Mountain Biking Heaven !

I was awake bright and early in Jedburgh, and decided to set off for Glentress before it got busy in the town…so, before 7 a.m. ! I was away, driving along deserted country roads towards my destination, with only rabbits,deer and squirrels for company ! What a start to a day.

I arrived at Glentress http://www.forestry.gov.uk/glentress having looked at a later destination Innerleithen on my way. This was a Mountain Biking centre, that had recently had about £8 million spent on it, and I must say it showed… brand new visitors centre, car parking and shops down at the trail head car park.

However my start was not to be there, I drove up the Forest Roads to the ‘Buzzards nest ‘ car park, a vast area, deserted except one motor home, not sure if they’d stayed the night (but I intended to !)

I made myself a cup of tea, had breakfast and got ready to go… there was a ‘red route’ which I could start from the car park, and that was my target for the day, after a brief visit to the ‘skills area’ where I was riding along balance beams, and cut ‘skinny’ logs, testing my balance- and nerve !

Then I was ready to go, it wasn’t quite ‘sunny’ as forecast, but at least it was dry, and I hoped would get better as the day went on. Immediately I was climbing up through the forest, on narrow tracks with tree roots popping up unexpectedly ready to trap me at every turn. Up, and up I went, not particularly enjoying the experience, however the trail was empty for quite some time, so I could take it easy on the climb.. which I eventually got to the top of, with views down into the Tweed Valley beneath.

I was ready then, to start enjoying the experience a bit more, as once at the top….there was only downhill to go…and away I went,on at times quite steep trails, with rocks to jump over and down, sometimes getting rather high as I leaped, and noticed what had happened to one rider….!!!Then I continued flashing down the trails, on some great ‘boardwalk’ sections, with bridges built over streams, up and over obstacles, and dark and dingy woods…. all too soon I was at the bottom of the hill, traversing the valley floor, and it only remained for me to climb back up the hill on some steep trails to the car park where I had started…435 mts of climbing in 2 hours 10 minutes. I arrived back splattered in  mud  to find that the vast empty car park I had left, was almost full ! – it turned out that it was a public holiday in Edinburgh for some reason, and lots of people had taken advantage in coming here !

I stripped off, wiped myself down, and changed, initially intending to go out again later when it quietened down, however as the afternoon wore on, them big black clouds came back in, and deposited their bucketloads onto the area, so I remained in Wally, did some eating and reading…and stayed where I was.

Unfortunately because of the clouds, I wasn’t able to see any stars later, the area being covered in mist, and almost total darkness..with me sleeping alone on the car park….sweet dreams !