Glentress Peel buildings take shape

The new facilities at Glentress are starting to take shape and the pic below shows how the cafe / bike shop building is progressing. The bike shop area is at the left hand end of the building, with the cafe area the larger portion on the right surrounded by glass.

Once the building work is completed, the site will be 'greened up', with wildflowers and trees planted.

If you're not too familiar with Glentress, this view is taken looking roughly south west, back in the direction of Peebles. The access road to the trails runs just above the main building and pond off to the right.



You can see a larger version of the picture on the Forestry Commission Scotland website.

Full details of the Peel project are at www.forestry.gov.uk/glentress.

Brashing = happiness

Got up to the wooded part of Minch Moor Descent on the Innerleithen XC Route today to do some brashing (branch pruning) work along the trail with my trusty chainsaw. Fellow MTB Ranger's Mark and Andy were also getting stuck in, Mark on the polesaw reaching the higher branches and Andy just over the hill brashing back some overhanging branches on the Minch Moor Climb with his handsaw. A solid days work has opened up the trails nicely. Me - tired but happy.

Here's a couple of piccies:




Exit of Minch Moor Descent - before






Exit of Minch Moor Descent - after

Plus we were treated to sunshine, blue skies and an awesome view of the Tweed Valley:

Cheers!

Andy (MTB Ranger)

Log Skinnies On Cardie Hill Climb Now Open!

5 blue-graded log skinnies (balance beams) and 2 black-graded skinnies are now open for riding on the upper half of Cardie Hill Climb at Glentress.



Skinnies 1 & 2 come just after the climb ducks under the Electric Blue flyover bridge.


These are all optional features, positioned off to the side of the trail. The blue-graded skinnies are nice and low to the ground and are a great way for novice/intermediate riders to practise/develop their log riding skills. A stepping stone, if you like, to riding the harder red-graded skinnies lower down on Dougie Bank Climb, and the new black-graded skinnies just before you reach the Buzzards Nest car park.

The logs were installed when the climb was originally built in 2008, but it's only recently that we've been able to complete the work to open them as other trail maintenance work has taken priority.

We've also been developing techniques to dry the logs out sufficiently and apply grip paint to the riding surfaces rather than use rabbit netting. Fortunately we got that long dry spell from mid April to June and this combined with covers over the logs means the grip paint should have keyed well and will last. Thanks for your patience!






Black grade skinnies. A tricky uphill skinny followed by a tricky near 90 degree turn with inside beam to help your back wheel round.

Cheers,
Andy (MTB Ranger)

Descender Bender Upgrade!!

Hey all!!

Just to let you know that Descender Bender on the Mabie red trail is currently under a bit of a rebuild. Tally and the boys went in last week and are hoping to be out of there at the end of next week. There is a cheeky little diversion in place along some old natural singletrack, which drops you back out onto the Tower road near waymarker post 34, where it re-joins the red trail.

Please , please follow the diversions. Don't just push through and ride the unfinished trail cos that just delays the whole process for everyone else and costs more money to put right!!

Cheers

Grass roots mtb racing at Glentress, Tue 17th Aug

Over the last few years Peebles Cycling Club has developed a fantastic U16's Dirt Crit Series at Glentress. Very popular with kids, the format consists of a number of laps of a short, fast flowing circuit (~1.5km long). Overall racing times are kept low (e.g. 15 mins) to encourage close racing and keep things exciting. It's an excellent, very fun way for novice bikers to try xc racing and great for spectators, who get to see the racers whizzing by every couple of minutes.

Now Scottish Cycling has teamed up with Innerleithen MTB Racing and Peebles CC to offer both kids and adults the chance to race the 'Glentress 48'. Not 48 hours, but a much more appealing 48 minutes!

Here's some more from the organisers:

"It's fast and fun, it's cheap and it's on your doorstep. Come and race your mates or set yourself a personal challenge. Glentress 48 - how many laps of our fun mini mountainbike course can you do in 48 minutes?"

More info is over at www.innerleithenmtbracing.com or you can enter at www.entrycentral.com

Sign on is at the Buzzards Nest car park, the course is open for practise from 6 - 6.30pm then racing gets underway at 6.30pm with U14's followed by the adults race at 7.15pm.

Cheers

Andy (mtb ranger)