Glenlivet trails

Rigger/frigger

Just wondering has anyone done the new Glenlivet trails near Tomintoul? I want be able to get until the snow and ice has cleared but was going to do a weekend at Laggan and Glenlivet just after peoples reviews on the two trails.

poah

might be out of luck - saw these on another forum. said it had started to rain so probably gone but ground will be pretty soggy I would imagine

downhillbike

snows gone from around here now just frosty and rainy

Rigger/frigger

What forum did you see these photos on Poah? I know the lady who is pushing her bike up the hill!

poah

trailscotland

UH DH

Luck is with you. I rode both Laggan and Glenlivet the weekend it opened. Glenlivet is up on my site here: http://www.trail-dog.co.uk/?page_id=2682

I'll start with Laggan though.

Laggan is pretty low on facilities and in the back of beyond, so take food with you. The Billycan does operate there sometimes, but it's best to check when they'll be there. There's still toilets and changing though.

Laggan runs by the old "ride to the top, come back down, go back up" principle. So there's only a few trails. It's a long fireroad slog up to where the road divides and tells you there's reds both directions. Head right and you keep going up to the very top of the red and black. That'll take you down to the first fireroad corner, where you now need to go back up to the junction and take the left route for Lower Red. Watch out for the big boardwalk section near the bottom. It has no grip in the wet.

What you are looking at is a pretty hardcore set of trails. Constant slabs of rock built into pathas. You can feel your bike impacting off of the edges of them constantly. They are all nice grippy rock though, so that's not so much of a problem.

I took a slightly tougher hardtail to tackle it, and it seemed to go quite well. Really good fun and rewarding descents, though the climbs are really annoying with them just being fireroad. The Final climb to the top of red and black is tricky, again with climbs up slab paths, but well worth several goes to try and clean it.

Laggan I would highly recommend. Watch out for the upper sections though, as they're exposed and really cold up there. I wouldn't really class it as xc though. The trails feel more dh than anything, except having to climb to get up them. I do see though why they sometimes run uplifts there.

Glenlivet was nice.

Starting off from the Coffee Still, you're straight in to a descent. The climbs aren't too horrifying, the trails themselves were beautiful and smooth even after a busy opening weekend. Once you hi the red route, you're in to one hell of a climb up to Carn Daimh and the Glenlivet descent, which is one of my huge gripes about the place. They take you up this great big mountain, but the trail stops 50m short of the summit and goes into the descent. For me, that's just awful. Gaining the summit and getting the views is one of the rewards of getting up there.

Anyway, 6km descent down, a few technical and fun sections, again the exposed rock sections are grippy as hell. Unfortunately, with the trailhead being up a hill, it means climbing back up to it, though they do take you a bit higher so you can descend down to it.

I'd recommend it. It's in the arse-end of nowhere, can be tricky to find, but well worth the effort. Food is good, atmosphere of the cafe is great, especially with the woodburning stove. Trails are fun, demanding, technical in places but pretty rewarding, excepting the summit thing. Views are stunning.

Only downsides would be that large parts of the trail are exposed to all weathers, and unlike a lot of centres, you really are in the back of beyond. Any bad crash will leave you a LONG way from help. Even with a major mechanical, there's no easy way back to the trailhead beyond limping along the length of the trail. I can't even think of any shortcuts back to the trailhead.

But it is good fun. Take cash though, last I saw they don't have card facilities there. I don't think Tomintoul has a cash machine either, so nearest would be Aviemore.

Go ride them though, it's a good weekends riding. I did it for my 30th and enjoyed it until I shot my last meal everywhere on the way home. That's just because I have a dodgy stomach though.

Rigger/frigger

uh dh,

What a cracking little review, that's exactly what I was looking for. I will be going to both of them in the spring or if the weather holds up maybe January.

Thanks mate.