You slay me - Kirroughtree

The weather was atrocious on the drive up to Scotland for the start of my week's holiday in Dumfries and Galloway.  My bike and my girlfriend's were strapped to the back of the car and when we arrived at the self-catering chalet, we were pretty pleased with our (her!) choice.  The hot tub helped.

We stayed really close to Newton Stewart and only about two miles away from Kirroughtree, one of the 7 Stanes trail centres.  It was 12th June and signage to the trail centre was good and the parking facilities were spot on, as was finding the start of the trail.  I couldn't resist aiming to ride the black route, as I'd heard good things and had a whole day to kill.  Staying just a few minutes drive away from the trails means I had no long drive to endure afterwards, it was great.

The trail started winding up a mellow hill into the woods from the field surrounding the car park.  There was a mini skills loop just off to the side featuring technical black and red lines, as well as blue, and I assume, green lines.  The trail flowed smoothly through the woods as I followed the red route, taking all of the black options that I could.

My face, having a break

The forest was really mellow, the previous day's rain saturating the ground helping to keep the day cool despite the good sunshine.  Most of the trail was on singletrack at this point which criss-crossed a few runs of fireroad.  After an hour or so I saw a clearing by the side of a river and stopped to have a break and a snack.

Continuing on, further from the car park, the feel of the forest changed; the trail seemed a bit flatter as we'd gained a fair amount of height and it now felt that I was pretty far into the trail.  Many sections had names, like Rivendell and the White Witch, and some of the markers showed percentage completion which was pretty motivating towards the end!

After transitioning onto the black trail, crossing a bridge on fire road, there was a long open climb up to the start of a section called Mc Moab.  This was a highly technical section of undulating rock, with tiny arrows on the rock surface itself to highlight the best route.  I followed it as best I could, but can't say I cleaned it at all!  I was pretty excited about this section, and ultimately I feel it wasn't as fun as I was expecting, and you could argue that was down to my skill level, but for me it just didn't flow and I suppose the surface was just not to my taste.

McMoab's undulating granite

The next section, Heartbreak Hill, was just that.  A hardcore steep ascent up to a fire road.  My legs were a bit dead by this point so I just walked up and began spinning again once I'd reached the fire road.  At the beginning of the next singletrack, I took another break and sat down to munch on a couple of snacks (these things are amazing - energy dense and damn tasty too - do tend to stick to the roof of your mouth a little though!).

A rider passed me at this point, the only other cyclist I'd seen all day. Black Craig was an awesome section! It reminded me a lot of some sections of Original Sin in Whistler and was the highest point of the trail with great views back down the valley and in the other direction off into the hills.  The trail was rough and flowed really well, a lovely technical trail with rocks, roots, drops, short climbs and some great chances to build up speed.

Coming round a rooty corner, I met the rider that passed me at the start of the section.  He'd had a puncture so I lent a pump and we managed to get him back on the trail.  It was a good hour plus back to the car while riding so it would have been a long walk out if I hadn't been passing.  He had been riding at Innerleithin and Glentress the day before and his riding buddy who had been riding with him wasn't up to the black that day and had turned back to the car while still on the initial red section.

View south from part of the Black Craigs section - had all that height to lose over the rest of the ride!

Over the next few miles we passed each other on the trail a few times, with my bike being a little more downhill friendly and his (and hit fitness level) being better suited to the climbs.  Getting back to the red section involved some more rough trails where I was glad I had my full sus bike.  It was a proper all mountain trail in my eyes and riding it on a hard trail would have robbed it of much of its fun.  On one particularly steep climb I was passed for the last time and after a good few hours of riding had to push to the top, my legs were done in.

Properly re-joining the red, the technicality of the trail eased and it was easier to maintain a good speed.  Pulling back into the car park, I was please to have ridden one of the longest trails to date and was stoked to know that I had so many other quality trails within an hour or so's drive!