I did Janet's Brae last year and thought it was ok...would have been better if I hadn't had to stop for a pee halfway up but it was decent. More interesting that the fireroad climb and seemed to go by quick enough.
I reckon the volunteers will soon have some singletrack bits added there to make it more entertaining.
<p>When is the UCI stuff over and the Shops open again?</p>
Am I right to say that the black route diversion takes you on that new fireroad that goes above where the skills area is, over to the end of soor plooms? Are the offpistes on that side affected at all? I was just riding around fairly randomly and planning to end on the fort, then I realised that getting back to the fort or dave's trails from the main trails is now a pain in the arse because the cabin closure area's so big. And that'll be true for anyone riding up from peebles.
I think there's a walking path that runs from below careless whisper over to the end of zoom or bust, but I think it goes into zorb itself near the end rather than to the road at the end, and zorb's shut of course. But I can't see any way to ride out of the offpistes that doesn't just basically take you out on the black.
(well, I can think of one, but I know it's taped off even though it's ridable and there's no building work there currently)
Wasn't impressed with the quality of signage, as a side-grumble... It's all visible but it's "follow the arrows", it never actually tells you where you're going as far as I can tell. No maps, no explanations. Which is fine to get people just to follow the route but not good for anyone that needs to understand where they're going. That's kind of a classic for having one diversion sign fall over and have the whole thing become a fiasco like at Afan during the windfarm works.
You may be able to ride skip past the barriers in certain places, at the weekend only, allegedly. Or just go straight up the road the goes past the bottom of Careless Whisper etc
ZorB was fine for the demo weekend, that walking trail being you up no more than 50m from the end (iirc). Don’t think you’d have a problem
Yeah, getting up into the offpistes there is dead easy, just go up the road past the huts instead of up janet's brae... probably a better way to access the black than going up Janet's Brae too actually. But it doesn't work so well as an exit 🙂
Am I on the right track, the walker's trail comes through the wall just after the very last right turn on zoom or bust? Never actually been through there.
Yup, right about there
Ta, might never use it but it's good to have options in the bag.
There's actually two climbs next to each other in the Soonhope valley- both start at the junction with the track heading across the valley to the kennels. The official (and less obvious) one to the left looking up hill ends up between the start of Z or B and Jailbreak, while the more obvious one goes through the wall at the end of Z or B.
Z or B itself was mostly still in existence recently despite the works, with only a small section being taken over by a cabin footprint. I'd expect it will continue to be used once the cabins are done.
So a XC track that will only be used for the Worlds, and then removed? That's a shame - I hoped it would lead to some impetus of getting a XC World Cup on these shores. We need one, having the current Olympic chanpion, and a recent World champion.....
