Balmaha – Conic Hill.

March 3rd, 2010 • Mountainbiking •

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 melted 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…


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