Let’s Go North

After a fair bit of faffing and wondering if it was actually going to happen a few of us made the trek up to Glentress once again. After the snowy affair earlier this year, the weather couldn’t have been more different. There was dust blowing and the trails were in great shape.

We rode the red route on Sunday morning, starting off with a bit of a muck about on the dual course. Then as we were going round we detoured up to the ‘shore section and after watching Jon clean it on his first go proceeded to try and follow suit. the chosen method for this was to build confidence by riding a bit then riding it again and the next bit until the whole thing was cleaned.

The see-saw proved to be interesting. The first time I ran out of speed just on the pivot and had to jump the bike off it sideways. The second time I cleared it and the third time I rode off the edge of it and crashed out in spectacular style with a fork bottoming nose dive. Not to be defeated it was straight back on the bike and at it again, cleaning it nicely.

After ripping down the black it was off to Innerleithen after a nice lunch at the Hub in the Forest. We all pushed our way to the top and the start hut and then found our way down – a journey interspersed with big jumps, getting caught mid air by gusts of wind, bottoming out suspension, avoiding trees and big rocks and getting the disc brakes warm. After a few cans of obilgatory Red Bull, the Midget and I rode the cross country course.

I wish MacPuppy Blance had been there to show us around, because while the first half of it and the climb up to the trig point on Minch Moor at 567m was a well marked and laid out route the riding up on the tops and the descents were a bit of a disappointment and we could have done with some local knowledge to show us the way.

After a curry in Peebles on Sunday night, Monday saw us tackle the black run again. For Ben and I it was the first chance to ride it without snow and what a difference it made. The downhills were ridable and everything.