12/09/24
While in the Scottish Borders it would be rude not to visit some of the excellent mountain biking facilities that are on offer.
The 7Stanes are a collection of bike parks on Forestry Scotland land and well known as some of the best in the UK. Our plan was to start with the blue trails at Glentress but somehow it didn’t turn out that way.
We decided to stop at Innerleithen because they offer the ‘Stay the Night’ forestry scheme.
Bertie parked at Innerleithen
We thought we might use the afternoon to pootle along the river Tweed on the bike path just to stretch our legs before Glentress. But on arriving at the parking spot and seeing that the Red XC (cross-country) route had a few diversions to make it shorter than it’s usual 30+ kilometres we just couldn’t help ourselves. How hard could it be?
While I was still feeling optimistic
The answer was ‘too hard’ for me (Becky) at least. While Paul was enjoying the steep, rocky and rooty downhills I was cursing and jumping off my bike every few meters to wheel it over or through the obstacles I couldn’t quite bring myself to attempt. We took a look at the black runs and I confidently proclaimed I would never be doing anything like that. They had been set up for a weekend competition and I would much prefer to watch someone else hurtle down a vertical slope through the trees.
Black run, why does it look flat in photos? It was seriously steep and scary.
Paul enjoying some easy looking (but really not) red downhill
After enjoying/suffering the red run we did pop onto the Tweed valley cycle route towards Peebles, just to get a bit more cycling in. We thought we’d find a café in the village of Cardrona but instead we found a Stepford Wives soulless village which didn’t even have any benches on the village green. A return to Innerleithen was required to find a choice of multiple cafes and pubs. It’s a very cycling oriented village.
River Tweed
The following morning we had to turn the heating on to warm us up as the night had been pretty cold. I popped to the local bakery for some rolls for lunch – twice, because I forgot to take any cash the first time and the card machine was down. I exchanged more ‘good mornings’ with people than I’m used to, I need to find some more varieties of morning greetings.
Then we set off to Glentress. I was definitely only doing the blues this time as I needed to get my confidence back. We cycled up to the top of the New Blue (Harry’s Blue and Turn and Burn) for a really lovely flow trail down the hill. Then we cycled back up again, and kept cycling up and up until we reached the top of the park where we could follow several blue trails all the way down. Absolute bliss compared to the previous day.
This is what we (I) wanted, some lovely blue trails
Not only did I get my cycling mojo back, but we also saw a red squirrel (no photo I’m afraid). Paul had seen one at Innerleithen, but it doesn’t count unless we’ve both seen it.
By now our bums were feeling saddle sore and we agreed to call it a day. Our cycling muscles want some work and we need to develop callouses on our buttocks. I’m sure I remember something in a novel (was it The Horse and his Boy?) about sitting in vinegar to toughen up the skin. We prefer to have our vinegar on our chips.
We’d really like to come back when the uplift is running so that we could manage more of the trails. Maybe on the way home?