, the Blue route sounds like a tame option, but in my opinion its an ideal hour or two killer, we cheated a bit by parking one of the cars up by the freeride park and the other down at the bottom on the Wednesday, so we could start at the park, missing out on the miserable climb, and then ride back to the hub.  Electric blue was one of our favourite sections as it was fast and flowy, even getting some air too!

Wednesday was leaving day so we decided to go back to Glentress, do the blue again and that would give us more time to muck about on the freeride area as we had to drive back to the North West of England that afternoon.  It wasn't as wet on that day so we didn't have to carry our raincoats which made a difference to the weight on our backpacks

Leaving Glentress was quite a sad moment as even though we had only had a taste of what it has on offer, it definitely gave us the hunger to come back again and next time would definitely tackle the Red including the infamous Spooky Wood.