Pentlanding and Unicycling - 20/1/2007

With a trek to the Pentlands on tired legs and a unicycle tutorial later in the evening, I slept well on Saturday night. I learned firsthand where the word quagmire comes from. I knew connotations such as "sticky situation" and "dilemma" generally, but never knew it's mushy peat origins. Neil, George and Euan hinted at its definition for me, but the ride defined it more specifically. We headed into the Pentlands via a steep climb in Bonaly instead of a steep climb in Balerno or the other steep climb in Bonaly. The steepest climb was up a trail covered in large fist and skull sized rocks. I don't know if Neil climbed it successfully on his bicycle. I will assume yes because he's disgustingly fit for that sort of thing. The slope of the hill seemed rideable, which made it all the more frustrating that getting started and maintaining momentum over the rocks felt impossible. As I watched George and Euan struggle, too, I decided the more efficient climb would be on foot. I ran past them pushing my bike and caught my breath for two minutes before they rejoined us. It was the only climb I wasn't last for, but I felt I deserved a pat on the back for it!

That last climb put us at the road that was just a few hundred metres from the top of the evil paved Balerno hill. We took a left there and continued climbing and bopping through slippery, wet, rooty trails and the occasional quagmire. The transition from trees and shelter to open Pentlands hillsides meant the wind made itself known. I suppose I should have mentioned that we chose to ride on a sunny day with 30-40MPH winds. In the Pentlands. Where trees are not the most common form of vegetation by any means. Glutton for punishment.

We stopped for a late lunch in the shelter of some trees not hugely far away from the visitor centre. Neil and I left the journey early, with Neil concerned that he needed to get to a bookshop before it closed and me concerned my toes and fingertips wouldn't be able to thaw if I rode much longer. George and Euan continued longer and each took journeys over the handlebars when underestimating the depth of one particular quagmire at the bottom of a hill. After the bike ride, I returned to Neil's with unicycle and some dinner ingredients in hand.

Unicycling videos are here and Neil's pre-Pentland bench hits and misses are here.

Glentress Introduction - 13/1/2007

George, Fraser, Neil and I introduced Amy to the joys of Glentress as she contemplated buying my old mountain bike. She took to the bike and the red trails quite easily, as we all expected. I gave her a brief tutorial at mine the night before and a quick refresher during the first uphill climb. Soon she was zooming past me on the downhills as well as the uphills as once again, my legs fit for running complained about their lack of cycling fitness. Midway through the downhills, Neil and Fraser took a wee detour on one of the black trails that had a creative log entrance. I thought about it but decided my legs weren't up to the balance. George started it and gave up fearing injury. Amy said she would have tried it if I went first. Another time! Snapping photos of Fraser and Neil bopping down the steep log steps made me want to try it for sure.

Fraser and Neil took a detour from the red to have a go at one of the black trails.

George decided against the bruises.

Amy and I decided to try some of our paddling kit for cycling. Our pogies just barely sort of fit over the shifters and brakes. They fit well enough that we are going to trial them tomorrow at Glentress.

Mabie Forest - 6/1/2007

Having cars, bikes and nice weather, we headed for Mabie Forest, another of the 7 Stanes for an epic day of mountain biking. George and Kathryn led the way. Robie and I followed with the occasionally confused GPS contradicting George's path. Neil and Fraser got ahead fairly early, so we figured we would see them eventually. In the morning, we tackled the blue trail. A bit disappointed, we headed for red after lunch and were absolutely thrilled with Mabie Forest pretty much as soon as we began the first section of red trail.

Where Glentress is sculpted trail, Mabie makes much use of existing trail with occasional sculptured connections between natural trails. The end result is generally a more technical ride and for me, more of a feeling of home. We had more ups and downs together rather than two early epic climbs. We wound through forests and up to sweeping vistas. We zoomed down sculptured berms and rocky, wet stream crossings. As Neil said, that's Mabie, baby!

I rode my first official black feature in one of the wooded sections. After riding the red route around it, it looked no steeper than an oops drop I ran at Land Between the Lakes back home. Didn't see it coming, didn't have time to decide whether or not to run it. Here, the wee black arrow made me detour around it but scouting and watching Neil and Fraser run it a few times brought me back to run it. It was a rocky drop that seemed easily rolled. The approach and I had two disagreements that resulted in me being deposited very gently on the ground. I gave up on the approach and set up with less time to clip in. Robie perched directly in my path. I suggested he choose another location. He said no one else followed that trail. I said that doesn't mean I won't. Good thing he moved. I started the drop, saw a very large stump just at the bottom, wobbled away from it and had barely enough control to stay on the bike. Fraser had to step away to avoid being hit. Robie's former perch was where I finally found control again. George managed to capture my surprised expression at a perfect angle to make me look like I meant to do exactly everything I did. Perfection.

Black feature adventures had us not nearly halfway into the red trail. More fun awaited. Where the payoff for big climbs on blue was not so great, we found bigger climbs on red and far better payoffs, too. We climbed the Descender Bender beyond slightly burning legs to be treated to a gorgeous view around the entire valley. More ups than downs became more downs than ups as we zoomed down the other side. Somewhere before the Burn Splash that got most of us smiling, Kathryn dropped out to find her way back to the car park. After the Scorpion climb that had all of us but Neil walking with legs on fire, Robie dropped out to catch back up with Kathryn.

Fraser's chain seemed to be breaking every 30-60mins and therefore shrinking very very quickly. Just before the Scorpion, it broke again and the end result was an inadvertent singlespeed, only occasionally in the right gear. The group was whittled to four. Neil led the way. George and I followed and Fraser muddled along with his singlespeed, taking over my happy place in the back of the group because he could no longer climb effectively. My legs began complaining more and more overtly, but I did my best to ignore them and continue. I was enjoying the trail too much to yield to fatigue so easily. I ate and drank as much as I could, which wasn't much, and forged on. Occasionally challenging features that would have looked rideable in the morning felt more appropriate for walking near the end of the day.

Fraser tried to shift gears on a gentle climb and his chain broke for good. He seemed generally optimistic about having to push his bike up the rest of the climbs out. He rode every stretch of downhill without the worry of having to pedal, including one very large pile of rocks that George and I both walked in order to not break anything important. We arrived at the last junction, with an easy out to the left or an opportunity for one last hurrah, called Rattle and Hum in the guide book. Trail description read even more like home. I forcefed myself the last bit of flapjack despite the hint of nausea and told Neil I was in. Fraser and George turned left and zoomed toward the cars.

I was not disappointed. For all of the big ups and big downs of the day, peppered with little ups and little downs, Rattle and Hum was all little ups and little downs with lots of tree roots and small rocks to make it a very technical ride. I loved every aching minute of it and Baby Blue never felt sweeter. The trail ended with a red cheater option to the left or a choice of three steep black chutes. I went red but photographed Neil making the black drops look easy. We met up with the others at the very necessary bike wash.

After post-ride faff, including an all-hands swing/drag on the very cool Mabie zipline, we packed ourselves off to Dumfries for a well-earned post-ride meal and beer. Kathryn knew of a vet parking lot where we could be out of sight with bikes, so she got us reasonably organised to there. Our choice of restaurant on the outskirts of town kept us away from ned central, so the five locks and Fraser's well-placed car allowed us to enjoy a very leisurely meal and recap of the day's adventures. Of course, plans for more adventures were hatched, too.

Though it had some interesting stretches of single track, the majority of the blue trail seemed a bit boring double track and gravel road. Fraser, George and Robie worked their way up the last climb before a long, zoomy downhill.

Neil splashed through one of the burn crossings on the red trail, a sneak preview for the afternoon.

George, Kathryn, Fraser, Robie and I helped Neil look fetching in his mud and body armour ensemble.

Unimpressed, but having left her blindfold at home, Kathryn opted to ride this stretch of north shore backwards.

Fraser zooms.

Contemplating.... (image courtesy of George Banfill)

Zoom! (image courtesy of George Banfill)

This photo Fraser took as he stepped away from my oncoming bike. I suspect Robie was grateful I suggested he find a different perch, too.

Neil showed me some bigish drops that we missed completely on the cycles up the hill. I took the red chicken chute instead.

How many people fit on a zip line? Six, if you don't mind a few pairs of legs dragging along the gravel below.

A bike lock puzzle in the vet parking lot gave us peace of mind when we went for a post-ride meal in Dumfries.

Glentress New Year 1/1/2007

It rained. It snowed. It was very, very cold. Conditions at Glentress weren't as affected by the gnarly weather as I expected. I really love my full sus bike now. Baby Blue handled all of the trails beautifully. My poor, still overtired body coped, but certainly ran out of steam near the end. After epic rains and 30MPH winds on New Years Eve, through which we walked to George's, Neil, Fraser and I thought Glentress sounded like a fantastic plan. Neil and Fraser solved the riddle of how to fit 3 bikes and 3 bodies into Fraser's Punto and then arrived at mine to complete the puzzle with my bike. We all fit and on the way to Glentress, though more rain, we decided that 3 bikes and 3 bodies came with a height restriction. The configuration would never work with George's bike.

The clouds parted occasional on the way to Peebles. Once there, we found ourselves not alone but nearly so. We parked at the middle car park to save some of the initial climb for the end and reduce faff slightly. Destination Red Trail. A short climb brought us to the taster run. Despite wet conditions, the trail was not slippery at all, a testament to the trail builders. I took my usual place at the back of the group, not nearly so fearless as Fraser or Neil. At the end of the trail, I discovered what is now my preferred line for the last semi-drop: straight down the middle, lean back and let the bike do the work. Far left seems best saved for drier days (i.e., summer) and far right seems too close to the trees and too indirect to be worth the hassle. One trail down, lots of climbing ahead. The upside of Glentress is that once you're at the top, that's 90% of the climbing done for the loop. The downside of Glentress is that once you're at the top, that's 90% of the climbing done for the loop. It's not a short climb!

We interrupted the climb for a quick refuel and then continued upward. I had to walk a couple of small spots for lack of speed. One walk resulted from a poorly judged attempt at a standing climb; I have since learned that granny gear and standing don't mix. We reached the top. The wind was epic. What was rain at the bottom was big flakes of snow flying everywhere. Too sparse to be a blizzard, the snow gave the trail and the views into the valley below that moody Scottish charm that I love. I wish my hands had been warmer. I would have dug out the camera.

We zoomed... and zoomed... and only once found a large casualty from the winds of the night before. A large tree completely blocked the trail, perfectly aligned to impale the unsuspecting biker. Neil, Fraser and I did what we could to unblock the trail. Translation, not much, but at least we got the top part of the tree off the trail. We hoped it would be enough to slow down an unsuspecting cyclists and continued our zipping down the hill and occasional climbing to the next trail.

The trail conditions were sticky enough to hold but muddy enough to make sure we and our bikes looked like mountain bikers. Somewhere near the last climb, the cold and the damp caught up to me. I was shivering and sweating, so I opted against the last stretch of trail and instead offered to ride back to the car while the boys ran that trail. We regrouped at the bottom car park where the rain returned again. The boys offered bike wash at theirs in lieu of bike wash in the rain. I thought that was a fantastic idea. After some quality time warming up at home, I cooked dinner at theirs and we recapped the day's adventure and conjured more ideas for future adventures.

Three bikes and three bodies fit into Fraser's car with some creative rearranging of tyres and seats.