An Epic in the Cairngorms
August 10, 2007 on 4:25 pm | In Mountain Biking | No Comments
Wow! Last Sunday saw a crazy amount of rain in the Cairngorms. On the previous day, I had hiked high up onto Sgurr Mor with some friends on a beautiful blue sky day. But Sunday, on Sunday - the rain! Fortunately, such conditions are perfect for a bit of adventure mountain biking!
I took a couple of mates up Glen Quoich in the southern Cairngorms. We had an epic day! After a long, hard climb on a rough track, the trail levelled out. While this was a relief, it also meant that the trail became flooded to such an extent that we were regularly crossing pools of water 50 or 60 feet wide, not sure how deep they were or if they were hiding any surprises under the water!
After about 10 km, we reached the head of the glen and the point where the track crossed not one but two proper rivers! The water levels were up but we checked them out and deemed them safe to cross. As we hauled our bikes through the knee deep water, we were so wet we didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Laughter won, just! Once through the rivers, we then enjoyed an even wetter but much smoother return down the west side of the glen. Lots of whooping as we sped through deep pools, hoping that we’d not get stuck in the deep mud at the bottom!
Emerging back onto the road, there were 3 beaming smiles as we realised we’d made it and that a hot bath was just 2km away. Cruising along the quiet road, we managed to spot 2 roe deer and a red squirrel sitting on the edge of the road. The mist and cloud swirled among the Scots Pine trees, creating a magical and mystical feel to the glen.
Despite having the worst weather of any day of our long weekend break, the three of us were in no doubt that this day of torrential rain had been the best. That’s one of the great things about mountain biking. And also one of the great things about Scotland.
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.
MTB at Drumlanrig Castle
August 1, 2007 on 10:37 am | In Mountain Biking, Uncategorized | No Comments
I made my second visit to the mountain bike trails at Drumlanrig Castle near Dumfries last Sunday. For those of you with families / partners who are not into biking, this is a great place to come as there is a castle, craft shops and an adventure playground to keep non-bikers happy while you have fun on the trails. Even if you are riding with novices, it is a good destination as there are some nice blue trails which run alongside or close to red trails.
As I was there with a novice rider and we didn’t have a lot of time on our hands, we followed trails 5 & 6. Trail 6 is a blue trail with some easy riding but also some fun singletrack sections. Trail 5 is red but follows Trail 6 for much of the way. However, it has lots of little detours of red standard which provide an excellent challenge and a break from the more sedate blue trail riding, and these can be followed without leaving your partner for more than 5 minutes at a time.
With lots of natural trails such as the twisty Whirley Birley and more challenging descents such as Dr Evil, this route provides a refreshing change from constructed trails. I’m already planning my next visit to check out the rest of the routes.
And given that Drumlanrig is less than 90 minutes from Glasgow or Edinburgh, shouldn’t you be planning a visit too?
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.
A Day at Dunkeld
July 27, 2007 on 1:25 pm | In Outdoor Climbing | No Comments
I managed to squeeze in a day’s climbing at Craig a Barns by Dunkeld last weekend. The sun was shining and the rock was warm to touch - perfect for climbing. It’s been a wee while since I last climbed though so I wasn’t on the best form. My problem is simple - I spend too much time watching climbing films which have been submitted to the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival (I have the final say on which films are selected) when I should be out there climbing. It’s doubly bad as I regularly watch Dave MacLeod or Niall McNair on film, easing their way up E7s and harder - then I get onto the rock, look at much easier climbs and think - you mean I need to climb that??!!
Anyway, we had a good day out, caught a bit of sun and didn’t have any falls, so we went home happy. And again I find myself promising to get down to Alien Rock every week, and to grab every opportunity to get out on the rock while the summer lasts. I’ll keep you posted.
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.
Mountain Biking in the Highlands
July 26, 2007 on 2:30 pm | In Mountain Biking | No Comments
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.
Ben Lomond on a clear day
July 25, 2007 on 12:20 pm | In Hillwalking | 3 Comments
We climbed Ben Lomond yesterday -the most southerly of the 284 Munros. What a fantastic day out! We walked up the back, past Ptarmigan, and then down the the front. Clear blue skies, sunshine and many happy faces.
Our walking guide was Dorothy from http://www.cndoscotland.com/ - she taught us all about the flora and fauna. It was great.
Here is a film of our view from the top:
Jenny Glumoff
http://www.visitscotland.com/adventure
Main activity sport climbing but love all types of climbing, surfing, mountain biking and hill walking!
Mountainbiking in Glentress
July 17, 2007 on 10:09 am | In Mountain Biking | 3 Comments
Finished off the weekend with a great session in Glentress. If you have done the “Spooky Woods” descent, top of the red route, you’ll know what I mean with having a “spooky grin” - we all had that after doing the section twice! Spooky has got some excellent rounded jumps (not too scary) where you get just a perfect speed to feel both safe and ecstatic. Here’s a video clip of the nice jumps from from Sunday night.
Spooky also has three quite big table top jumps at the start - very scary - but I find you can go over them quite slow and not as Neil in this clip.
I’m not by any means either fast or good so for me Spooky really is the perfect place to learn. I love Spooky!
Watch a podcast of mountainbiking in Scotland.
Jenny Glumoff
http://www.visitscotland.com/adventure
Main activity sport climbing but love all types of climbing, surfing, mountain biking and hill walking!
