Mabie Revisited - 17/3/2007

A week and a half ago, Callum and I hatched a plan to go mountain biking somewhere other than Glentress. It was going to be his first Saturday off since the new year and he wanted to take full advantage. Our plan was flexible. Maybe Mabie... or Ae... or Drumlanrig... or Kirroughtree. Or anything else that struck our fancy. The night before, we decided on Mabie. Amy and Bram joined us. Callum picked me up and then we prodded Amy and Bram out their door. We were on our way to Dumfries before 10am.

We skipped the blue loop and I left my camera in the car, so what we ended up with was a much faster run of the red Phoenix Trail than my last time through. The advantages were many, most noticeably the lack of bonk and the completion of the run before the rain got heavy. The things I enjoy about Mabie are the same. More of a cross country feel to the trails, with lots of ups and downs, although I do enjoy the sweet downhill that follows the Descender Bender. It was cold and windy, especially since we had lunched at the top of the DB, enjoying the view while Amy helped Bram reattach his derailleur to his bike. Snow flurries chased us away from the view as our nice patch of sunshine got blown north and east. Initially Amy and Bram were ahead of me, but Bram sent me ahead because my brakes' Juicy Squeals made him more stressed than he needed to be. By the halfway mark, I was leading with Amy not far behind.

I railed the berms and bounced over dropoffs, occasionally knocking my feet off the pedals. I missed my spuds. One of my two compromises to my ailing hamstring was no clipless pedals. The other was to not fight (and therefore walk) up the steepest of hills. The pedal one was far more annoying and definitely inconvenient with my feet flying off pedals at random.

Downhill ended with the Burn Splash and the next big challenge was the Scorpion climb. I expected to be walking that at some point, but hoped to get farther than the last time. I was right on both accounts and ended up walking 2/3 of the hill instead of 3/4. More ups and downs followed as we wound our way through the woods and up across the pass back toward home. Some of the North Shore sections were interesting. I walked the beginning of one because the wind felt like it was going to blow me off it.

The last gnarly bit as we dropped back down to the carpark was a rocky stairsteppy thing. With on and off rain, it was quite wet and slippery. Amy wanted a shot anyway and made it about 1/3 of the way down before bailing. I will confess I wanted to try it. Still do. In the dry.

A few more twists and turns and we were back to the first junction. I led the way toward Rattle and Hum, my favourite trail. Twisty and turny, rocky and rooty, it reminds me of home and for that reason made a perfect end to fun day on the trail.

On the way out, Callum stopped by the playground. Amy and I got our run of the zip line. Then we headed for home as the rain yet again picked up.