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I’m sure this has been asked many times before.
But, we are staying in peebels for the week. Done loads of research’s trail wise, but always good to hear it from other people’s knowledge.
Just me and the misses here. Normally ride sowuth wales and Forest of Dean/ surrounding forests off piste type stuff.
Not a massive fan of trail centres, she is getting better on the steep stuff.
So what would you say we should and shouldn’t ride.
Go.
It’s Peebles!
Ride the trail center. It's got everything.
You will be spoiled for choice and it's no good saying ride here, or ride there as it's all good.
You would have a harder time finding crap riding round Peebles.
Ride up Janet's Brae from the town, takes you to Buzzards car park. Finish your Glentress ride with Zoom or Bust and Dave's Trail - brings you out at the bottom of Janet's Brae beside the Hydro exit. Plenty of good off-piste stuff, hit up Trailforks. If you like steep stuff something like Trail Fairy Plan should fit the bill, not so steep Ho-Chi Minh is running nice right now and something with a bit of everything like Careless Whisper.
Goto Innerleithen. Far better than glentress imho. Golfie is running very well at the moment, if you like step rooty trails, been ridding there the last 2 days.
How steep is steep? I love the FOD but everything I've ridden there has been of the "steep enough to pay attention but gentle enough to steam in" variety while there's a fair bit in the valley which is "steep enough that on first visit, you're basically only thinking about how ****ing steep it is and trying not to fall off because if you go over the bars, you will suddenly find yourself about 2 stories up and you'll impale yourself not on a branch but on the actual pointy top of a larch"
Anyway. Peebles/Innerleithen have basically everything. Inners red route is pretty tired and imo feels like more effort than you get back, GT red is superbly approachable so on the first visit you can blast around and see stuff coming etc. Both are good but, well, it's at least 2 years since I've done inners red as a loop rather than just using it to access offpiste stuff.
For the offpistes, the problem is like cannop, there's so much that it's hard to navigate sometimes and hard to choose. Innerleithen trailcentre is probably the best balance, there's hard stuff like Prospacker and Too Hard for EWS, and there's awesome-at-all-speeds stuff like Angry Sheep, all pretty easy to access and for the most part not hard to navigate (the DH is an absolute warren, but the offpistes tend to be single trails rather than crisscrosses)
Was up there a few weeks ago, like others have said golfie is very very good! I found thornielee the best riding in the area. Maybe I was having a real good day but it was just so fun! Glentress off piste was real good too. Proper mix of stuff. Uplift day at Innerleithen to mix it up as well? A mate of mine reckons yair is well worth a morning but we just didn’t have time to fit it in.
Everything up there is real good and I’m we didn’t ride a quarter of it I’m sure
Thornielee is pretty glorious. And it feels so different to the others. This time of year especially there's something about that forest that just feels like you're in another place entirely, it always makes me thing of the tarantaise.
Depends on what your idea of steep in the FOD is. There is certainly stuff there as steep as the less well known stuff on the Golfie, the biggest difference is it’s more sustained up there.
Having just come back, and done pretty much everywhere mentioned so far, I would rate Glentress as the (relative) worst place to ride.
Innerleithen trailcentre is probably the best balance
Northwind knows. Ignore the golfie for you first time, unless you've a guide to string a ride together once you've got your eye in to know what you like/don't like.
Inners DH is like a harder trail centre. Loads of trails to ride that aren't mega steep or hard, they're signposted at the starts, and the rest you can find on trailforks. Really good place for a good intro into the valley. Tunnel -> Luge, Gold, Cresta, Angry Sheep, Greenwing, Salmond's Journey, IXS, better than luge - all perfect to dip you toe, and you can keep doing loops until you're tired.
Then onto Thornielee for the easier trails off the top that aren't as intimidating as the Golfie - but steep enough that you'll have fun. Slabs and Dabs, Gum Drop, High and Low Definition, Helter Skelter, Top Dogging.
GT.... Trailfairy Plan is burly, but it was a mess last time I rode it - which is a real shame as it used to be my favourite trail at GT. I'd recommend going up to the mast, doing Mast of Zorro, My Cousin's Nipple Got Pierced, Fairy Liquid, then back to the jump park, up to the top of Spooky Climb - down Ho Chi Minh, into Zoom or Bust, pedal along to Dave's Trail and finish by pedalling back to the Peel carpark on the cycle path - don't cycle on the road! (I've left out Hush Hush, and it feels a bit battered!).
I'm always a bit amazed at how many find Inners or anywhere else so much better than GT.
GT is running brilliant at the mo. The off piste is brilliant but the black trails are superb.
Mild peril is great fun as is Liethen door. Skullduggery is great fun.
Inners is chewed to bits. The downhill stuff is a mess and the climb without the uplift is a pain in the hoop.
Golfie is , of course, magic. As is Thornylee.
As I said though, you would find it harder to find crap riding around Peebles.
All the replies are much appreciated, trying to work out way round them.
Which has proven to us that we need another holiday in peebels! So much here it’s ridiculous.
It's Peebles
rickon
Full MemberGT…. Trailfairy Plan is burly, but it was a mess last time I rode it – which is a real shame as it used to be my favourite trail at GT
Yeah, it was due for a bunch of rebuilding this year but we didn't get to it for some reason 🙂 I love the trail but it feels a wee bit like we'll be building it for the third time. Last time I rode it was on the fatbike, quite a bad idea that because the rut is narrower and deeper than the cranks.
Rode it on Saturday for the first time in a month or two, it was ace. The rut's more like a canyon in places!
Had a big day at glentress today, did Innerleithen red + Angry sheep yesterday.
I did GT blue to start, to the buzzards next, brilliant fun trails. Then up to the mast for Carls Lane into truong chinh into ho chi min into zoom or bust which was excellent. Then down electric blue and falla brae for some lunch.
Then back up to the mast (again!) for boundry trail, then hush hush/5 year plan, which was fun/not fun in a "holy shit balls this is steep, please let me survive this" way.
My legs were already toast at this point from the 2nd climb to the mast from the cafe (4000ft and 35 miles total), so instead of doing deliverance (which looked fantastic from the fire road above) knowing that redemption climb would be hellish, I did hit squad hill, pie run and magic mushroom and the admiral.
For Innerleithen, the red was OK, GT was much better IMO. Angry sheep is much steeper than it looks on video, but nothing compared to hush hush, after a bit of brain readjustment it would be fine. Hush hush on the other hand, hell no.
Got an uplift day booked for Innerleithen on Friday so I'm hoping to find some of the less insane trails there!