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.

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.