Switchbacks in the Snow

Weston and I went on a cheeky midweek trip to Glentress Forest in the Scottish Borders to beat the Easter crowds. We didn't get away as quickly as we could have on Wednesday morning but had a nice drive through Northumberland arriving at the cafe car park about 3 PM. We hopped on our bikes and to keep our legs ticking over we trotted around the red route in fine weather - a breezeless day with a perfect temperature for not getting hot as we climbed up to the top of the route. We hit it spot on with hardly anyone on the trail except someone who claimed to know Simon (you can't take him anywhere). Spooky Wood descent was fantastic as always and when it was all over we buzzed back to the cafe for tea, to have our pictures taken by someone who said he was from a mountain bike magazine. I guess he mistook us for someone famous. We were happy to oblige though looked a bit shocking with some fantastic helmet hair. We'd had a good start to the riding and as the dusk closed in we headed into the bright lights of Peebles. We had planned on camping but somehow that evolved into checking into a cheapish hotel in Peebles for 2 nights. Not too bad a choice though we did have to fight some blue rinsers for a spot at the bar.

Bouyed by the good weather and assorted whiskies and wines we made plans to tackle the black route the next day, only 29k in length but rising to 600m from the start at 200m. In the morning we pfaffed a bit with my forks, eventually taking them into the very friendly bike shop in Peebles where they were pronounced dead. Oh well.

As we climbed on the fireroad to the start of the route however, it was clear that there were some 'westerly wind issues' and after being blown across the track when hitting a slightly exposed section (and we were only at 300m) we decided today wasn't the day for prolonged exposure to the western side of the fell. The black route is fairly committing but there is an access point in the middle, so we decided to 'go red' to start and pick up the black route half way round, avoiding the westerly exposed slopes and hitting the more sheltered easterly second half of the trail. This turned out to be an excellent plan and we had some fantastic flowing riding into the bottom of the deliverance valley and I enjoyed (most of) the great climb back up to the top of the forest. This section of the forest is very remote (in fact we'd not seen a soul all day) and it was with a sensation of reaching civilisation again that we headed back, Simon picking off black sections with log jumps and what-not while I concentrated on perfecting some switchback turns on the red route. We felt that a hilly 20 miles was enough for a good day we'd come back Tomorrow to do All The Black. We pedaled back on the slightly scary A72 into Peebles, or at least tried to against the fierce headwind. We got pipped to the town centre by an elderly lady walking two Border Terriers but hey, we're cyclists full of excuses, er my forks don't work! After depositing much mud in and around the hotel we set off to find something to eat, failing spectacularly but ending up with some rather tasty fish and chips at the hotel. More pain was numbed shortly thereafter.

Good Friday was upon us and lots more people were at the trail head this morning. Armed with several thousand calories in our rucksacks and as much clothing as we could carry we set off on the first section of the black route, a rocky singletrack. I knew that the end of this track marked the only get-out point for the next 8 miles, but it felt sheltered in the forest. However as I emerged onto the fell all illusions of fair weather were shattered. I discovered an apparition sat on the fireroad, looking something like this but framed in alternatively horizontal and vertical driving hail nestled in a right hoolie --> (this picture was taken in France last year, but you get the idea) We decided it was Nasty but as we turned tail we saw a group of 3 carry on into the route (unbelivably 2 of them wearing shorts). Brr. Felt like a day with some serious consequences to us. We continued in the hail and snow around the less exposed red route (now covered in a layer of slushy hail), but after 2 or 3 sections of descending I felt in need of warming up and headed back to the cafe on the fireroad leaving Simon to do another lap and attend to his sport of chasing down trail bunnies. He caught a few, lost a couple more and discovered why body armour is a very good idea in the process.

After some suprisingly good lentil soup, cake and a gallon or so of tea I set up off the fireroad in a brief gap of sunshine in search of something to do for a couple of hours. I found it in the suprisingly fun 14k blue route, not an afterthought around fireroad as in our local Yorkshire forest but lots of fantastic flowing singletrack, a stiff switchback climb, and because everyone else is on the red route - empty! The bermed sections are not steep but flow enough to make you want to see how long you can go without using the brakes. Brilliant fun. After an hour and a half of this we met back at the cafe and with just over 20 miles showing on the clock we called it a day and packed up our bikes to head for home, the snow now falling in earnest.

I did see the group of 3 back at the cafe about 2 hours after we saw them ride off into the hoolie, meaning that they too must have cut short. Sensible move in the circumstances, the trail will still be there in the summer!

While cross-country exploring bridleways with a map is the number one thing I enjoy about my mountain bike, the all-weather trails at Glentress comes not too far distant. The Comission has put a lot of time and effort (and EU money) into well thought out trail building, with several new sections actively under construction while we were there and several bits repaired since my last visit. It really does have something for everyone, and the whole thing hangs together so it's easy to do what we did and pick up and drop sections as the day unfolds. My grumbly gripe is that it does get busy and on a weekend or holiday you have people shooting down behind you like nutters on the popular red descent sections and as someone who's not a fast descender I find myself pulling over a lot. But really that's a bit like moaning about the traffic as you sit in your car in a jam - and it's not a major flaw as there are plenty of other (empty) sections to enjoy and it is very quiet if you can get there during the week. With a problem of mountain biking being that you often need to drive to get to the trail it's also nice to see that part of this larger picture is now being addressed with Sustrans planning on building a bike path between Peebles and Innerleithen with a spur that takes you directly to Glentress. This will cut out the hairy sprint along the A72 and hopefully pursuade more people to leave their cars at the B&B and warm-up by cycling in.

All in all a good few days getting some clean air into the lungs and miles on the legs. Till next time!

Steph