7Stanes - Innerleithen - 'Matador' Downhill

First of all a Happy New Year to one & all.
I start 2016 where I finished off from last year at the 7Stanes Innerleithen bike trails in the Scottish Borders, my friend John & I took a trip down during the holidays for a blast down some of the downhill trails.

I could hardly believe my eyes at the carnage after the flooding caused by storm Frank which happened a couple of days after I was last here just after Christmas, then there had already been flooding but after storm Frank the flooding was the highest it had been for over one hundred years ! The river Tweed must be around 150-200 yards from the car park for the bike trails & going by the sheer amount of debris all around the car park it must of been of been easily under 3-4 foot deep of water !

Geared up & ready to hit the trails & John new to mountain biking (hence the white trainers) was excited to get going...

John was very excited indeed !!!

We set off up the push up path towards our first chosen downhill trail called the "Matador".
There are four down hill trails here at Innerleithen called 'Matador', 'Cresta Run', 'Gold Run' & 'Make or Brake' aswell as the red graded cross country trail that I did with Davy the last time here. 

Pushing the bikes up the steep push up path in the heavy rain it was quite interesting to see some of the gnarly, rocky & rooty sections the we'd have to negotiate on the way back down the downhill trail.

After what must of been nearly an hour of pushing the bikes up to the starting point of the downhill trails we reached a choice of routes, straight on for the Matador our first chosen route or turn right for the other three trails. What was quite concerning was the amount of branches & twigs we encountered on the path pushing up the hill & even a couple of fallen trees, so we were wondering what would be on the trail proper on the way back down :-/
As we pushed on another 50 yards or so to the start of the Matador, the ground was covered in super sludgy mud ! The rain has been so heavy over the last few weeks that the ground cannot cope with it any more so is well & truly water logged !

Off we went luckily the thick gloopy mud soon gave way to wet rocky & rooty trails covered in pine needles.

I kept stopping to wait on John who never appeared at one point &  I could not hear the squealing of his wet brakes so shouted up the hill to him but got no response, this section I just came down had big rocky sections & I thought the worst thinking he had come off, so off I climbed back up to see if he was ok ! He was no where to be seen so I kept climbing up the hill until I came to the fire road, still no John so I just assumed he took the fire road back down as he did say that it was a bit difficult for him not being used to this sort of biking terrain, so down I went again back to my bike so I could take off down the trail.

Some brilliant drop offs & jumps down this run & loads of technical roots & rocks to keep the brain working hard.

The above picture doesn't really show the broken branch hung up on the tree very well, it was a big sized branch which had broken off during the recent storms. I did stop to try pulling it down so that it wouldn't fall on anyone but it was just too well hooked up :-/

I arrived back at the car park after a brilliant blast down the downhill trail but there was no sign of John here at the bottom, I went back to my van to clean my goggles & have a quick bite to eat & drink, still no John starting to get a wee bitty concerned I phoned him only for it too ring out, trying again he this time answered to say he got lost somewhere on the fire road :-D finally he made it back to the van & we had a good laugh about it.
John was all for calling it a day soaking wet, muddy & disheartened & didn't relish the thought of pushing back up the to the top of the downhill trails again, I managed to talk him into giving a small section of the XC red trail a go, so we climbed uphill to the start of the 'Cadon Bank' which has a few good drop offs & some great jumps on the way back down the twisty woodland trail to the car park.

As we climbed up the hill I stopped at a clearing of the trees to look in awe at the amount of flooding covering the Tweed valley below, it was so much worse than when I was here with Davy less than a week ago. The picture directly above you can see the river Tweed to the right of the picture & the bike trail car park to the left so it just goes to show how vast the flooding had been, the river is still very high & with more heavy rain forecast I would not be surprised if it floods again :-/ 

Last wee push of the day before...

...the last little high speed blast back down again...

...much to the relief of John ! 

We both had a brilliant time I'll just need to encourage John to get out more to get his skinny little legs built up for serious hill climbs required for places like this :-)

Thanks for visiting & cheerio for now.

7 Stanes - Innerleithen XC Red

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.