Glentress - which routes to take?

davenewcastle1973

Morning all,

I've been riding for about a year now after a considerable gap out of the saddle - mostly riding my local woods in the NE and a wee trip across to Whinlatter earlier in the summer which was good but not outstanding.

I've taken a week off work this week and have managed to claim a day for myself to go to Glentress with a couple of mates. None of us have ridden there before so I really want to get the best out of the day.

We should get there for about 10am and will be riding until about 3pm so I need to make the most of this time.

I am reasonably fit but really don't live for the climbing :!:

Any local knowledge/tips etc would be great - I've downloaded/printed the map from the 7 stanes website but I'm sure that there are some ways of combining the routes which only come from experience.

Thanks for your help!

Dave

fungus_the_muffin_man

Though it doesn't look like much Berm baby Berm ( next to the freeride area) is a grin inducing little trail. You can really nail it fast when you get going. It flows beautifully.

And if you see the motorway sign get ready for some high speed descending.

cee

in that kind of time you could easily do pretty much everything except the black.

I would start with the blue (which is actually really good fun.....just pedal your knackers off the wholle way down!), then depending on the weather, either buy lunch at the hub, or picnic at the freeride carpark...

then mess about in the freeride area for a while, before doing the red.

then, when you reach the little fireroad climb before the very last section of red/black descent (this will be familiar as you will have climbed past it on the way up the first time), head back up and do the lower black descents, which are accessible from various points on the red descent.

It all fairly well marked.

Moat of all....have fun.

Muttly1981

Fungus The Muffin Man wrote:

Though it doesn't look like much Berm baby Berm ( next to the freeride area) is a grin inducing little trail. You can really nail it fast when you get going. It flows beautifully.

And if you see the motorway sign get ready for some high speed descending.

"Did you see that motorway sign?"
"Nope going too quick to look at anything"

Berm Baby Berm is fantastic but GoodGame is brilliant if you take the red option just don't try anything silly at the bottom as the crashes can be spectacular :oops:

If you get to the top of the red Spooky wood is probably the finest trail i've ridden it's fast, bermy and plenty opportunities to go big on the tabletops, after Spooky wood you come to Super G which will test your riding skills and brakes.

One thing i will say is when people say a Welsh Red is nothing like a Scottish Red they aren't kidding, i'd say the red at Glentress is actually harder than the Black route at Llandegla.

trailpuppet

Mix`n match black, red & blue is what I do to get the best bits.

Start of by following the trail up to the freeride park and instead of following the red follow the black along Soor Plooms to post 59.
When you exit onto the forest road turn right instaed of left/straight on. This forest road takes you back to the freeride park where you turn left and follow the red route up to Spooky Wood.
Descend Spooky Wood but instead of following the red take a left at post 43 and do Betty Blue.
Then at post 20 on the forest road take a left again and head for Deliverance which starts at post 83.
Enjoy Deliverance and Redemption.
At post 87 cut back uphill to post 22 on the blue route/forest road.
Follow the forest road/blue route to post 44 and rejoin the red route.
At post 31 instaed of blasting down Falla Brae/Good Game climb back up to the freeride area and take the blue back down at post 30, Electric Blue.
Not sure where Berm Baby berm fits in but that would appear to be a must do :idea:

davenewcastle1973

Thanks for the tips guys, what an outstanding place!

We arrived at about 1015 after driving for 2 hours in the rain, as we climbed slowly out of the car, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun began to shine - the start of a great day!

We climbed from the Hub up to the Buzzards Nest car park and had a play on the freeride park until we became suitably embarrassed by a bunch of 12 year olds in full body armour getting ridiculous height of the table tops - moving on we climbed up to the top of Spooky Wood - I really enjoyed Pennel Vennel, perfect for getting the eye in for later, although with a lot of rain recently some bits were pretty hairy!

Spooky wood was outstanding, at the bottom the three of us stood like grinning fools before climbing up the fire road shortcut and doing it again, it was so much better the second time now that we knew what to expect.

One of us then decided - my memory is hazy on this but it definitely wasnt me! - to climb back up the fireroad and join the black for a loop.....

This was tough - not really more technically so but the amount of pedalling, even on the downhill sections was really taking its toll by this time!

Rather than do deliverance and redemption, we cut across and came out at the bottom of Super G - then somebody (probably the same bright spark as earlier :twisted:) suggested we climb again to the top of spooky wood - which we did...

This time spooky wood was a bit more sedate! Still outstanding but harder to do with legs of jelly and lungs still trying to catch up.

We followed the red home from there with huge grins - Super G, fantastic, The Matrix, wonderful, Lombard Street, intense but to be honest, I completely fell in love with the Magic Mushroom - the sweeping boardwalk and roots were awesome!

The final drop through the woods to the Hub finished the day off brilliantly, back to the cars for about 1530 and a well earned can of Irn Bru in the hub.

I would absolutely and thoroughly recommend this place to anybody, it kicked the arse off Whinlatter and Newcastleton without breaking a sweat.

I was also really encouraged by the amount of families with young kids going out on the green - looks like the future of the sport is safe.

Twisterboy

I'm hoping to get down to the tress in October and having read Mountain Biking UK from a few years ago it recommended the Blue Route, as I've got to admit I'm a complete novice when it comes to Mountain Biking, so looking forward to it I've got a week off in October so I reckon I might be down at Glentress for the majority of that week!

David