Hi
What’s the black route at Glentress after deliverance/redemption like these days?
not done a full lap for about 10 years when the ewok village was still there, as I usually divert to spooky wood after redemption climb.

just wondering has it changed/improved since then?

ta

much the same except the woodwork is gone

That ^

ta.
not sure whether to give it blast for old time sake or stick to usual mix of black then red.

Do you have Trailforks?

The unwaymarked trails offer a nice alternative to the latter part of the black. Divert off the Boundary Trail onto Hush-hush/5 Year Plan, then miss out Deliverance in favour of climbing up the fire road and doing Broon Troot which deposits you on the Redemption climb. Thereafter you can follow the waymarked black route until you exit The Bitch, at which point you can finish with Ponduro, which ends fairly close to the trail head.

Oh. Endurbro-Lite?

If you haven’t done it in a while (and enjoyed it previously) just sticking to the standard Black might suit you best… it’s still a pretty nice route.
Descents are all generally longer and faster than all of the unmarked trails.

Doing Ponduro to finish misses out 5 waymarked descents.
and it really aint anything special.

That’s pretty much not the black tbh.

But throwing in Mild Peril instead of the start of Deliverance is a good swap imo and doesn’t massively change the feel of the thing- there’s nothing you miss that isn’t pretty well duplicated elsewhere in Deliverance and in Brittney Spears.

Don’t really know what you mean Norfy.
or are you on about the fact 4 of the last 5 descents I mean are shared Black/Red?
I’m colourblind when it comes to trailgrading. ie. it’s all absolute bollocks. init?
Folk who think something deemed as Blue graded is beneath them probably just need to go faster, eh?
Dunno what you mean about replicated trails either but the first half of Deliverence is really nothing like Britney or Mild Peril. For one thing Deliverance actually has loose flat corners. (Anybody remember those? 😉 )
They’re both as fun to me but Deliverance is a fair bit faster and longer than Mild Peril.

You could spend 3 days riding around GT hunting out all the trails you have the energy to get to and still not manage to find everything. Pretty much none of it is bad. Sometimes it’s actually quite refreshing to just blindly follow the waymarked route too.
It’s very hard to advise the best route for a rider you know nothing about.

I was responding to arrpee’s suggestion of doing five year plan, troot and ponds

as I usually divert to spooky wood after redemption climb.

Why would you do that? Spooky Wood is the worst trail I’ve ever ridden anywhere. Flat, pedally, no flow, blown out berms, braking bumps… it has it all. Even the blue trail is great in comparison.

It’s a bit of a shame honestly as glentress has some cracking trails (both off piste and waymarked stuff) and people seem to just miss out on it just because they’ve heard of spooky wood and are fixated on riding it and the rest of the red.

It requires pedalling. Yes.

It actually doesn’t kelvin.

it’s 100% doable chainless clearing every jump and landing smoothly on all downslopes.

Spookywoods was great when it was new with fresh lips and berms and surrounded by trees all the way down making it feel faster than it really is. Since the storm that took down a lot of the trees and the subsequent felling it never felt as nice. and since then it’s not really had enough maintenance on lips to make it as fun as it once was.
Worst trail evar is a bit dramatic.
A drive to Ae to ride the shitey graded loop will make Spooky feel like A line. (it won’t but you know what I mean)

Climbing up to Spookywoods after redemption is definitely a pretty odd route though. Even if you mean taking the bail out option.

We are not worthy.

A drive to Ae to ride the shitey graded loop will make Spooky feel like A line.

And yet Ae makes me giggle like a child every time I’ve ridden it…

Spooky Wood is the worst trail I’ve ever ridden anywhere

You okay, petal?.

Going there on Thursday ..not sure which bits we are riding yet ..

You okay, petal?

Yeah I’m good, at least I’m contributing to the thread instead of making smart-arse comments about other people’s opinions.

I realise that not everyone agrees with my views on spooky wood, but that’s fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Just questioning the OP’s route choice as it is a bit of a strange one considering that there are so many good alternative trails near the black as already discussed.

The graded trail at Ae may not be the best, but at least you use some suspension going around it…

I’m not going as far as worst trail ever but Spooky Wood definitely ranks high in the most disappointing given the potential. The second half is ok but the top section is thoroughly avoidable given the choice of great trails available.

Ae makes me giggle like a child every time I’ve ridden it

Have you ridden it anytime recently? The Ae XC loop is probably the least rewarding trail of all the 7Stanes ones, and has really not fared well with maintenance (sections that were blown out 10 years ago, were depressingly just even more blown out when I re-rode it about 6 months ago). Oh, plus the whole jump park had disappeared.

Rode most of the black route (then nipped round a bit of the red) for the first time in about 8 years a couple of weeks back. It was OK, but I didn’t think it was amazing. Some of the trails felt a bit like they were going through the motions, rather than genuinely being engaging. Also, it’s noticeable that a black graded trail is just used as an excuse for minimal trail maintenance.

Next time I’m up there I’ll ride a mix with some of the off piste stuff. Spooky wood was a bit…heh.

(tbf, it was minus 3 and snowing, I’d forgotten any layers so was riding in shorts, t-shirt and a water proof and my back brake was pulling back to the bar, so maybe it’s my fault)

thanks for the comments.
I’m gonna head up there tomorrow.
reckon I’ll probably do full loop of black, red & blue, as I fancy some big nostalgic miles with minimal navigation effort.

Please report your findings as going up there in early May for 3 days with a group of 12

I might be there tomorrow riding with a few others too.
There or Inners depending on what the general consensus is in the morning.

Photos will be available from the Cafe whichever absolutely awful trails we decide to ride. 😉

Did a full loop of the black then red and bits of blue. I thoroughly enjoyed the all of it.
Couldn’t of picked a better day for it. Sunny but not too hot and dry trails.
the black route it so much better with a dropper post than the last time I did it 10 years ago.

Good stuff.

Stewart 4444.
We were also there yesterday ..and did bits of everything ..some twice ..and you are right about the weather ..perfect short sleeve temps.
Didn’t see too many riders but had a bit craic with a few at the picnic bench at the spooky wood descent ..
We also really enjoyed the day

I really must get down to GT again soon. Always enjoyed it, regardless of what bike I’ve been on. Spooky Woods works well with 4″ tyres. Deliverance not so much 😅

it does. as does the freeride area. But not with *most* fatbikers riding them.

I did the full black loop today in brilliant sunshine. Dry, grippy and very little standing water. Lovely :o)