Coming back from a trip to the Highlands it seems Peebles is a good spot to break our journey for a night! I’ve not been to Glentress so looking forward to it

Which trails should I ride? I’m looking for a 30-40km ride lasting about four hours whilst MrsJ and MiniJ probably do the blue and play in the skills loop and cafe.
Should I do the red then the blue or should I go for the black? How technical is the black? I’d call myself a solid red rider, happy on say Coed Y Brenin or the Gisburn Red or most of the natural stuff in the Peak District (I draw the line at the Beast!) But really rocky stuff which isn’t rollable scares me! I don’t mind pushing up a climb but would rather ride down!

I know people will tell me the best stuff is off piste but first first visit by myself I’d rather stick to the trails

Ta

For me mix and match. Red with an hour at the Buzzards nest riding the freerides and Berm baby berm and zoom and bust if its still there
I would also tend to do the pie run and mushroom pie (? ) a couple of times.

I’d do a couple of runs of the Red. You’ll enjoy the second more as you’ll know what’s coming and you can have a break to meet the family.

Black is mostly just longer with a lot more climbing but not any more technical than the red. Red then black would be good. If you do venture off-piste, use trailforks to get you to the start of each trail.

Red twice with a break in-between. Then the blue if some still left in the tank.

Depending on your families abilities you could do the blue with them and then the red yourself. Combination of blue and red does most of the best bits. Electric blue, Betty blue, blue velvet and berm baby berm are all great fun for anybody. Are the rest of your family able to cope with the climb up to the buzzards nest car park? If not, you can drive everybody up there and all ride to the cafe. You then get to ride back up for the car. There’s a fair bit of climbing involved in the blue route, if the family don’t fancy that there’s still plenty in and around buzzards nest, blue velvet and berm baby berm are very close and you can do electric blue down to the bridge over the climb then climb back up to buzzards nest. Loads of options.

Most of the off piste stuff is a fair step up for a solid red rider and very different to the black route.

As above black is just a long red (less well maintained) it only gets tricky towards the end. First time and fun I’d stay red (duck into the mushroom pie etc towards the end as opposed the red end and play on some of the fun blue bits. If it’s this week then most of the off piste stuff will be less fun due to weather. Ok if you’re not time pressured but a family waiting would make me favour blue/red as it gives way return to cafe if family are getting restless.

Red climb and descent (coffee stop at café )
Then Red climb and join the black near the mast.
stay at Cleikum Mill Lodge.

make sure Mrs and Mini do the green route. I’m sure they’ll enjoy it. Check it on the map. It is very poorly signposted, near the skills loop, accessed at the start of your way to the red route / BBB.

Black to the radio mast if you don’t mind a hard climb – beautiful trail, and then gives you the most options for how to get down. Crossing over to the top of the red is very simple, and easiest would be to just ride that down. Or you could get on trailforks to see how you can mix and match.
The GT blue is the best I’ve seen at a UK trail centre BUT as mentioned above it is an arduous climb for beginners. Defo have wife and kid drive up to Buzzards nest car park to start off.

Thanks everyone. Looks like the general consensus is red/blue.
I’ll climb up with the family to the top car park then leave them for a play whilst I ride on.
They’ll be fine on the blue, we all ride together a lot and MiniJ has done the blues at Llandegla and Whinlatter.

I’ll climb up with the family to the top car park then leave them for a play whilst I ride on.

Eh. Why on earth would you do that. Drive to the top car park and let the kid get the free height gain. He then ends up in the cafe at the bottom and you get the car.
I can’t conceive of a situation where you’d start the kid from the bottom….unless he’s wants the tick or is not really a kid.

Red then a sighter on the blue, then the blue at least twice going as fast as you can. The blue is more awesome the faster you go. If you have a mate to race on the descents too it’s even better

The Black is closed from the top of the Redemption climb.

I would ride the Black to this point, at the closure turn RIGHT and head up the zigzag to the fireroad. Go LEFT, then RIGHT at the next junction. You are now on the Red. Follow this back up to the top, then down to the bottom.

Scottish reds are harder than Welsh reds, which are harder than English reds.

You can replace the word ‘reds’ with almost anything and it still holds true. 😀

I can happily ride the Beast and most Welsh reds, but some of the Scottish stuff gives me the willies (wullies?).

Red GTI? That’s Glentress and Innerleithen reds in one ride, link between them via the river path (old railway line). About 55km I think but the link trail is pancake flat so it’s not 55km off road, more like 45km.

You could just ride the off-piste stuff at Inners or even book on the uplift.

Why on earth would you do that. Drive to the top car park and let the kid get the free height gain

Because the climb from the bottom to buzzards nest is the only enjoyable climb. If climbing isn’t a problem its well worth doing.

Ejh? Its not difficult but it is tedious

I like it!

I get to fall off logs, fail to get up stone steps, Generally be shit.

#realmountainbiking

You are going to get lots of varied responses. I would personally climb to thr mast through black, go down Carl’s lane and do the big long descent, then go up to spooky woods and do te marked red. This route is not technically challenging unless you want to to run it really fast. This should be about 30km and 800m of climbing if memory serves right.

We normally do the Red from Peel to Buzzards, then black up to the mast and follow until the end of the Boundary trail, then head to the Red Spooky Wood climb and follow the Red/Blue back to Peel.
That’s just over 20 miles and 3000 ft of ascent and nothing really technical in it.

Thanks again. Just having a look at the trail map i can find – where is this mast everyone is speaking of? How easy is it to find my way from the black to the red?

Mast is the highest point of the Black. After Britney Spears there’s a short sharp climb up to the mast. Or if you continue up the forest road past the turn off for Spooky Wood that also takes you up to the mast.

Cheers – I found the mast on aore up to date map. Looks very easy to get to the top of Spooky Wood from there. But that seems to miss out some good downhills on the black. Should I stay on the black a bit longer? And then how do I cross over. Looking online I’d like to do Spooky Wood if I can.
Sorry for all the questions!

You could do Spooky then join the blue, turn left at the end of Spooky. After you’ve done Betty Blue turn left and follow the forest road round. You can then go down deliverance or continue on the forest road for a few more minutes and do Mild Peril, one of the best trails at GT IMHO, also one of the less challenging bits of off piste. That rejoins deliverance so you’ll get to do some of that. You then have the horrible redemption climb but it’s possible to rejoin the red part way up and do Hit squad hill, then pie run, mushroom pie and magic mushroom.

If you were to do the black note there is a diversion now (after deliverance – near top of Redemtion >= Link Path) that brings you back to the bottom of Super G – or as stevenmenmuir mentions near mild peril. Another option (if you’re following the black) is rather than continue down the red after the diversion (hit squad) you could pedal back up the fire road to Spooky wood and follow that down (which also has diversions atm).

It’s hard to wrong tbh if you’ve got trailforks and a print out of the map! If the family is there- I’d stick with a mix of the red’s & blues and the bits off that: so you could get back to the cafe easily.