atop the Helly Hansen V-Trail at Glentress.

There were five of us again in 2004 for our first trip to a "serious" Mountain Bike Centre - Glentress in the Tweed Valley in South East Scotland. For the Easter weekend we roughly mapped out our plan, and after offloading our kit at two separate Guesthouses at opposite ends of the town of Peebles, we set off along the short stretch of road to the start of the trails at Glentress Forest. So did about a million other MTB fans! This was brilliant. The trails were fantastic, the weather was just about too hot and everyone we met out there had time to say a few words as they blasted past us.

We tackled the Red Trail first, This was awesome and much easier than what was to come. It left us feeling very smug about our decision to come here. We returned to "The Hub" about 4 o'clock after a 10.30 am start.

The Black/Helly Hansen/V-Trail in all it's glory.

Day Two saw us again pedal along the road (on the footpath - to hell with the Law when cars are bouncing off you) and this time our target was the Black Trail. We found this a real slog, but the rewards were high. We did all think afterwards that, as good as it was, the amount of climbing slightly outweighed the blissful downhill bits. Having said that, we all have great memories of Britney Spears, Spooky Wood and the super little Freeride track at the top car park. Well done to the trail builders who put all this stuff together.

Day three was leaving day so we took the cars up to the top car park and rode bits of the Blue and Red trails from there, getting back to the Hub to hose down the bikes and have a cuppa before leaving mid-afternoon. A great weekend's riding and we're definitely going back some more. See you there!  Ticket to Paradise

Easter 2005 next.  then End of May Ride  then June 19th then Sat October 29th

2nd April 2006