A few days after Christmas my friend Davy & I travelled across into the Scottish Borders to have a day out at the Innerleithen mtb trails just along the road from Glentress. Glentress & Innerleithen are a combined part of the 7 Stanes mountain biking network in southern Scotland, so with all the Christmas calories to burn off we opted to give the XC red route a go with plenty of hill work to burn off some festive fat !
Bikes all ready to rock'n'roll & off we go on the XC red route.
No sooner than we started to climb up the trail we soon came across some snow & by the looks of it there has been a fair covering here in the Tweed valley, we've had no snow what so ever next to the coast but there's plenty of time yet.
There has been serious amounts of rainfall in the U.K. over the last few weeks it's been storm after storm with extensive flood damage caused throughout the country, luckily where I live we have escaped the worst of it, just really soaked & saturated ground, but here in the Tweed valley the river Tweed has burst it's banks & the water has risen to levels higher than it's been for over 100 years !
As you can see from the above pictures we had great views from the trail path looking down towards the valley & everywhere is flooded, in fact the flooding got a lot worse a couple of days later when storm Frank hit our shores & caused more mayhem.
The first bit of downhill we came across cycling the XC red route, short & sweet as it was we were soon climbing uphill again.
The Cross Borders Drove Road is a route used between the 16th - 19th centuries to drive by hoof cattle & sheep to the market & fairs.
The Cross Borders Drove Road has now been recognised as one of Scotlands Great Trail's - an elite group of long distance routes in Scotland.
After following the fire road for a few hundred yards we were back off road again through the apocalyptic scene where the trees have been felled, a cold wind blasted our faces as we made our way along the track, some cracking views looking over the hills around us.
For ever climbing on a gradual ascent we were back in the cover of trees once more, some sections of the track were more like small streams with the amount of water trickling downward, now & then the trees would open up to views across the valley where snow was still present on the higher hills.
Disaster...!
About 100 yards or so from the summit of Minch Moor & the apex of the red XC route my chain snapped again like it did on holiday in Aviemore. From the car park I did feel a tight spot in the chain & gave it a quick once over but thought it would be ok, how wrong was I !!!
However on the plus side it was near the top it happened & as we reached the trig point we were at the highest point of the route so it wouldn't be a bad free wheel run back to the bottom to the car park. Another trig point bagged too for the effort :-)
The initial start of the descent was quite flat & I had to run along & jump onto my bike to get some momentum going.
Himalayan prayer flags in a Scottish forest ?
Last wee ride back to the car park & the best section of the XC red route called 'Cadon Bank' which sports some good rocky drop offs & decent jumps to get some air on.
Back to the car park after a good few hours out, gutted my chain went through the middle 'again' but just bad luck on me, it was still a good day to be had :-)
Well another eventful year almost gone with some great days out & about.
Looking back on the years travels I'd have to say the highlights of the year would have to be cycling & wild camping along the Rob Roy Way, a fantastic & under rated route in my opinion which is not overly popular, so seeing anyone else was pretty much limited to when I passed through villages & towns, the isolation factor was right up my street, the stunning views of mountains, forests, wildlife, lochs & rivers as I rode along & the smell of a camp fire to the the smell of the damp mornings always feels primitive & wild, the whole experience was a sheer joy to have accomplished.
My annual family holiday to Aviemore riding the Laggan Wolftrax trail centre & what was the holiday highlight cycling up to the 2nd & 6th highest mountains in the country was a real adventure, as the sun was setting the magnificent late summer colours at the top of Cairngorm mountain will stay with me forever, the orange & red skies bouncing off the craggy mountain slopes creating amazing shadows was an awesome sight to see.
So there we are that's the last blog post for 2015, I hope you've enjoyed riding along with me on my travels & now it's time to start planning for some new adventures in 2016 :-)
Raising a glass I wish you all a healthy & Happy New Year to come in 2016, keep the wheels rolling.
Looking back on the years travels I'd have to say the highlights of the year would have to be cycling & wild camping along the Rob Roy Way, a fantastic & under rated route in my opinion which is not overly popular, so seeing anyone else was pretty much limited to when I passed through villages & towns, the isolation factor was right up my street, the stunning views of mountains, forests, wildlife, lochs & rivers as I rode along & the smell of a camp fire to the the smell of the damp mornings always feels primitive & wild, the whole experience was a sheer joy to have accomplished.
My annual family holiday to Aviemore riding the Laggan Wolftrax trail centre & what was the holiday highlight cycling up to the 2nd & 6th highest mountains in the country was a real adventure, as the sun was setting the magnificent late summer colours at the top of Cairngorm mountain will stay with me forever, the orange & red skies bouncing off the craggy mountain slopes creating amazing shadows was an awesome sight to see.
So there we are that's the last blog post for 2015, I hope you've enjoyed riding along with me on my travels & now it's time to start planning for some new adventures in 2016 :-)
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