Mountain Biking in the Highlands

July 26, 2007 on 2:30 pm | In Mountain Biking |

My bike has been taking some punishment recently - and so have I! A friend of mine convinced me to take part in the Corrieyairick Challenge - a 43-mile mountain bike race from Fort Augustus to Kincraig, crossing the Corrieyairick Pass at an altitude of 800m along the way. I was keen to take part as riding the Corrieyarrick Pass forms part of Wilderness Scotland’s Coast to Coast mountain bike trip. It was a great day out, despite the constant headwind, with some superb riding and, between all the competitors, the Challenge raised thousands of pounds for a local charity.

No sooner had my legs recovered than I was up at the Laggan Wolftrax centre last weekend. And here is a big tip! Never watch mountain bike movies the night before going mountain biking - they have a habit of increasing your confidence to dangerous levels! We had a great ride round the red route until we came to the 240m of North Shore (basically boardwalk raised a couple of feet above the forest floor). Having watched some crazy North Shore action the night before (from a film which will be shown at this year’s Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival in October), I speeded up and raced onto the boardwalk. The morning’s rain had made the surface really greasy and on the 2nd corner - thump! - I was off and into a tree!

The tree was not damaged and, after 30 seconds or so, I realised that I wasn’t either (not seriously anyway). The rest of the North Shore was taken with a bit more caution before we let loose again on the final section of table top jumps. All good. If you haven’t been to Laggan, it’s well worth a visit.

Next up, a return to Drumlanrig Castle this weekend!

Stevie Christie
http://www.wildernessscotland.com
Director of Wilderness Scotland & also of the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival. Into most mountain sports, esp mountain biking, walking, climbing and sea-kayaking.