Rock and Roller - Dalbeattie

Last day of riding in Scotland for that week and I wanted to make it an epic day.  The choice was between Mabie, Ae and Dalbeattie so I went with the closest to where we were and headed off to Dalbeattie.

Dalbeattie's web page makes a big deal of the rocky outcrops along the trail and some digging on forums and youtube revealed a couple of really steep, black-graded rock sections, all options from the red graded 25km long Hardrock Trail.

It was an early morning start and the car park was deserted when I arrived.  Tightly squeezed into the woods, the car park had a really peaceful air about it, and a useful map of the trails.  Rolling into the start of the trail, the mellow theme continued with a fun but not too technical set of singletrack stretches.  To liven it up a bit I hit all of the rocky obstacles on either side of the trail but my enthusiasm was soon tempered by the first climb of the day.

Ipod firmly plugged into my ears, the trail wound up to the highest point of the day and the views were of rolling low hills and similar forests all around.  The centre is located near the coast and had a fresh feel to the air the day that I was there but at no point could I see the sea itself.

Shortly, on a singletrack descent, and just after thinking that the music may be a distraction, I went right when I should have gone left and ploughed into a cunningly disguised tree stump, launching myself over the bars into the ground.

Ego suitably knocked back to size and bum dusted off, the trail continued and to be fair, took in a lot of fire road.  There were some excellent sections of single track that wound through the forest and on the forest's edge.  One in particular ran through down a gulley and was a rough gnarly section with rocks and small drops, the type of trail that you get more out of the more you put in.

Arriving at the Slab, a 15 meter stretch of step rock, covered in diagonal ruts, I realised it looked a LOT more gnar in real life than on the internet.  I rode down the far left of this section which avoids the majority of the first part of the slab.  Personally, I didn't feel there was much reward and the Slab proves more a test of nerve than a fun section to ride, especially since where the bottom of the slab transitions back onto the forest floor there are crazy braking bumps, making for a harsh re-entry.  I'd like to see black sections filled with jumps and drops, maybe north shore type sections (and not just skinnies!!) instead of just rolling down a big rutted rock face - perhaps this is one case we can all learn from Llandegla!

Despite being named after a low-end Specialized hardtail, the composition of the singletrack sections mean that this is definitely one beast best enjoyed on a full sus rig.  When I arrived at the last section which doubled as a skills loop, and as harsh as this sounds in retrospect, I was left with the feeling that a few laps around that would have been more enjoyable than the bulk of the actual Hardrock trail itself.

The trail was over too quickly for my liking and didn't build up to any epic descents, taking in way too much fire road.  In fact, it would have taken in less fire road that day had I not dodged underneath diversion tape to poach "closed" singletrack so I could experience the whole trail.

My first mountain biking visit to Scotland revealed a clear winner in my eyes - Kirroughtree.  It's red/black combination of the Twister and Black Craigs an absolute winner and one of the best trails I have ever ridden!

I've had a long time off riding over the summer, weirdly, due to work, other holidays, doing up my house, and family events but the Forest of Dean is calling...

Enjoying the views - Glentrool

Another sunny morning in Dumfries and Galloway surrounded me as I loaded the bike on to the back of my car for the third time that week.  The 7 stanes centre at Glentrool was my destination for the day and it was only a short, and very scenic, drive away from where we were staying.

Once you're nearby, the 7 stanes centres are well signed so I was able to find the car park easily.  Because we were staying nearby and I like early starts, I was the first car to park up that day and the midges were very excited by this fact!  The trail head is just over a small bridge and so a combination of the nearby river and hot summer days meant I was eaten alive by insects while getting ready to ride!  A small bird examined me quizzically through my car window as I pulled up too; he didn't seem used to having visitors at that time of the morning.

One unique feature of Glentrool is an epic 58k route which takes in, as far as I can tell, a loop of a huge portion of the forest.  I've heard and read that the scenery is great, but is a fire road / road style affair so I was content to give it a miss on my full-sus rig.

The 9k blue trail, confusingly called The Green Torr, winds slowly out of the car park and begins a pretty straight forward climb up the hill through the woods.  The very beginning is on a well established path which becomes fire road after not too long.  The blue is not the longest trail in the world, and more or less features an initial climb with one or two sections of flowing singletrack which are not too technical at all, including some more climbing, before a major purpose built descent which takes up maybe 1/3 of the total trail length and plants you back in the car park.  Total singletrack, 65%

Once I'd gained most of the height the first section of singletrack proper was a pleasant surprise and shows that whoever designed the trail knows how to build a track that flows.  It left me wanting more of the same and there was a little, but most is reserved for the final section.

After a further singletrack climb, I was spat out onto some more fireroad which had amazing views out across the hills of the Galloway Forest Park.  I literally had to stop to take photos every 50 meters or so as the view gradually got better and better as more of the view down the valley towards Loch Trool and Loch Dee was revealed.

More singletrack led to the start of the last descent.  The whole final section was well surfaced and was 2-3 feet wide, like a machine-made trail.  Undulating and with large easy to ride berms before a darker section in the depths of the woods, this last section can be ridden flat out aside from a couple of flatter corners towards the end.  Grin-inducing and worth a second lap.

Returning to our lodge, I picked up my girlfriend and her bike for a stab at the Palgowan green route in the afternoon.  This was a 14k circuit that shares the intial climb with the blue route but only has a very small amount of singletrack, the overwhelming majority being on fire roads, and a very short section on adopted road.  The route takes you out further from the trail head than The Green Torr does so we took it easy and enjoyed the sunshine and the excellent views across the hills of Galloway Forest Park.

The final descent is another long one, this time on a wide, straight fire road. I tucked in aero-stylee and shot down the slope at terminal velocity, glad of the stability from my big raked out forks; not normally the bike I'd choose for a mellow trail!

It was a thumbs up all round for the Glentrool centre, although with the proviso that there is little here for the experienced mountain biker looking for a technical challenge.  More beer and "self-catering" (read takeaway) was to follow that night!