Author Archive
Balmaha – Conic Hill.
March 3rd, 2010 • Mountainbiking
Tags: balmaha, conic hill, loch lomond, mountainbike, woods
I wanted to head to the top of Conic Hill, but despite the spring in the air and brilliant sunshine there was too much snow and ice on the trail to make it worth while. The descent would have been pretty dangerous and not much craic. However on the way back down I found some great little trails hidden away in the woods. They were very steep pretty loose and technical, a great wee play ground. Spent quite a while carrying the bike up steep inclines and skittering down trying to retain grip, which i lost a couple of times, luckily not at the crux of anything major so I managed not to pitch it over. Still got a nasty scrape on my knee after sconing it off a fallen tree. There’s something really comforting about just messing around in the woods on your own, maybe it just reminds me of my childhood, whatever it was a fine day. Bring on the spring.
One week later…
I headed up Conic hill from Drymen my hope that the majority of the snow had proved futile as the north side was still caked in the stuff. So after much huffing and puffing I managed to shoulder the bike up the 360m, not after sinking in some snow drifts and getting thoroughly soaked mind you. The ground was particularly wet as was the main part of the steep descent which is excellent. Dropping 360m in just over a km gives you an idea of the gradient. It is not a fast descent however, it is loose and rocky with a myriad of lines to choose. What is fast is the frequency of the rocks and steps coming at you and looking far enough ahead to choose the right line is tricky as the terrain is pretty severe under wheel. Is it worth the walk up? I would say yes but I don’t mind a bit of hike a biking. It’s a lot of time spent for a short descent, but the quality of the terrain is great, nothing beats a real rugged natural trail. Add to this the woods behind Balmaha which are full of classic flowing singletrack and the aforementioned steep stuff further up the hill. I’ve updated the video with the conic adventure…
Witches Trail
February 18th, 2010 • Mountainbiking
Tags: aonach mor, mtb, nevis range, red xc, witches trail
A wee video of a fine jaunt around the trails at Aonach Mor. Good day, good company and quality trails…
Arrochar Alps
February 1st, 2010 • Cycling, Mountainbiking
Tags: alps, Arrochar, fire road, singletrack
7.30 in the morning. Trundling through the freezing, dank, dark streets of Yoker to Scotstoun; Chae bundles his stuff into the boot and 50 minutes later we’re standing at the foot of the Arrochar Alps. The sun was peering over the eastern hills turning the glass like loch pink and orange, it was a brisk -1ºC. After a short spin along the flats the climb up the fire road begins in earnest and gains height quite rapidly. The surface is hard packed and easy going apart from the odd patch of ice. The track soon levels off and meanders it’s way following the contours of the hill until Ben Vane comes into view. It’s 950m and is an impressive mountain, snow capped with cascades of ice running of it’s slopes and an imposing cap of swirling cloud. We were fortunate that the sun was shining and the once we were in amongst the peaks it really did feel like we were in an alpine environment. The climb topped out and gave us view up to the damn at loch Sloy and to the east the hills beyond loch lomond, with the loch itself obscured by the fore ground. The descent on the fire road was fast a wee bit loose and heaps of fun culminating in a rough and icy ford over the Allt Coiregrogain. Another high speed descent followed, with deep water bars and loose gravel to contend with it was more fun than you’d have thought. Then you join the single track which leads back to Arrochar, this is where the real fun begins, it starts out pretty smooth and flowing punctuated with the odd shallow climb before a short, steep and technical ascent. This is when you get what you came for, the trail plunges down on loose rocky, water eroded and rutted terrain. The trail snakes it’s way down glen Loin, the riding is excellent, not to challenging but loose and rough enough to get the juices pumping. Speed is high and the km’s get despatched rapidly. There are some great steep sections both up and down, which keep you on your toes. In no time at all you are on the valley floor, the final stretch is easy going but still fun with the odd water bar and rocky patch to keep you interested. I would say the route is about red grade and being so convenient for Glasgow is a real alternative to heading for the Carron Valley or Glentress. The trails are natural, amongst real mountains and quiet except for the odd walker on the Glen Loin trail. Totally recommended, I’ll definitely be heading back.
Low level wanderings
December 30th, 2009 • 1 comment Hill walking
Tags: ambling, Bressay, Island, North, Shetland, wandering
So here I am stranded in Kirkwall. Plane was grounded due to freezing fog and in an effort to divert my attentions from the bright lights and frenetic bustle of my surroundings thought I’d stick up some photos I took whilst on late morning wanders in Shetland.
Bressay is an alien place to highlander like myself. Bleak and sparse are adjectives that come to mind, most trails on the interior of the island are made by sheep and rabbits. Few people still dig the peat so human trails are few and far between but this all adds to the remoteness. Up on the higher peaks of which there are two Ander hill (144m) and the Ward (226m) you can watch the weather approaching off the horizon which all adds to the sense of exposure. The landscape is riddled with the past. Numerous crofting settlements a herring station, 2 world war 1 guns (and ammunitioon stores) one on the east one on the west, a military camp and the look out tower on Ander hill; it makes for a haunted atmosphere. If you were brave you could certainly have some fine climbing on the cliffs which are towering and complex even on a small island like Bressay. It’s certainly an environment that encourages adventure and in days of yore demanded it. Hopefully make it up the peak of the Shetland, Ronas Hill (450m) in the summer…
Somhairle
Milngavie, Mugdock – Trails of defamatory material.
November 3rd, 2009 • 2 comments Mountainbiking
Tags: glasgow, local trails, milngavie, mud, mugdock
Here’s the one half descent photo I got of Spad whilst sliding around the quagmire at our local trails. Was a foul day, but riding in the mud certainly sharpens your skills. We found some great new sections hidden deep in the trees, so hopefully I’ll get some time to find some more. To help in this quest I’ve found this nifty web page which combines OS maps and google maps in one app. Very usefull ; it’s possible to spot single track with the sattelite images. Check it out here.
Kielder and Newcastleton – trail centres.
October 5th, 2009 • 4 comments Mountainbiking
Tags: 7 Stames, bikebus, Kielder, Newcatleton
It was the last bikebus trip for a while as Hutch is expecting his first born in a fort night or so. I hadn’t been on the bikebus for over a year so it was a good to get out and send Hutch off into Fatherhood with style. We had all heard good things about the trails at Kielder. Their web site looked good and there had been some good reviews / forum chat about them. So it seemed worth the long journey (about 2hr 30m from centre of Glasgow).
We started out in glorious sun shine and spun up a small stretch of fire road into the first bit of singletrack, it was good with some nice wee features, a rock garden and some switchbacks. Just as we got our a flow on we were spat out on to another fire road. This climb was shallow long and boring. The next section of single track was one of the highlights. Technical and full of great features this trail was well built and a good challenge with small boulder drop offs the odd rock ladder and some great steep switchbacks. A small black section at the bottom was also excellent with slow speed, steep roots sections interspersed with loose shale. However it appeared to be a bum steer as it directed us back to the start. Confused, we pushed back up to rejoin the red. The “3 dog” climb was great, full of challenging obstacles but with a good flow and rhythm. We then set out on what was to be a rather arduous and monotonous fire road climb, which was pretty steep the whole way on a draggy loose surface. It seemed to go on forever and marked the low point of the ride. I don’t mind these sections when out in the wilds but at a trail centre it seemed a bit over kill. At the summit of Deadwater fell the views are cool, apart from the ugly radar / mobile phone installations (although they provided shelter from the wind). To the south you can see the mountains flatten into England, to the north you see them rise into Scotland. At more than half a kilometre up we were convinced the reward of all this climbing would be good. However the altitude was eaten away quickly by a direct, loose shale ex access road which was only slightly knurled up by obvious water errosion. The next section “into the valley” was the highlight, with some cool jumps, well constructed berms, rock drops and rough switchbacks. It was excellent but also far to short. A shallow climb followed with some interesting rock ladders and boulder fields, this led into the final descent which was pretty mundane, a few jumps and stuff but small draggy ups sapped any flow. The jump park at the bottom was a joke, one large table(ish) top and a few rollers before two poorly built berms. Tiny boring and extremely disappointing.
We sat at the bus eating cake and moaning about the stupidly long climb and wasted altitude from the “Skelly riggins” descent. So in an effort to salvage the day we shifted over to one of the 7 stanes – Newcastleton which was not far away.
Newcastleton, is good. Full of nice well built single track which flows over sometimes loose but otherwise well drained, solid ground. Making the most of the it’s gradients, the trail gives Kielder a lesson in how to use land effectively for mountain biking. With more single track than fire road it is easy going with no major technical challenges to speak of. However the injection of well thought out trail building maintains your momentum and makes the centre as a whole far more enjoyable than Kielder. It has a cool north shore section at the bottom which is pretty challenging although choice of mixing up lines is very limited. There is not much to say about Newcastleton, it’s good but not amazing, it saved our day and I would suggest that putting the two centres together makes the journey worhwhile.
It is safe to say we will not be making the 5hour round trip to these centres again. Kielder has great potential and with a renowned trail builder on task could be amazing. As it stands it seems unfinished, a work in progress. It has certainly received plenty of hype but why remains a mystery.
Scotstoun Gentleman’s Club – AGM – August 09
October 1st, 2009 • 1 comment Canoeing, Gorge Walking, Hill walking, Mountainbiking
Tags: Scotstoun gentleman's club, Torridon
For the second year running we (Somhairle, John, Spad & Hamish) made our annual pilgrimage to Torridon. We rented a great wee cottage in the grounds of Torridon House (seat of Lovelace) and have found it to be a great base for exploring Wester Ross. This year the weather was changeable to say the least.
Myself and Hamish had a great first day climbing Ben Damh. This is a great hill with staggering views and some technical walking. Without the use of a decent map we found our way up without bother on the well trodden path. On the way down the path petered out and decided to make our way down Spidean-Coir-an-Laoigh which was steep but manageable. Later to discover there was a decent path down the ridge to the east.
The next day took us to Meall a’ Ghiuthais which is a fairly small hill 887m. We set out up the well bolstered foot path from the car park on Loch Maree. This path is steep but very will built and has stunning view of the loch and Slioch. When we set out it was 25º and blazing sun but soon after we left the path for the scramble up Meall a’ Ghiuthais the cloud thundered in and visibility became very low. Walking between the two summits we found the corrie the guidebook suggested for descent. Somewhere along our walk between the summits something had gone a-wry and we ended up wandering west in to Glen Grudie. We only noticed our mistake once we saw through some small breaks in the cloud; instead of seeing Loch Maree we were looking at the Glen. A long detour above Druim Grudaich brought us back to the path and glourios sunshine. This trip was a valuable lesson in checking and double checking your bearing in poor visibilty. If the cloud hadn’t broken slightly we may have walked into the plateaux and been faced with a very long walk out. Aye, lesson learnt.
As the week progressed the weather got worse, but undeterred me and Spad set out to mountain-bike up the path alongside Abhainn Coire Mhic Nobuil between Litahach and Ben Eighe. The day started out in the sun with the odd shower, the trail was fun and good going apart from a puncture of one of the square edged water bars. However as we came alongside Ben Dearg the rain and wind swept in with gusto. The trail also conspired against us becoming totally un-rideble, rugged and undulating over ancient merrain. Things became morbid when we found it impossible to stop and eat due to hash weather and lack of shelter, so we soldiered on hungry, wet and cold. Once we reached the Coire Dubh Mor of Ben Eighe the weather and trail improved giving us a welcom re-fuel ready for the descent. To say this descent is gnarly is an understatement, it is one of the most technical descents i have ever done. With gargantuan boulders, sharp water bars loose rock, sand and steep rock garden steps it is not one for the faint hearted. Riding it I was on the edge of me abilities having to hop, track stand, manual… You needed all the tricks in the book to clear every section. There was no let up and nowhere to recover. Add to this the un-mistakble grind of metal on metal as the sandstone crud disolved my brake pads, reinforcing the uncompromising rugged harshness of this epic place. A quick burn along the road down Glen Torridon in team time trial style got us home and dry.
We took things a little easier the rest of the week, having a fine day out in the rain on Gairloch sands beach, mucking around in surf canoes and wind surfing. John, Hamish and Spad had a gorge walk up the Abhainn Alligin (i think) while I sat on the couch and licked my wounds. A great wee mountain bike ride round Loch Damh and there was the obligatory night on the shot with Thorburn and Porch. then the depressing drive back over the border (highland) into the lowlands.
If you get the chance to go to Torridon. GO!
Cairngorm Cluster – pt. 3
September 14th, 2009 • 1 comment Bothying, Mountainbiking
After the terminal attrition that was our trip to Cairngorms I was left with flash backs of stumbling over boulders, sinking in bogs and looking mournfully at the trail below dreaming of the hard but smooth floor of the bothy. After 12 hours of slog and in the dark your mind plays tricks on you, every pointy boulder seemed like a pitched roof and every glimmer of light a window. Below, is a sketch which expresses my view of the trip, in particular the dark, trudge to corrour bothy, when my mind began to unravel.
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