3 July 2009 - Day 1: Glentress

It all started very badly! The good news was that Ed's roofrack fitted Nev's car, so with the towbar rack we were able to get 4 bikes and 4 people comfortably in. The bad news was that thanks to some shocking M6 traffic, the journey was going to take 8 hours, getting us into Innerleithen at 10:45pm and wiping out any prospect of a quick evening ride to get things going. Instead, we headed straight for the local pub/hotel/restaurant/chinese takeaway for a couple of quick beers.
The weather on Friday morning was stunning, making an early start easy. We headed straight to the Glentress trailhead and were away and riding by 9am. The first climb passed easily enough and we found ourselves at the Freeride Park for some playtime!

Colgie in his new kit - a vision in green!

Freeride Park Gump from Hedd Roberts on Vimeo.

Freeride Park Stu from Hedd Roberts on Vimeo.

Ed having some fun at the Glentress freeride park

After getting some confidence, we were off to tackle the climb up to Spooky Woods. This involves a bit of fireroad, followed by a singletrack climb with a few reasonably steep switchbacks to keep it interesting.

Ed and Nev emerging from the Spooky Wood climb

The Spooky Wood descent was absolutely fantastic, with Hedd performing particularly well on his new bike, even keeping up with Ed for a while!

From the bottom of the first section of the Spooky Wood descent, we detoured off to the blue route to descend Betty Blue. This was fun, but lacked the trail obstacles we'd been enjoying on the red descents. This allowed us to pick up the black route for the first time and descend Deliverance, which was awesome. Some tight switchbacks at the top gave way to some rockier sections, all taken at great pace.

The bad news was that we now had the Redemption Hill climb ahead of us. This proved to be pretty tough, and after punctures for "tubeless" Hedd and Ed earlier, Colgie now had a problem with his spd - the clip had slipped on his shoe making it difficult to disengage.

Ed on the long Redemption Hill climb

Colgie had to detour back to the bikeshop to get his spd fixed, so we took a shortcut and headed back to the red run to tackle the Hit Squad Hill descent. To avoid Colgie having to wait too long, we then headed for the Pie Run short-cut. This was good fun, but we hit further trouble as Ed's rear brake pad fell out! After some searching, we found it and were away, but he too had to detour back to the shop leaving just Hedd and Nev to complete the ride.

Hedd getting air on the final downhill of the morning - Falla Brae

After some great help from the bikeshop http://www.thehubintheforest.co.uk/Bike/index.html(new tyres for Hedd, Ed's brake and Stu's shoe fixed without charge) we headed to the hub cafe for some excellent lunch.

It was during lunch that the rain started and we were to be introduced to a new concept in mountain biking - the hub rat! This is someone that had all the gear but just appeared to spend all weekend at the cafe (with very brief interludes out onto the blue route).

After a long lunch break during which Hedd mastered his new tubeless tyres, we were ready to head out again, this time in the rain. Hedd's new bike had been an absolute revelation during the morning both up and downhill, although the fact that the hire centre had a fleet of them did mean they were "as common as a ford focus".

How hard can it be? Hedd with his first new bike upgrade - decent tyres!

The afternoon involved a repeat of the red run (no black or blue options this time) and by now we were starting to find our mojo despite the rain, especially Ed who flew down Spooky Woods in 3 mins 20secs this time. The rather surprising highlight of this run was being passed by a load of Scottish lads that had hired bikes for the day. They were heading down the fireroad climb to Spooky Woods and one of them pulled a rubbish bunnyhop as we rested by the side of the trail - rad!

We were back at the flat (http://www.mountainbikeapartments.com/) in no time and heading to the traquair hotel (http://www.traquairarmshotel.co.uk/) for an excellent meal, a few stories and a few pints of "The Stuart". We bumped into the hub rat again - he'd found a new home!

Residential trips of the past have always featured a guest drink or "a little bottle of something cheeky" and this was no exception! We managed to find a bottle of demarara rum in the supermarket. This led to a bit of drunken tension as Colgie struggled with the tv on/off switch and Ed made his dislike of Nev's Rippling Yarns dvd perfectly clear!

4 July 2009 - Day 2: Innerleithen

We woke reasonably early again on day 2, despite the effects of the demerara rum, although there were some sheepish looks in the kitchen after last nights fall-out!

We got ourselves together and headed to the innerleithen bike shop (http://www.alpinebikes.com/shops/innerleithen/) for a few bits and pieces. The highlight of this expedition was definately Nev's purchase of some Troy Lee "stormrtrooper" pads, although Colgie also got himself a new camelback.

The stormtrooper!

From here, we cycled down to the Innerleithen XC trailhead to find there was an uplift day and the place was pretty busy with downhillers. We watched them come down the final section for a while before starting the challenging climb.

Watching the downhillers from the Innerleithen XC climb

The first part of the climb passed reasonably easily, although Ed suffered another puncture just as the trail started to head down. We had a bit of a play in the quarry section, although it was really busy!

Colgie on the quarry section descent

Nev about to tackle a small ladder drop on the quarry section

After a bit of a rest, we carried on along the fireroad climb. This was particularly nasty as the day had really heated up by now!

Hedd messing about on the fireroad climb

The singletrack climbs from here were pretty tough, and much longer than we all remembered.

Nev on the singletrack climb up to Minch Moor

Ed, Nev and Stu arriving at the Minch Moor summit on a beautiful summer day!

At the summit we had a break in the storm shelter before starting the downhill - and what a downhill! The top few sections were our favourite of the entire trip. There are some great burms, drops and jumps at Inners and Glentress, but this section seems more open and much faster.

We continued down and stopped for a quick photo before tackling the next downhill section.

Awesome foursome! Nev finally gets his camera timer to work!

The great thing about Innerleithen is that once you've conquered the big climb to the top of Minch Moor, it's pretty much downhill all the way, and we arrived at the top of the Caddon Bank descent in no time at all.

Hedd jumping over the rocks on the Caddon Bank descent

Ed gets great air over the Caddon Bank rocks

First Inners drop Ed from Hedd Roberts on Vimeo.

Second Inners drop Hedd from Hedd Roberts on Vimeo.

Big air for Ed on the biggest of the three Caddon Bank drops

Big Inners drop Ed from Hedd Roberts on Vimeo.

We played on the drops for a while, and unfortunately Colgie had a big fall attempting the first drop. He landed on the front wheel and headed into the bank. The good news was that it was just cuts and bruises, and after the obligatory puncture for Ed we were back in the car park and heading for the apartment for a lunchtime BBQ.

Ed the BBQ king, with the Caddon Bank descent visable in the distance

The Inners XC loop is quite tough, so it was hard to decide what to do after lunch. However, we'd all enjoyed it so much that we decided to give it another go. The climb was tough but the descent was absolutely fantastic again and we all loved it.

Ed rails a burm on the first downhill section from Minch Moor

Colgie on the final part of the Caddon Bank descent

As we were cycling away from the car park at the trailhead, there were a bunch of youngsters cycling towards it. Hedd's day was finished off in style as two separate riders shouted "nice bike mate!". Cheers lads!

It was a relatively quiet evening after the shinanigans of the night before, another meal at the Taquair Hotel, a few beers at the versatile pub and back to the apartment.

5 July 2009 - Day 3: Glentress

We awoke to bad news! The bikers in the flat below had managed to set fire to the bike shed with the BBQ. Fortunately, one of them noticed the smoke in the early hours and got to it. The only damage to the shed was a hole burnt in the floor and out bikes were fine, if a little smokey!

We packed up and handed our keys back, making it absolutley clear we had nothing to do with the pyrotechnics!

We headed back to the Glentress trailhead for a repeat of the red run. It was no surprise to see the hub rat there doing what he appears to do best - avoiding actually riding his bike.

Quality faffing in the Glentress car park

Although the day started well, we endured a biblical rain shower during the climb leaving us soaked through.

The red run was familiar now and it passed quickly. During one rest stop, we were passed by someone on a fully rigid bike - good luck!

The Spooky Woods descent was again the highlight and when we eventually reached the bottom, we decided to avoid the Pie Run and head up to The Matrix and Lombard Street. The Matrix starts with a great burm which we sessioned for a little while in an attempt to find some more speed.

Nev firing through the berm at the top of The Matrix

Colgie unhappy with his berms at Glentress from Hedd Roberts on Vimeo.

We seemed to be back at the car park in no time with the sun now shining brightly. After a quick shower, we marched over to the cafe for some lunch and again were not amazed to the see the hub rat already in position - does this guy ride at all on his riding weekends?

The food was great and we were soon fully revatalised and heading for home.

There was just enough time for Sundog millionaire Nev to show the other side of his character. After being cut-up by another driver in Peebles, he drove an inch from their rear bumper and as they parked on the side of the road he floored it to make his point. Unfortuantely, most of his dashboard had become detached and the act of flooring the car meant it fell backwards into the car leaving Nev sprawling to catch it - he made his point there!

Never cross the sundog!