Glentress / Innerleithen- Weekend Ride (Trail Conditions)

boyfriday

Hey guys,

Just wondering if anyone has ridden Glentress or Innerleithen in the last few weeks, and could confirm whether there is still a lot of snow and ice around?

I presuming that given the coldness of the weather that there will be patches of ice etc, but i'm hopeful that the worst of it is gone.

The reason i ask is that i intend to cycle down from Edinburgh for some riding on Saturday and having done it a few weeks back and endured a torrid time sliding all over the place, i would rather know in advance what to expect this time.

I am essentially not cut out for riding on the snow and ice (unless i go invest in a more substantial pair of tyres (which would probably hinder the road cycling required to get there)).

Decisions decisions.

Many thanks.

myopic

I live on the edge of the Pentlands which is a good indicator of what GT and Inners might be like.

I went down to Innerleithen for a walk last Wednesday after checking with the Hub about the state of the tracks and being told they were unridable. The bottom car park was like an ice rink - you could barely walk across it without slipping and falling. No-one had ridden any trails (as evidenced by complete lack of tyre marks on the snow and cars in the car-park). I walked a combination of the red route in reverse and the push ups for the downhill tracks - nothing and no one in sight and at least a foot of powder snow everywhere that wasn't covered sheltered by trees. The trails themselves were a mixture of snow and any dips had ice in them with snow lying on top. Fantastic day for a walk and amazing scenery, but I think riding would have been impractical.

Since then, the Pentlands haven't cleared and after the heavy snow we had on Sunday night, I don't think there will be any less snow/ice down there at present. Latest update on the GT trail conditions was yesterday (see http://www.7stanes.gov.uk/forestry/infd ... #Glentress ) and suggests unridable above Buzzards Nest due to depth of snow and same for upper levels at Inners.

But who knows what it will be like by Saturday? Keep an eye on the trail conditions section of website and if you need up to minute opinion, I've always found both the Hub or Andy (MTB Ranger 07834 435380) to be very helpful.

BOYDIE

I was at GT on Thursday past,totally un-rideable.Me and my M8 got to the top of the blu/red climb and could not get up the fire road to the spookywood climb,had to come down the blue back to the hub,had a big off due to the frozen ice under the snow.The snow must have been almost 8-10 inches in places.

boyfriday

It sounds perhaps a little worse than the last time i was there just before Christmas (understandable given that it's now colder).

I'm sure there are people who enjoy it in these conditions, but i found it very tricky with the wheels constantly slipping on the underlying ice.

Think i might just head south instead and down to Dalbeattie or one of the trail centres in Dumfries. Or, possibly over to Aberfoyle but i fear that will be similar to Glentress given the height involved.

Thanks for the updates guys.

counterculture

apologies for hijacking this thread, where can you reccomend around aberfoyle, im heading up there early spring for a week, supposed to be with the g/f and her family but im taking my bike (just incase)

neil_sheehan2000

I was there riding on Saturday (the 7th? The 6th?) and it actually wasn't too bad because a lot of the snow was fresh. Obviously, fresh snow is not exactly a fast surface to ride on, but you could actually ride it at least. A lot of walking up though, and it took about twice as long to get to the top of Spooky Wood as it should do. I'm assuming the snow would have frozen something nasty by now though, so I'm personally going to wait a week or to for it to (hopefully) thaw out.

neil_sheehan2000

I was there riding on Saturday (the 7th? The 6th?) and it actually wasn't too bad because a lot of the snow was fresh. Obviously, fresh snow is not exactly a fast surface to ride on, but you could actually ride it at least. A lot of walking up though, and it took about twice as long to get to the top of Spooky Wood as it should do. I'm assuming the snow would have frozen something nasty by now though, so I'm personally going to wait a week or to for it to (hopefully) thaw out.

neil_sheehan2000

I was there riding on Saturday (the 7th? The 6th?) and it actually wasn't too bad because a lot of the snow was fresh. Obviously, fresh snow is not exactly a fast surface to ride on, but you could actually ride it at least. A lot of walking up though, and it took about twice as long to get to the top of Spooky Wood as it should do. I'm assuming the snow would have frozen something nasty by now though, so I'm personally going to wait a week or two for it to (hopefully) thaw out.

neil_sheehan2000

I was there riding on Saturday (the 7th? The 6th?) and it actually wasn't too bad because a lot of the snow was fresh. Obviously, fresh snow is not exactly a fast surface to ride on, but you could actually ride it at least. A lot of walking up though, and it took about twice as long to get to the top of Spooky Wood as it should do. I'm assuming the snow would have frozen something nasty by now though, so I'm personally going to wait a week or two for it to (hopefully) thaw out.

neil_sheehan2000

I was there riding on Saturday (the 7th? The 6th?) and it actually wasn't too bad because a lot of the snow was fresh. Obviously, fresh snow is not exactly a fast surface to ride on, but you could actually ride it at least. A lot of walking up though, and it took about twice as long to get to the top of Spooky Wood as it should do. I'm assuming the snow would have frozen something nasty by now though, so I'm personally going to wait a week or two for it to (hopefully) thaw out.

neil_sheehan2000

I was there riding on Saturday (the 7th? The 6th?) and it actually wasn't too bad because a lot of the snow was fresh. Obviously, fresh snow is not exactly a fast surface to ride on, but you could actually ride it (at least if you had gravity on your side). A lot of walking up though, and it took about twice as long to get to the top of Spooky Wood as it should do. I'm assuming the snow would have frozen something nasty by now though, so I'm personally going to wait a week or two for it to (hopefully) thaw out.

boyfriday

counterculture wrote:

apologies for hijacking this thread, where can you reccomend around aberfoyle, im heading up there early spring for a week, supposed to be with the g/f and her family but im taking my bike (just incase)

Sadly i can't recommend anywhere exactly out there - i was planning on going exploring as i know that they will be holding an SXC event there this year, and i know it's being ridden already. I was hopeful of finding it based on the comments on the SXC forum.

However, i was actually using this route as my main purpose of going - http://cycling.visitscotland.com/find_r ... d_forest_2

I have not been on it and can't vouch for how good it is, but having been out in that area on the road bike recently, i thought a mountain bike trip might be fun. It's also 24 miles or so mainly off-road so that should be a decent workout combined with cycling out there.

MrWizard

boyfriday wrote:

Sadly i can't recommend anywhere exactly out there - i was planning on going exploring as i know that they will be holding an SXC event there this year, and i know it's being ridden already. I was hopeful of finding it based on the comments on the SXC forum.

However, i was actually using this route as my main purpose of going - http://cycling.visitscotland.com/find_r ... d_forest_2

I have not been on it and can't vouch for how good it is, but having been out in that area on the road bike recently, i thought a mountain bike trip might be fun. It's also 24 miles or so mainly off-road so that should be a decent workout combined with cycling out there.

I've done that route a couple of times, it's almost entirely on fire roads, so nothing technical. I had problems trying to follow the correct route (may be better now, as it wasn't signposted when I did it), the first time I tried it was in heavy snow so it took quite a long time to get round, and was starting to get dark as I got back, glad the "shortcut" that I took back to the start turned out to be the actual route, or I might still be out there now... :shock:

There's also the route from Aberfoyle over towards Brig o' Turk, but be warned, it's a bit on the steep side

There's a map leaflet containing routes in the Trossachs that you can pick up from any local tourist information office that includes both of these routes among others.