On Wednesday the big thaw set in but there was still plenty of ice and snow to make things treacherous out on the trails. We reckoned the ice would be the main obstacle to riding, but we hadn’t reckoned on the destruction left by ‘Hurricane Bawbag’
Setting off from the shop with ice spiker tyres rattling away, I began to think I’d made the wrong tyre choice… untill we hit the start of the trails proper where they came into their own!
It's a bit icy...
Fraser makes the most of the conditions
The main climb up through the forest was covered in a sheet of melting ice. I was delighted with the performance of the Ice Spikers – don’t think I’ve ever gone up that hill so quickly, it felt like riding slickrock!
I like ice tyres now...
None of the other Wednesday nighters (Fraser, Ben, Jim and Olly) were as sensibly shod and had to push most of the way.
It'll be worth it for the descent!
Higher up, we encountered deep, heavy snow so everyone was pushing, and we decided to cut things short.
Santa put in appearance with some christmas pudding (hot!), Jim had some mince pies and Ben supplied the malt whisky. Splendid.
Fun, slidy ride back down then over to the top of our planned singletrack descent. We thought it would be fine as natural singletrack doesn’t get packed down like surfaced trails.
Unfortunately, as mentioned before, we hadn’t reckoned on storm damage from the other week, most of the trails around here didn’t seem to be affected too badly, although Laggan Wolftrax needed a lot of tree clearing.
Attack of the giant Xmas pudding
The whole top section of the trail has disappeared under fallen tree after fallen tree, we kept thinking it would get better, but gave up in the end…
The alternative way down some old double track wasn’t much better, but at least everyone got to do some riding.
Encouraged, we headed up for one last singletrack descent, no tree damage here at all, though the final part where you have to hop over a stream turned out to be a major challenge…
What now?
The ford over the Milton Burn was about as deep as I’ve ever seen it, but we all made it across fine.
All good character building stuff, at least we got out there and did it!
Now most of the snow and ice has gone from the tracks, and I’m sure the trail fairies will be out in force over the next while to return things to their former glory.
Happy Christmas!
Sounds like you all had a fun ride!
Happy Christmas!