Bases loaded - Laggan Wolftrax's Upper and Lower Red trails

Laggan's Wolftrax trails are something else.

I was staying with my wife near to Fort William this past summer and as well as riding the Ben Nevis range trails I took a few hours out to visit the Wolftrax trails some 50 miles east. The drive from Fort William was pretty nice on solid A roads and the blue skies and warm weather were just right.

Arriving at the car park in the early morning, there were only one or two other cars . I checked out the maps that were available near the toilet block and small cafe to plan my ride. The centre has two red trails, a black and a bike park style, freeridey sort of orange line. Every rider has to go up a fire road climb to begin with that passes the entrances to the orange line, the Lower Red, then the combined Upper Red and the Black.

I decided to ride up the fire road, tackle the Upper Red / Black line, then ride up the fire road again to access the Lower Red and the last bit of the orange line.

The initial climb flew past as the gradient was not too steep and the scenery was distracting. Turning right nearly at the end of the climb leads you onto the Upper Red / Black trail which is all very thought out singletrack. At first this section is mostly flat and involves some climbing through light forest but it so cleverly incorporates natural and reinforced trail features that it is a joy to ride.

Uper Red / Black natural singletrack.

Eventually the trail reaches its highest point and a great view west across to Loch Laggan, looking down the red trail's meandering zig-zag of a descent .  The Black heads north from the look out point while the Upper Red heads west, breaking free of the trees.

Looking West from the Wolf's Lair Viewpoint.

The red makes absolutely amazing use of the gradient as it traverses the gradient, allowing you to go at full tilt, only slowing to make it round the bends and hit some of the small drops and jumps along the way. I had to take a breather part way down to let my arms recover so I could fully enjoy the remaining trail features.

The red re-enters the forest and the black merges from the right a short way before you're spat out onto the the main fire road climb. I had heard on various forums that the black was pretty serious stuff and walking back up the red to check out a few sections of the black confirmed it; there were some pretty gnarly rock gardens to contend with.

Zipping back up the fire road, just at the right hand corner past the start of the orange line, I spotted a double track heading in the direction of the Lower Red trail.  Not sure what I expected to find but I rode up it anyway and soon intersected the red trail.  It was a super quiet day, I hadn't seen anyone by that point, so I decided to ride the top 40% or so of the Lower Red backwards to the top.  It's testament to how well it's made that it rides pretty damn well in the wrong direction, with only a couple of little slabs that I had to carry the bike up because I didn't have the momentum to clear them.

Rock reinforcement the right way.

The Lower Red flows really well, and is more technical than the Upper Red (after it splits from the black), but less technical than the combined upper Red / Black climb (up to the Wolf's Lair Viewpoint) in my view.  There were more corners to deal with and some small drop-able slabs.

Part way down, there is a detour to the left for Air's Rock; a seriously steep rock face that you can ride down with a right hander at the bottom.  Riding solo I wasn't up for any injuries so after checking it out from the top and confirming it looked mega steep, I continued with the red!

The trail was huge amounts of fun to ride, lots of flow but still technical, a decent mix of corners, easy climbs and no really bad braking bumps.  After section named Bhadain Boulder Field and Fang Corner, there is a short section of fire road which traverses the hill.  I was still full of adrenaline from the singletrack so covered this ground in no time.  The last red graded section is The Wolf Run; a 240m section of really well made and suitably grippy boardwalk! Joining the orange line for a few turns and jumps the trails winds back into the car park.

Brilliant stuff!

Laggan's trails really don't take all that long to get to from Fort William, but there's a chance my idea of distance was a bit skewed after driving all over the Highlands that week - John O'Groats is a long way from anywhere!  The way that the main singletrack routes link to a central fire road helps with navigation as you can't really get lost, and you don't need to start again at the very bottom if you ride the Upper Red / Black first and either want a second go or the chance to try the Lower Red or orange lines.  Overall I'd say these trails were up there with some of the best and the variety of trails available are suitable for mountain bikers at a wide range of skill levels - a very positive experience!