I ride fairly regularly at Blairadam, I like the natural rooty trails. I like how they vary season to season. I respect the weather and try not to ride there when doing so will damage the fragile trail structure.

I rerode some of the trails a recent race course had followed and was horrified. After two weeks of freezing nights and drying easterly winds, my expectation was that the trails would be in great shape. They were in fact an unrideable quagmire. I doubt they’ll recover till late in the summer.

Please race organisers, try to plan race courses with more respect to the seasons and the sustainability of the location’s ability to recover. Somewhere with better drainage than Blairadam would be much more suited for a race in February.

I’ve spent some time as a volunteer maintaining trails at Blairadam. If the trails are going to be used as insensitively as this again, I doubt anyone will volunteer for future trail building days.

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~cycling/?p=216

On the up-side, at least they don’t have a round of it running over the Cairngorm plateau eh? 🙄

damn!!!! beat me to it!!

bludy stoodints

Sorry you feel this way about this.

It was unfortunate, but in the week preceding the race we’d had some exceptionally bad weather, even for the season. The sheer amount of rain was out of sorts and couldn’t be predicted in race planning. I know the now defunct BikeBlairadam had events there at similar times of year and they were all fine.

We’ve agreed that there shouldn’t be a race there in winter again, but none of us could have foreseen the state the trails were in afterwards. We’re going to try and get a trail maintenance day done. Part of the deal is to leave the forest as we found it. Sadly at the minute I’m on with my dissertation and simply do not have time to get down there, but am hoping to do so in the spring break in a week’s time.

This race was encouraged by other local riders who all seemed to suggest that it would be OK, and not being local we had to take their word for it, but neither them nor us could have guessed at the way that amount of rain would have affected the trails. No one else has mentioned this to us and all the other locals seem happy with how the event was run and the impact it had.

In fairness, there is only one section that has suffered particularly on a 4 mile circuit between the bombhole and the steps which isn’t a long section.

We will try out best to sort this out, but like I say, the conditions were exceptional and unpredictable, even for February. The last time I saw an event with similar mud was SITS, which is held in August, which is a time when you’d expect a much more intense rainfall like we had.

i agree with mc, a wonder what the money from the blast race 2 years ago went on.

Part of the deal is to leave the forest as we found it.

Is the idea not to do this before you leave rather tahn when it suits you? I remember the No Fuss guys had to do a lot of work at Kirroughtree before they left which meant a very long weekend for them.

Is the blast race the one that was to raise funds for the trail builders and was held at a similar time of year?

Is the blast race the one that was to raise funds for the trail builders and was held at a similar time of year?

Yep, funds raised from the entry were to be reinvested in the trails. However the Bike Blairadam group broke up soon after. No mention of where the funds went to on the Bike Blairadam website.

that was the idea of the blast race to try and raise money for the trails .it was a good race but conditions were much better you could still use them after the race 2years later nowt has been done with any money.

Sounds like the only difference was that the students got a bit unlucky with the weather. Can’t criticise them for holding a race at that time of year if they haven’t been the only ones to hold one at that time of year. How about complaining about the folks that took money to improve the trails then broke up soon after.

in the week preceding the race we’d had some exceptionally bad weather, even for the season. The sheer amount of rain was out of sorts and couldn’t be predicted in race planning.

none of us could have foreseen the state the trails were in afterwards.

I think that the Blairadam Blast guys had a contingency postponement if the weather were to have threatened the durability of the trails. We were armouring with hardcore the areas we predicted would be most vulnerable the day before the race. IIRC on race day it rained, but it had been dry and probably icy the week before.

My contention is that given the weather conditions before the race, shouldn’t the organisers have rerouted race course. There were other areas of the forest that could have withstood the traffic better.

YGM McM

IIRC following the Blast the commission began a fairly sustained logging program which had repercussions throughout the Forrest.
The group decided to lay off trailbuilding during this period as no one was sure what lines would survive.
The other problem was the ever decreasing number of volunteers turning up for trailbuilding sessions. I’m sure mcmoonter will agree that it was the same few faces each time. Pretty poor showing when you considder the number of regular riders using Blairadam!
For anyone questioning the whereabouts of the funds raised through the Blast I’d be willing to stake my bike on the fact that they are sitting in the bank awaiting their next move.
Whether this is through trail maintenance (possibly not due to lack of volunteers) or some other means will I’m sure be revealed in time. I note that Bike:Blairadam subscribers have recently been mailed a link for a new website so something is happening!
I guess we just have to wait and see…

I rode at the blast race and really enjoyed it, even on a fully rigid singlespeed. I hope they can get something organised and the trails survive.

McM- I just didn’t think that it would get so bad in such a short time. I didn’t assume that an alternative would be needed and that was clearly wrong.

I got a letter through from the FC just now and they seemed happy enough with everything apart from the portaloos (which were more hassle than they were worth) and the use of the railway cutting.

As for the money from the Blast, knowing the effort that the guys behind Bike Blairadam and the new venture are putting in, I’d bet it’s safe and just needed this new opportunity to get things going.

Jamesey01,

The last couple of trailbuilding days were well attended and folks were really enthusiastic about future developments. I got the impression the organisation behind BikeBlairadam imploded at a critical point after the Blast when the clear felling took place.

I see lots of new faces on the trails and there are always bikers cars in the car park. I’m certain the mast descent trail could be cleared on a Saturday morning with 20 folks with pruning saws. That might be a worthwhile restitution for the SUS riders as I doubt there is anything short term that could be done with the trashed trail.

Who on earth were the advisers who okayed the race route given the weather?

I’ve always found Blairadam to be unenjoyably wet, and I do most of my riding at Pitmedden which isn’t faring too well recently either.

Part of the appeal of Blairadam is the natural character of the trails, I shudder when I hear of ‘new ventures’.

Sorry, but there aren’t 20 organisers to help out with that.

MCM
The trailbuilding session preceding the race was the exception not the rule. Unfortunately it’s easy to get excited about future development but the development is limited when you have the same 3/4 people struggling to build/maintain km’s of natural trails.
I remember being 1 of only 2 who spent an evening barrowing hardcore and completing the boardwalk in the East Boundary section!

I remember being 1 of only 2 who spent an evening barrowing hardcore and completing the boardwalk in the East Boundary section!

I remember turning up for a trailbuilding session to find that the ton bags of hardcore had been dropped at the car park. Had I not brought the 4×4 and trailer, the day would have been wasted barrowing material miles to the trails.

Trail building parties need planning and good management to get the best out of everyone. There is nothing worse turning up and standing around.

I spent a couple of years as part of the group, most of the trailbuilding in this time consisted of 4-6 people turning up every weekend to try and maintain/develop the trails..
With the use of trails it was an endless task just trying to maintain/armour what was there, never mind trying to develop new lines etc. There was also the constraints of what the permit allowed that the FC issued. As for money, the insurance premium, i’m sure was around £200 per year, Jamesy01 will correct me if i’m wrong. the only reason we manage to do anything the last year was thanks to a local bike shop who covered the cost of this payment.
I too was there MCM when you brought your trailer to the building sessions, which without, we would never have managed to move the materials into the forrest.

Weeeeell, might be worth mentioning here that there’s a pretty active trailbuilding group down at glentress, and that the next session (26th March) has just been cancelled so if there’s specific one-off work being done it might not be too hard to rouse a chain gang in a hurry.

After two weeks of freezing nights and drying easterly winds, my expectation was that the trails would be in great shape. They were in fact an unrideable quagmire. I doubt they’ll recover till late in the summer.

…when did we have 2 weeks of freezing nights this winter? 2 weeks of solid rain yeah but, sorry, there have not been 2 weeks of freezing nights at all. And ‘drying easterly’ winds…? When/where? and what good would these ‘winds’ have been in a mature flat forest..protected by…tree cover?

Apologies for wading in late, this is not my arguement and I’ve no axe to grind either way but the Blairadam title caught my attention and I found these statements to be, well, laying it on a little thick! 😉

ps I didn’t realise there were proper trails in Blairadam other than the pathways. If anybody’s up for giving a tour…

…when did we have 2 weeks of freezing nights this winter? 2 weeks of solid rain yeah but, sorry, there have not been 2 weeks of freezing nights at all. And ‘drying easterly’ winds…?

Those were the couple of weeks when virtually every farmer in the county managed to spread manure, plough and rotovate, and seed their land.

There are loads of great trails at Blairadam. If you would like a tour, I’d be happy to show you around.

Ok, we’ll have to agree to disagree on the weather…but I’d appreciate a tour!

Maybe one night after the clocks change next weekend if you’re local. The forest is about 4 or 5 mins from my house by car. 😆
cheers

No trouble, my email is in my profile, give me a shout sometime next again week. We could get a posse together with the guys from the Meadows.

Munrobiker

I think it’s time you took a good look at what you and your compatriots have done.

In fairness, there is only one section that has suffered particularly on a 4 mile circuit between the bombhole and the steps which isn’t a long section.

I have to disagree here. The section you mention is badly damaged. Various parts of The Ridge trail are badly damaged. The last section that Bike: Blairadam worked on after the race (and on which funds from the race were spent) is badly damaged.

Sections that had two or more years of traffic and coped, now fubared.

Here’s some pics, just to show what’s happened in a number of spots….

PICS

Oh, one last thing:

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~cycling/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=151

Re: UH OH – the STW massive are on yer backs…

New postby Luke » Mon Mar 21, 2011 5:11 pm
I hate STW. Bunch of middle class whiney cockbags.

Is this an indication of how serious your assurance that you’ll return and repair the damage is?

One positive thing in this thread though. It’s nice to see people taking an interest in Blairadam and the trails the group worked on. To see people like McMoonter, Murr, Stevenmenmuir and Stuartie C contribute. Local riders like them, who have actively helped the trailbuilding project over its life and who all got their hands dirty helping out on the various weekend sessions over the years.

It’s a shame there weren’t more people like you guys.

A Luke in St Andrews 💡

I think I rode that on Saturay (in my 20 minutes of bike time I managed!)…not been to Blairadam for a while but will be back soon. Can anyone tell me the story behind the engraved brickwork? Touch not the cat and a picture of a dragon? Looks real nice…

A Luke in St Andrews

Not ‘fit it with a rock then take it back and complain it’s damaged’ Luke?

Can anyone tell me the story behind the engraved brickwork? Touch not the cat and a picture of a dragon? Looks real nice…

Something to do with the brickworks that used to be in the woods and a reference to the beast IIRC.

Munrobiker

How are the repairs progressing?

Might be worth a ride this weekend to see how a week of blowing wind and rising temperatures have treated the trails….as long as the rain holds off!

Could be an idea. I might pop up after work tonight or head up tomorrow morning.

I’ve copied and pasted this from below. It appears above the door to Ballindalloch Castle on Speyside.

Touch Not The Cat Bot A Glove
Basically meaning ‘Dinnae Mess Wi’ Us, Likes, We’re Well Hard’!

Or, more enigmatically “The Wildcat Is Fierce When Its Claws Are Unsheathed… Be Warned… Do Not Touch.”

Either way, it’s a particularly effective historical equivalent of the ‘no cold callers’ sign…

Tiberius & neallyman, we might be going for a spin up to Blairadam this evening if either of you are around.

Thinking of having a look with a view to clearing a route down the mast descent.

Damn

Yeah I would do but have packed the bike in the car with a view to going down GT after work. Im still up for a tour though, maybe 1 night next week?

maybe 1 night next week?

What night best suits you? We sometimes meet at Lochore Meadows, ride the trails there and spin up to Blairadam, but could meet you at the Blairadam car park.

Tiberius & neallyman, we might be going for a spin up to Blairadam this evening if either of you are around.

Sorry, I never spotted this until today after pulling a late night at work. I’ll maybe manage it another time, work permitting.