Still on our last full day on the island...

It was almost 3.00 pm and the sun had cheekily appeared to join the other pi** takers. Time to look for the rest of this Red Route after that little accidental, but unforgettable escapade on Goat Fell. We rode back along the road from Brodick Castle into the top end of the town and climbed the trail again behind the hotel. It should have been a wee bit easier by now, but not for the Gollum, and Jason couldn't help but take photos of the grimly-struggling Golly approaching the gate at the end of the first steep climb. Once over the crest, it was sheer enjoyment again as we swooped down the singletrack in this direction for the second time, crossing the road again at the junction of the Black and Red trails. Once more, however, after a short discussion and again finding "turn back now" signs, we decided to check out the west side of the road in an attempt to find the Black section we missed on Friday.

That turned out to be a shortish fireroad leading nowhere except to more great views of Lamlash Bay and Holy Island from a new angle, and height. More opportunities for photos after the two J's had raced each other up the last few hundred metres. Childish imbeciles. And on the way down Golly spent 20 minutes trying to get a decent wheelie out of them for aesthetic reasons (OK, posey web page like other bike clubs!). Here's a sample...

and the out-takes...

Back to the road crossing again and yet another wrong turn as we looked for Jason's missing link, but we found it after a short while and were off on another lovely fireroad climb. No singletracking to be had up here but some fantastic, fast downhill stretches into Gleann Dubh to blow the cobwebs off. From there I guess we just got lucky again, with the next two miles through Glen Ormidale and Glen Cloy consisting of totally unexpected singletrack of the highest quality, downhill all the way back into the south of Brodick. Freewheeling gives you so much more time to pick your line and just go for it, shakin' dat boodie. I just love the expression "body lean", don't you? This was our final ride on the island and what a great way to finish our trip. We'd been initially disappointed with the published routes, fireroad not really entering into our definition of "Black Route", but even they were superb, and challenging enough for any level of MTBer. The descent of Goat Fell and every single (sorry) stretch of the singletrack we found were fantastic. And those views, from absolutely everywhere - stunning. Would we go back again? I think so!

Total ride distance was only 20 miles in total for both of the day's ride parts. Quite hard miles, however.