Well folks, this thread is the announcement for a STW group ride around the western 7 Stanes. So far it is me, Trekster and Forge187 (and maybe Mrs Forge too). Trekster may be bringing one or two of his colleagues he goes riding with locally too. Any questions Trekster or myself should be able to help.
I am not assuming this is going to be one of those really big group rides, but was thinking it would be great to see a few of either the Edinburgh and Glasgow gang or others who are not too far away. Unfortunately I am not in a position to offer accomodation, but if anyone wants to come for both days, we would suggest getting a B&B in Dumfries of which there is a good choice.
Here's the plan:
Saturday 26th September - Kirroughtree
Meet up around 10am in the car park, ready to set off on the ride at 11am.
We will be riding the Kirroughtree red/black route. For those who do not know, the route is like a figure of eight, 8, whereby you start at the very bottom of the 8 on the red route. In the middle, you then start the black route, which loops around and you then finish up on the second half of the red. If that does not make sense, then you will be able download a PDF of the route via this link here:
http://www.7stanes.gov.uk/forestry/achs-5rnf8m
This link also has travel information on how to get there. If anyone wants to say bring a partner or friends who may not be fully confident on doing the entire loop, there are a couple of options
i) Just do the red route
ii) Do the route up to McMoab (the very top) then ride back on the road.
I will bring a few extra maps for those who may want to have options. Kirroughtree is family friendly, and has a cafe, small bike shop for parts, and a bike wash and I think showers?
Kirroughtree features the awesomely difficult McMoab rocks, but this is maybe a football pitched sized area of rock, where there is also a fireroad to ride on and by no means has to be ridden. I tried it once and just got no where so don't worry about this. The black is more about distance, and although there are ridiculously difficult sections, these tend to be a few metres long and can easily be missed by a quick push or carry. Apart from that Kirroughtree features some fantastic flowing singletrack and the black can be ridden by less confident or maybe less skilled riders but who have a good degree of fitness.
Sunday 27th September
AM - Dalbeattie
Meet at 10am, finish around 2pm (This assumes a very relaxed pace) I can do the red loop in around 3 hours, which includes a stop for sarnies. I think we could probably get fish and chips in Dalbeattie for lunch as there is no cafe at the track, and there is a small tap and hose for bike washing.
Here's the Dalbeattie website
http://www.7stanes.gov.uk/forestry/achs-5rnf8m
Dalbeattie features the double black Slab and Terrible Twins rocks to ride down, but I doubt I will ever ride these in my lifetime and there are red route bypasses so the routes are great where there are mixed abilities.
Lunch in Dalbeattie
PM - Mabie
Not assuming everyone would join in, but this is a 2 1/2 hour red loop of nice flowing singletrack. Mabie also has the darkside which is a few km of silly difficult northshore, and a skillz park for kids who like to get "phat airtime". It also has a nice little cafe, bike shop and a bike wash.
Mabie website
http://www.7stanes.gov.uk/forestry/achs-5rnfl6
This is going to be quite a challenge for me fitness wise, so gives me a lot of motivation to get fit, and I thought I would put this up as I dont think there has been a SW Scotland group ride in quite some time, if at all. As I said, please let me know if you are interested just so I can guage numbers. Hopefully it will be a cracking weekend, and even if you can just make one of the days would be great to see you there. So do please come along as I will need a lot of encouragement especially on day 2 to get myself around!
but who you would think would not remind their valued customers of ay?
