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I'm just about to head out for a spin in the Pentlands and was thinking I might include Black Hill and the Nail Trail in my route. Haven't ridden either for about 5 years though, so wondered what state they're in these days. Ok, or should I avoid given it's been raining much of the day?
I was down Black Hill last Friday night. It was raining at the time so there were a few puddles, but otherwise running fine. Has been dry all week and rain today hasn't been to bad so think it would be OK. Even the squelchy bit in the middle isn't too bad. If it's 5 years since you've been, you will see some change at the top where the trail has collapsed into the gully that had formed on the right near the top.
No idea about Nail Trail though
rain today hasn't been to bad
Was pretty wet in Juniper Green this afternoon.
Not too far away from you Steven, but to be honest I've been too busy to look out the window much today and was just going by the local puddle gauge when making my assessment!
Cheers gents - gave the Nail Trail a miss tonight but as suggested Black Hill was fine barring a couple of soft bits and a load of puddles.
Very quiet up there tonight - only saw a couple of walkers near the Harlaw car-park and one guy in a wetsuit heading down to the reservoir from the Thriepmuir car-park.
I'd consider myself a local, but where's nail trail?
The Nail Trail is in one of the treelines back from the Pentlands to the west side of Balerno. There are actually quite a few trails in there but some of them need a few lifts over fences etc.
To answer my own question on the Nail Trail. The top part (until the bridge) isn't good - a few muddy patches and quite a few fallen trees. Lower down it's better but it's not really until closer to Balerno, where it flattens out, that it's good.
Went down Scalextrics, up Puke Hill (even more horrible than I remember it) and then down Phantoms Cleugh - the latter is quite a mess, certainly one I'll avoid in future.
Had a look out the window, the pentlands have sunk.
I rode Nail Trail on tuesday before the deluge, I don't usually do the traditional/short nail trail, I like the big flat version from further along the road... But it was riding better than I can remember it riding for a long time. One fallen tree that I didn't quite manage to ride but other'n that it was grand. There's a couple of sumps that'll always be wet but I managed to more or less fix the drainage in one of those last year so while it's still wet, it's not generally 40 feet wide.