Full set of photos and vids are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonralli/sets/72157622336609883/

I'd like to begin by thanking everyone who came along to one or both days this weekend for making it one of the toppest weekend's riding I've had.

Both days we got lucky with the weather, and I think Kit even said he got sunburnt on Saturday up at McMoab.

We had a strong turnout Saturday at Kirroughtree, and the pace was very relaxed, but still allowing for a lot of swoopy and fast moments on the early red section.

Although I bottled one rocky bit where I had had my crash last week, I made it up and over a couple of sections I hadn't done before with everyone's encouragement.

Then it was on to the black, with lots of downhill bermy fun, although Trekster may have had an off at Jaberwocky?

Stairway to Heaven was a good laugh, although there were a few offs and spills trying to get a monsterously steep slab. Lest anyone thinks I am taking the p with these pics, I didn't even get up on to the early first foot of rock it was that tough.

Trekster amazingly made it up, as he did this section, as seen in the video, but it took him three swear word ridden attempts

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonralli/3955614859/in/set-72157622336609883/

And then on the notorious McMoab, where Ye Gods of STW showed us how to clear the lot without dabbing

Although it was only Davy_G who went down the chute at the end!

Then it was on up Heartbreak Hill and some super swoopy singletrack, although that is where I clanged my knee which smarted somewhat. I was chuffed though to clear some rocky steps I had walked down last weekend with the Pyekids. I don't really have to many more photos, as most of the time we were bombing along over rocks and through woods having so much fun.

Hissing Sid was no match for Trekster the first time who ended up in the bushes, and Scotabroad came a cropper too. Craig1975 cleared it although I think he was somewhat apprehensive. Respect though for having a go as I walked down it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonralli/3955773121/in/set-72157622336609883/

So yeah, back on to the red for a lot more swoopy fast singletrack, and then some well deserves coffee and cake

Oh, we had an excellent Chinese in Dumfries Saturday night, and Trekster, Househusband, Eric and Kit were treated to a most rousing version of Wonderwall at the Hole in the Wall – heh – I got to sing – just got lucky with the timing as when we arrived my friend KJ was just finishing his first set of the night.

Today at Dalbeattie we had another great turnout

After a slight navigational mixup on the skills loop where we seemed to lose half the group, we all found each other again and Trekster was soon showing us some fantastic off-piste trails with two slip slidy descents. Lucky for us it was bone dry.

I was again well chuffed as I rode down two drops that I have never ridden before, but I swear the second one was way steeper so Trekster must have had the camera at a funny angle.

I had a mixed day myself, coming off one or two easy rock gardens, but safely navigating the downhill one and that tricky one towards the end.

That's about it for my photos but I think Trekster and Kit have a few more of the second half of Dalbeattie. We were going at a bit of a pace as Kit needed to get back to catch a train, and after the Terrible Twins my legs were really starting to feel it.

But yeah, it's so great to be able to faces to so many names, and it was a fantastic end to a major month of Scotland and Lake District riding for me.

Great Pictures Simon, thanks for arranging a top weekends riding, with top people.

Yeah great to see you Forge. Have you ridden those off-piste sections at Dalbeattie? If you haven't you are certainly in for a treat!

Looks like you guys had a ball. Nice one.

Simon – no not yet would like to now I've heard it's there.

Jeezo what is it with you guys? pfft meeting up and riding bikes, i thought this forum was for political debate and arguments 😀

Looks like you had a hoot and a holler- nice one.

flickr pics

Heh – cheers Trekster.

Poseur? Moi? 😀

At least in this pic it actually looks like I am going down something 🙂

Lots of great photos too of the rest of the gang. Am sure they will post up some of their faves too once they get home.

You dont have that one of me doing those rocks on Stairway to Heaven do you? That down and hard right corner rock?

Just figured out the flickr way of posting pics, hopefully. Photobucket is easier.

Simon.Quite a few blurred pics so if it is not there then it was a bady.

Possibly my fave SiRalli pic. Bit blurred but the "feeling" is there;

Good lighting and sky for Moab, even with my cheapo digi compact

Trekster

No probs. Will just have to wait for Kit's photos including that ridiculously fraudulent one from Kirroughtree of me looking like I can actually ride my bike 😀

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2607/3958359359_91ff7a6129_o.jpg[/img]
Electrogirl has given OK to post a pic or 2;

what a hoot.. some good pics there…I am still waiting on the 2 guys who took the pics @ the chute emailing me the shots…

DavyG – yeah – I missed him as I was singing I think, but that wee lad taking the photos was in The Hole in the Wall. There were two very nice lasses near us and he told us that one of them had done the chute. Awesome huh? I'll never do that in a million years.

Nice to see you guys today.

Good to see you guys briefly and good pics from the weekend. We had a ball too, said hi to a couple of your team and we played trail leapfrog with you, Saturday at KT. Sunday for us was Mabie, not Dalbeattie. Great pics of McMoab… Catch you again if your up for another ride.

some nice pics and looks like a great day out.

That's my favourite Stane.

Hi Rick. We had a quick hello. Just as busy at D`beattie today as it was at Kirry.
Enjoy Mabie?

Simon – thanks for a great weekend, I had a blast, it was really good meeting every one, look forward to hooking up with you guys again soon.

Trekster – sorry I missed you at the car park and never got to say thanks for taking the time out to show us some of the off beat stuff around Dalbettie, many thanks!!

I'm completely knackered but in a very good way 😀

Theres some grate pics there, looking forward to checking out Kits two.

One of my fave. moments of the weekend was Davie showing up that young whipper snapper at McMoab 😆

Cheers Craig

Just been through all the photos, brilliant Simon & trekster, thanks for sharing.
Glad you had a good day today. Saturday was one of the best riding days ever 😀
I woke up with pretty tired legs this morning, despite that apple pie & coffee!

Hope to meet up again sometime.
Cheers,
Rob (black P7)

PS – Kevin the Hippo has achieved a lifelong ambition by getting his photo on singletrack! He's as happy as, well, a hippo in mud!

Good photos guys, hope you had as much fun as we did in Dorset. That's a proper sized cake/pie too.

The joys of having a non biking wife.

Just pointed out a few pics to the wife. Her reply was

"You all look like divs"

Hmmm, i suppose we do if you arent a biker

Add my thanks to the list for a great day out, one of the classics for this year, plus fantastic photaes, the kids like the pics and video of daddy falling off! 😀

Hi guys, great weekend and thanks to Simon for organising and John-Henry (Trekster) for showing us some off-piste stuff at Dalbeattie. Sorry that we all kinda rushed back to the cars at Dalbeattie so I could get my train – thanks 🙂

Anyway, here are my 'best' photos. Not my finest work, but hope you enjoy them 😀

The many faces of simonralli

Trekster, davy-g, electrogirl, craig1975, davy-g, scotabroad(?), tandemwarrior

Remaining photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gingerfox/sets/72157622343310503/

Simon doing his beloved karaoke in Dumfries 8)

Trekster, Mabie was good but for me, the rock and tech of Db would be better. Plus we had to function at a lower level due to an industrial nights drinking……

Hope to catch up with you again and its good to meet the people behind the forum names…

Kit – hmm – thanks for those. Anyone who has not ridden these places would think why is that loon pulling faces on flat looking stuff! I'm sure if people rode these places, such as Jacob's Ladder, they'd see the reason for all the face pulling and shouting and things!

Rick – hi – sorry – I was looking out for you guys in the car park, and could'nt see a big T5. So I must have assumed that group was not you guys so didn't have a chance to say hi.

a few pics from the non party members taken at the McMoab Chute..

http://picasaweb.google.com/pauloyatis/2009_09_26?feat=email#5386199241820885746

thanks for the pics Kit, Simon looks in pain at the karaoke….LMAO 😆

Si – looks like you had an ace weekend – I'm glad it all went to plan

Trekster – if we get up to Dalbeattie next year would you show us round the 'off piste' bits?

DeeJay

You'll love the off-piste bits. John's famous last words were if you can get down to the trees (i.e. maybe 50m from the start of the descent) you'll be fine the rest of it. Well I made it down to the trees but then the descent is a narrow "track" that you can barely make out along and down a very steep and loose soily and rooty wooded section!

I lost my way failing to see the path at one point, and had to stop and line up my bike for the final drop down which was very steep and skiddy but mad fun.

This is Electorgirl and Craig coming out of the woods

There is then a tough but do-able climb which is partly on a groove in the grass and makes for a nice change from the rocky and wooded singletrack sections elsewhere. It was quite funny as we then did another off-piste section through braken, and I wish I had a photo as the braken was almost as high as poor old electrogirl!

Forge – Trekster or myself should be able to give you directions for these sections if you want to give it a go, although we missed off the loose downhill section that I was hoping to do this time, the path goes up the black de-tour if you remember that, and then across the drop.

Davy-G – I can't work out how to do a direct link, but this should always be shown to people to show what people face to the top of McMoab, as pics from the bottom just don't do it justice!

http://picasaweb.google.com/pauloyatis/2009_09_26?feat=email#5386197891390110594

here ya go.. and please just call me Davy…. 😉 if you right click the bottom image and then select "save image as" and save to your desktop and then zoom in on the guy beside me in the pic you can actually see the fear on his face.. 8)

Si – sounds good – was the bracken this high?

Quick heads-up to anyone riding yesterday with us and who's reading this.

I found two ticks, one on each ankle, this morning which I must have picked up from the bracken. I would recommend checking about your person (everywhere!) ASAP.

A few marks but no ticks here.

They seem to have been no match for my body armour. 😀

Kit – Yip i had a tick on my leg, I checked my legs straight after coming out of that wee section, and sure enough there was one, oops…. sorry all, maybe I should have mentioned it 🙄

I always do a check for them after going through places like that, i'm paranoid.

I take it no one caught the 'bug' i had. Not 100% today either.

I feel fine, and even my knee seems to have healed nicely.

And as a final PS, had over 1000 views yesterday and nearly 500 today of the photos on Flickr which is great, but looking through the stats, one photo really stands out. I had one view today of my friend Danielle from Gibraltar kissing another of her girlfriends.

That just HAS to be one of you lot out there surely?? 😀

Cripes that Chute looks a bit mental. That looks like a brilliant day out.

As Rick says, we caught up with a few of you at some points, mainly McMoab I think. First trip to Kirroughtree for quite a while for me. I'd forgotten how good it is.

We had a pretty tame day at Mabie on the Sunday, mainly due to the excessive alcohol on the Saturday night. All in all a great weekend though.

Oh, and I learned for the first time that it's pronounced Kirr-Ruff-Tree and not Kirr-O-Tree as I'd always thought.