New showers and toilets at Newcastleton village

Yep, you can now hit the trails at Newcastleton and then grab a shower after at a new facility in Newcastleton village.

The two showers and two toilets are open from 7am - 6pm (tbc) and are free to use. They are located just a stones throw from Douglas Square on Langholm street, next to the Fire station. There's also a new information point in Douglas Square aswell with all you need to know about the 7stanes trails and the facilities available in the village.

These are the first bits of work by the Newcastleton Business Group, Scottish Enterprise, Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Border Council, Rock UK and others to enhance facilities and progress towards making Newcastleton village itself the trailhead for all the trails. To make this work, plans are also being developed to create singletrack links between the village and the existing 7stanes trail network at Newcastleton Forest.

Having the trailhead in the village makes a lot of sense and has worked very successfully at other trails such as Golspie.

Exciting times for Newcastleton and visitors!

Newcastleton 7stanes in MBR mag!

There's a great wee article on the the 7stanes trails at Newcastleton in the latest MBR magazine (May 2010, p74) - part of their UK Trails Local Knowledge series.

The article gives a good insight into the history of the trails, recent developments and plans for the future aswell as the flavour of the trails themselves through the words and images of Andy McCandlish.

We also got some pictures from the photoshoot to update our photo library. Here's two of my favorite ones:

Pouter Lampert near the end of the Blue/Red Route. That light and trail combo just makes me want to ride bikes.

Hidden Valley on the Red Route - swoopy flowing goodness with lots of timber features to keep you on your toes!

More pictures, trail descriptions and other useful info for visiting 7stanes Newcastleton are on our Newcastleton webpages

cheers,

andy (mtb ranger)

24hrs of Exposure

Just over a month to go until the UK's first ever (and only) 24hr mountain bike endurance race for solo riders, which is being held at Newcastleton on 22/23 May. There's still time to enter this ground breaking event. Here's a preview video to wet your endurance appetites put together by the organisers SIP Events.



For all the info and latest news on the event check out http://www.sip-events.co.uk/solo-home.html

Demo Day at Glentress this Sunday, 18th Apr

Just a quick mention that the Bike Radar Demo Day series is coming to Glentress this Sunday.

There'll be bikes to test ride on a sweet demo loop from Lapierre, Saracen, Bionicon, Norco, Scott, Rose, Ragley, Tomac, Ghost, Lynskey and Red Bull. You can pre book bikes/demo slots on their website and it's all free (except the usual £3 car parking charge - which helps fund our trail & facility maintenance program).

The demo HQ will be up at the Buzzards Nest car park. Marshals will be on hand to help you get parked (we'll be using side roads and the main road up for parking aswell).

cheers,

andy (mtb ranger)

Glentress Trail conditions - Wed 14th Apr

After a busy couple of weeks tidying up storm damaged trees from the trails, things are looking alot better here at Glentress (and the trails are dry and riding really well).

The only sections of waymarked trails still affected by fallen trees are on the Black Route. We have contractors in today working on clearing trees from Redemption Climb, Deliverance and Kipps Climb.

The only other section on the Black Route still affected is the Boundary Trail but many of the downed trees are still under snow! We'll get onto clearing this section as soon as the snow melts. The Boundary Trail is also the only section still affected by snow. If looking to ride the Black Route i'd suggest avoiding this section and linking onto the Red Route instead using the natural trail at post 74:

'Natural' Link from Boundary Trail to Spookywood Descent (note this isn't waymarked)

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One other thing to note - a popular short cut on the Black Route is at the start of Deliverance (post 83) - nipping around the forest road instead of riding Deliverance and linking back into the Black at post 22, hooking up with Redemption Climb ~2/3's the way up it. Unfortunately there are many fallen trees blocking the road between post 83 and post 20, with no access through. It's too big a job to clear with chainsaws so we are aiming to get a harvester up to clear this asap.

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Finally, we've not had chance to check/clear all the unwaymarked 'natural' sections of trail yet. Zoom or Bust is clear of fallen trees now though and we'll work our way through the other ones over the next few weeks.

cheers,

andy (mtb ranger).

Glentress - conditions update ( further update, 4.27pm)

The forestry team at Glentress are working hard to clear the trails of fallen trees and obstacles following the recent bad weather.

At the moment, all trails are technically open, but only the following trails / sections have been checked and cleared so far:

• Green Route
• Freeride trails
• Skills area
• Blue Velvet (Blue)
• Dougie Bank Climb and Cardie Hill Climb - shared trail up to Buzzards nest
• Falla Brae (Blue / Red / Black)
• Good Game (Blue)
• Electric Blue (Blue)
• Outward Blue Climb (Blue)
• Blue Return (Blue)
• Super G (Red)
• Pennel's Vennel (Red)
• Pie Run (Red)
• Mushroom Pie (Red) 
• Magic Mushroom (Red)
• Tourist Trap (Red)  

This means that while the rest of the red and blue trails can be accessed, there may well be trees or other obstacles across the sections that aren't listed above. The open sections do allow you to ride a loop though.

The clear up will continue throughout the week and we aim to have as much of the blue and red routes as possible open for the weekend.

The Black Route is still badly affected with windblown trees and snow on the higher ground, so we're still deeming it unrideable.

It's been a period of pretty severe weather and we'd ask for your patience while we put things right.  Please follow any diversions and obey any warning signs that you find.  Thanks.

Buzzards Nest car park upgrade

We are currently working to improve the Buzzards Nest car park. This involves landscaping works, taking advantage of some material moved from the Glentress Peel development. We will be adding some kerb, paving and trees to help green up the site. As part of this we intend to sow grass seed in various areas. These will be fenced to allow the grass to establish.

As part of the improvements we will be putting in a new information point for walkers to get walking trail information. This will be distinct from the 7stanes information panel.

Due to the recent bad weather, the works are temporarily on hold but will resume when conditions improve.

We hope you appreciate these improvements. Please follow any diversions that are in place while the works take place.

Thank you.
 
Will Huckerby (Recreation Manager).

Kirroughtree & Glentrool 6/4/2010

Yet again here in the South West we have missed out on the worst of the weather and the trails are not affected by snow or blown trees so all are open as usual.

It's rather wet and windy today but the forecast for the rest of the week looks better as does the weekend.

Chris

First snow, then trees...

Glentress and Innerleithen have had a very severe blast of weather. No part of the forests have been unaffected by windblow (fallen trees) and much work still remains to be done.

At Glentress we have opened most trails below the Buzzards Nest car park, on falla brae, including the climbs. We are checking the status of Pennels Vennel/ Super G/ Spooky Wood/ Hit Squad Hill etc. today (6th April), and will provide a further update later. The Black route is still affected by snow and severe windblow; as such it's unrideable.

At Innerleithen, most of the trails have been severely affected by windblow. At present we are assessing the situation and will provide an update as soon as the situation becomes clearer.

Glentress Trail Conditions - Fri 2nd Apr

Unfortunately the conditions remain poor for riding here at Glentress. There has been some thawing today with the overall depth of snow reducing a little, however snow remains on virtually all trails, deep and wet enough to make most trails still unrideable.

We've been up today starting to make some headway into clearing the fallen trees/branches - but it is going to take a while to clear everything, Glentress has been hit hard... We are likely going to have to divert some sections of trail because of dangerous trees - look out for signage on site over the next few weeks.

Here's a few pics from this afternoon. Compare these to pics from yesterday to see that the conditions haven't changed much yet.

7stanes carpark at trailhead (carpark has been dozed by tractor)

Start of Cardie Hill Climb

Start of Falla Brae (lots of broken trees/branches cleared off here this aft)

Viewpoint looking across Tweed Valley towards Peebles

Bottom of Freeride Park at Buzzards Nest car park

Clearing broken trees on Electric Blue this afternoon

Chainsaws for all occasions!

Ranger's will be onsite this weekend continuing to clear the trails on fallen trees/branches etc. This will be the last blog update for a few days but you can always call the duty ranger on 07834 435380 to get the very latest on the trail conditions.

If you are looking for alternative trails to ride, the 7stanes trails at Mabie and Dalbeattie are clear of snow and riding well, as are most of the trails at Ae. These 3 trail centres are within 1.5hrs drive from Glentress and the Tweed Valley.

Cheers,

andy (mtb ranger)

Ae Green and Blue re-opened!!!!

Hey all,

Just to say that the green and blue trails at Ae are re-open now after an extensive clear up job on the windblow!! The red trail is still diverted, now from post 9 - 10 (Rabs Slippy One) while specialist contractors deal with a few particularly nasty hung up trees. All should be clear by the start of next week, keep checking the blog for up to date progress!!

There was also a small scattering of snow here at Ae last night and temperatures did drop below freezing so please use a little bit of caution if you come across any snow or ice on the higher ground.

Cheers

Glentress Trail Conditions - Thu 1st April

Here are some pictures of the conditions at Glentress from mid afternoon on Thursday:

New visitor centre worksite, just across from the current trailhead.

Entry to first singletrack climbing up from trailhead

Final jump and exit of Good Game on Blue Route

Timber trail near end of Magic Mushroom on Red Route

Entry to Cardie Hill Climb (part of outward climb towards Buzzards Nest car park

First two switchbacks on Cardie Hill Climb with several downed trees..

Tweed Valley looking SW towards Peebles from viewpoint on road upto Buzzards Nest car park

Funbox at Freeride Park, by Buzzards Nest car park

Buzzards Nest car park

Unfortunately the conditions for riding at Glentress are currently poor - the trails remain mostly unrideable with snow still sitting at all levels. There has been some thawing today with the sun out but it's the sheer volume of snow that means the it's unlikely to dissapear quickly. There's still around a foot of snow on average at Buzzards Nest car park height..

The heavy and wet snowfall and strong winds has also resulted in many downed trees and snapped branches across and also hanging above/over the trails. We'll do our best to get these cleared asap but accessing the trails is difficult at present and impossible just now for the trails at higher elevations. If you do venture out, please take extreme care.

On a brighter note, the 7stanes trails across at Mabie and Dalbeattie are clear of snow and riding well, as are most of the trails at Ae - i'd recommend visiting these trails to get a decent ride in. Look out for fallen trees though as these forests suffered from the high winds earlier in the week.

Sorry for the latish update today - power has been low again at Glentress today and our net connection remains down at the Ranger's Office. For the latest on the trail conditions please contact the duty ranger on 07834 435380.

Andy (mtb ranger)