Well, we finally made it. Or four of us did on Sunday 17th July 2005. Jason, Andy, John and Terry left Cramlington at 7.30 in the morning and arrived at Ae at 9.30 after a lengthy toilet stop for Jay who'd had a "relaxing" Saturday. We approached from the A74(M) at Junction 16 after overshooting the Lochmaben turn, and from this direction (south on the A701 to Dumfries) the signs were useless for the start of the trail. The result was we ended up following Red Trail arrows    IN THE CAR    until we found the first arrow pointing into the trees. This was at marker post 20, so little did we know we were a mile or two from the END of the trail! Anyway, we left the car there and headed for the green stuff. 

From the confusion of the signpost we were thrust into Heaven straight away.    This is a fantastic trail, and these first bits particularly from 20 to 22    contained some sublime riding   with a mixture of pitter-patter rocks, small rock steps, small, large and massive berms, little tabletops and jumps including a fairly long singletrack descent down the side of a valley that seemed endless and gave the wrists and legs a good workout. Even Andy said his legs were feeling it at the end of that bit..    It actually brought us fairly quickly to the finish, or start, which is where we should have been in the first place.    We sort of decided that when we'd finished the whole trail we'd do these first few sections again. As it turned out we didn't have time. Shame.

Anyway we proceeded to follow the trail from Point 1 and it produced even more goodies along the way. There were a few long fireroad stretches     between sporty sections but it was well worth it for the payoff and the nature of these trails is such that you come to expect a juicy treat after each plain part.   It usually delivers, but there are a couple of sections that tease you into thinking you are on a descent when you're not! This is a great way to gain height but a trifle annoying if you prefer to carry your helmet on the "up" bits.

Here we are at Section 11   one of a few with deep and meaningful names (?) and Jason aka "Red Leader" preparing to lead off.    Little did he know that moments later he'd be plastered all over the trail Big Time! Here's a particularly busy junction at 12!      

Here's the event (2.5MB .wmv vid). And here's the rock that got his front wheel,   lapse of concentration or what?  He claimed he wasn't hurt but it looked hurtish to me! Jason reckoned his Camelback took the brunt of the fall but as you can see in the video it seemed to knock the wind out of him for a few seconds. As usual though, he shrugged it off and blasted the rest of the trail. John kept him company on most of the downhill stuff, still riding (and appreciating) David's Coiler Dee Lux which seems to suit him perfectly. Andy is still picking up speed and is now riding the rock drop-offs and going high on the berms aboard his Specialized Epic, gaining confidence every time out. Once again he lapped up the climbs,    now using flat spiky pedals so no more mishaps due to clipless clogs. And the Gollum trolled along behind most of the time, especially on the lovely uphill walking trails. Here's another nice stretch of fairly level singletrack with another daft name and Andy pushing!   

We were well on our way to our own starting point by now, but with a few bits of interest remaining.  Here's another, appropriately named this time as you can see...  and the boys lining up to attack it    and the view along it.   This took us onto more long fireroad climbs past markers 17   where Andy continued to show his uphill prowess, and finally 18 and 19 where we'd left the car. If we'd done it the right way round, the last sections are, like most of the other 7 Stanes centres, well worth the wait (and the fairly long climb). The sun managed to stay in until the latter stages around 1.30-2.30pm so we were saved from frying but still got boiled. Plenty of squidgy clothing removed back at the car. On the way out of the park, they've got a crazy selection of old agricultural machinery on display. Don't think they used this stuff to build the trails, but who knows?   

Here's a nice little show from Jason:

now spot the little helmet (!)

There'll be a couple more videos for Broadbanders to download on the video page as soon as I can produce them to give you a glimpse of the terrain. I'm gonna do a MidAirSurvey amongst the crew to see who rates which 7 Stanes centre, as this was the final piece in the jigsaw for the regulars amongst us. Personally, I would rate this equal to Kirroughtree and just being shaded by Glentress, although Kirroughtree is the most user-friendly.

Footnote: Golly slept like a log Sunday night, waking up half a stone lighter than the day before!

Ae trip - five MAC men - Sunday 11th September

And again - three MACateers (!) - Sunday 13th November