A bit of a ramble about our weekend, so read on at your own risk of boredom 😀

11 of the lads and I took a trip up from Derbyshire this weekend just gone. Drove up Friday in a minibus and van – a 10hr trip including the worlds most expensive breakfast at Charnock Richard services and a stop somewhere between Loch Lomond and Glencoe for a couple of pints and a chilli burger.

Fantastic scenery went by as we drove through the Highlands and finally arrived at our digs overlooking the Loch at Fort Willam and the surrounding mountains bathed in sunshine. The house was fairly basic with bunk beds, but at £50 each for 3 nights, suited us down to the ground.

Friday night brought plenty of beers in town and a trip to a curry house so bad it was funny. Much piss taking ensued and we eventually tumbled out into another pub with live music and an outside balcony with stunning views across the Loch, before returning to the digs with more beer and a night staying up just a little too late.

Saturday morning and everyone was surprisingly bright and a good fry-up sorted everyone out, although last nights curry saw 5 trips for me (enough said). We got to the trails around 9.30 with a view to doing a couple of XC runs before hitting the uplift and doing the Red – the weather was fantastic again. We started with 10 Under The Ben and after enduring far too much fire road, abandoned it at the bottom of the DH course (with hindsight missing the best bit) and flew down to the bottom with a few jumps and drops.

After the disappointment of the first trail we decided to get lift passes and head up the hill for a go at the Red run. The gondola gave fantastic views of the DH course and some of the Scots National team were starting to come down and made a brutal looking course look easy.

The boardwalk on the side of the mountain scared the crap out of most of us and shaky legs after not riding for the best part of 6 months weren't helping me. After the boardwalk came the rocks – steep rocks, kickers, drops, boulders and wheel snagging gaps were the order of the day and looking at videos since returning suggests that when the trail was opened a lot of the features were smoothed out with stone – the winter seems to have got rid of most of this making it a lot more challenging. Legs, arms and brakes couldn't make a continuous run and with a range of skill levels we had a few breathers, but the rocks eventually gave way to swooping loose corners and stream crossings before spitting us out at the bottom of the Black.

The bottom of the Black was super fun with jumps, drops and a steep run in, with a final jump and double drop offs to the finish. Panini's and Cappucino's were consumed at the cafe with massive grins and constant banter about the run down.

We were all pretty apprehensive about the DH course after the severity of the apparent 'Red', but a few folk commented about it not actually being as hard. We all headed up for a run down and save for a couple of sections all managed it, but we were on the limit – it's a bugger when teenagers make it look so easy and professionals seem to touch the ground for about 20 seconds of the whole run down – it really was seat of the pants for most of us.

Unfortunately the 'Apprentice' stacked it somewhere near the bottom and despite arriving at the bottom seemingly ok and wearing a full face had smacked his head pretty badly and within 5 minutes was feeling like crap – 10 minutes later he hadn't got a clue where he was, what day it was, or how he even got there. After 45 minutes in the medical room, his face was swollen and his pulse was 120, so an ambulance was called by the staff and the poor bloke went for a 24hr stay in A & E with a CT scan eventually confirming he was OK. Meanwhile some of the others had anothe run down, resulting in a broken finger and three bad stacks. No riding the next day for a total of three now.

A visit to see our pal in hospital was followed by more live music, a cracking meal in the Ben Nevis pub restaurant and back to the digs where the banter and piss taking had us all literally crying with laughter.

Sunday morning wasn't such an early start, but another good fry up sorted everyone out again. The weather had seemingly cracked and the previous days challenges didn't seem too tempting in the wet, but by the time we got out there it had started to dry an we were in for another good day weather wise. To get the beer out we started with the WC XC course which was a massive improvement over the previous days effort, with some lovely singletrack down through the woods. However I wasn't feeling confident with my riding and was nervous about going up the hill.

The first run down the red compounded my fears and shaky legs at the end of the boardwalk had me all over the place. It proved to be mostly psycological, as I talked myself round and enjoyed the rest of the run. Everyone decided against the black though with tired legs and the final run before the lift closed was another red – mojo fully restored and it flowed beautifully, especially nailing the last two drops into the arena at the bottom. Hopefully some videos and decent photo's to come soon.

Seafood, seafood and more seafood was on the menu at a lovely little restaurant on the edge of the Loch – pricey, but well worth it and a fitting end to the weekend. Of course, it wouldn't have been complete without a few 16yr old whisky's back in the Ben Nevis pub.

We all try and go away once a year to a trail centre but this time it was something else – we all rode stuff that would normally have us scoping it for 10 minutes before bottling it. It was made all the better by the fantastic craic and topped off with the best weather Scotland has seen this year – it'll take some beating (wonders how to get a trip to the Alps past the missus next year).

Oh – that Ruaridh Cunningham knows how to ride a bike too 😀