Innerleithen XC Route Trailwork

As part of Phase 2 of the 7stanes Project we were able to add a couple of new sections of singletrack to the XC route at Innerleithen. One of these sections, 'Oh Deer' enabled us to bypass the most technical sections of Plora Craig and make the whole route Red graded (with part of the old Plora Craig becoming a black graded option).

The other section comes straight after the first descent off Minch Moor at the summit of the route and links in to the 'Enduro Path'. This new section enabled the previous natural climb back up to near the Minch Moor summit and boggy descent following, to be removed from the route and added a really fun new section of descending trail, making the climb to the top more worthwhile and the route more complete.

These 2 additions made an already very good route even better and make the Innerleithen XC trail an excellent alternative to the Red Route at Glentress. It's a similar distance with similar amount of climbing involved, but a little more challenging thanks mainly to the frequent rock features. I'd highly recommend it - as well as some brilliant riding, the views from the top are stunning and it's much quieter than Glentress.

On Wednesday myself and Andy Weir (fellow mtb ranger) were up on the section on Minch Moor doing some maintenance work. The first job was to make a rock step feature approx 3/4 along the trail more 'rollable' (as it's on the main line of the trail). The second was digging out a blocked topside drain and pipe which had badly silted up resulting in a pretty substancial puddle on the trail.

Rock step before..

Rock step after.. (still as 'huckable' as ever, just now more rollable too)

Blocked topside drains/pipe and muckle puddle!



Pipe unblocked, topside drains dug out, puddle mostly gone.

We got both jobs done just in time to catch the most stunning sunset i've seen in a while.



cheers,

andy