Pentland Hills Thread

Bumpity bump. Anyone been up recently? There hasn’t been much rain of late although there hasn’t exactly been lots of warm sunshine either to dry the place out.

Worth a ride this weekend?

Was up there today. Very dry round Harlaw, up to Maidens, Scalectrix, and Poet’s Glen. Going back up on Tuesday, hopefully 🙂

Yeah it was cracking today, I went Puke to Phantoms to Green cleugh, Black Hill, Harbour Hill and cox’s/jonny Zebra. Still some wet bits on Phantoms. The bad bit of Black Hill has collapsed, which Jeremy et al might want to shortlist for the trail repair days.

The new track up Howden Glen was a bit of a surprise too, its huge like a wind farm track, the entrance to Cox’s would take a bit of commitment to ride now…!

Shot at 2012-03-25

Shot at 2012-03-25

Shot at 2012-03-25

Shot at 2012-03-25

I think that track had been due a re-surface for a long time, there were some pretty deep wee gullies in it!

Yeah I have to say I quite liked it like that though, was good fun at speed.

and those new drainage pipe entrances are going to fill up with silt as soon as it rains…

Also saw that new track on Saturday, bit or a surprise! It’s an army path isn’t it?

Pentlands were in good nic over the weekend.

I’m guessing that the Army must be planning to use it more again.

Coming back to an issue Druidh raised inthe orginal post, the car parking charges proposal has just been scrapped. See here:
http://www.midlothianadvertiser.co.uk/news/local-headlines/pentland-hills-parking-plans-rejected-1-2188142

Oh no, that’s bad news for the PHRP coffers. 🙁

bigjim – not really. It was only raise £30k or so – assuming a reasonable number of folk even bothered (it wasn’t going to be enforced). Once folk started parking on the verges, the Rangers would end up being glorified car park attendants.

I still can’t fathom that they hadn’t figured VAT into their costs!

£30k is a pretty significant slice of their annual budget actually. Yeah bit of a booboo on the VAT front! Someone will have been skelped for that perhaps/

As has been documented elsewhere, the Pentlands are dry and dusty at the moment – even Scalextric. Get out and enjoy it while you can.

Please try NOT to ride round the water-bars on the Harlaw side of Maidens though eh? I had to put back a couple of boulders which the Rangers had strategically placed a couple of weeks ago and which someone had since moved. 🙄

Muppets.

Up next week when back from Wales. Thinking wed with dinner of crisps and ipa at Spylaw.

I need a bivi up there.

Went all the way round Black Hill today and it is still pretty wet on the last section back to glencorse reservoir, and strangely looks like it has had pretty heavy bike traffic as the wet bits are really rutted with lots of bike tracks. I’ve only been round there twice ever so not sure if it ever really dries out.

TBH, I always avoid that section. As you say, it never seems to dry out.

I went the “wrong way” round the rest of Black Hill the other day – planning to meet TJ coming the other way. That’s the first time I’ve done that. I reckon it’s a waste of a good descent, though dropping down into Green Cleugh is a bit entertaining with that drop on the right hand side 🙂

I’ve always wanted to go down that bit actually! Can imagine it would be sketchy with the drop and the loose surface…

Aye – 4″ tyres were a bit of a comfort.

That’s wider than the trail!

Saw the police out today on quad bikes too, I guess they are patrolling in relation to the dog attacks on sheep that happen every year. Some morons have pulled the sheep lambing sign and antisocial behaviour reporting signs off the gates around Bonaly reservoir too 🙄

A few gates around Bonaly, including 1/2 way up Puke & the ‘Flotterstone underpass’, have been vandalised too, possibly campers / forest bonfire party-goers taking out their frustrations… Watch the usual Easter influx of wild campers taking up residence miles from civilisation, around the scout camp car park, this weekend 🙂

On a semi-serious note, anyone know a number to call to report littering, as in the bags + bags of barbecue cr*p that’s always left lying from now till September – won’t have much time to play litter-champ this year. I guess it’s still 999 for fires.

Anyone been up this weekend? Wondering if its a bit squidgy for a ride today.

Rob, I guess midlothian council or ask a ranger. Due to budget cuts and cost saving, the PHRP office at Boghall is closing this month and they are being assimilated into the “Natural Heritage Service” with the Edinburgh council rangers at the Hermitage. I’m not sure what the situation will be with contacting them now. Also there were two vacancies with them recently so maybe some people have left.

Update on 4 Res Loop from Sat 28/04 (Anti clockwise)

Bavelaw Burn Path (Back of Harlaw Vistors Centre) – completely knackered – lots of fresh tyre tracks too but some parts are 8″ deep slurry

Green cleugh – in the main holding up pretty well – last years repaired section still holding up – however another soft spot appearing about 200m east from that point that looks like it wont take too much more! Last section before gate at Loganlea Reservoir really bad – I always avoid and go for the water splash now!

Glencorse Road has some really deep potholes now and all the type 1 in them has washed out – be warned!

Junction of Maidens/ Phantom – probably about 20′ wide mud bath now and people continuing to try and pedal through it – also another bad bit about a further 20m up the hill from it. Top peaty section before the gate at the top of Maidens was drying out though.

North side of Maidens – be careful of the timber boards – the water has washed the stone away from them all so they all now sit approx 6″ proud and need to be bunnyhopped (not passed by the side!)

Ranges Road – First rooty section nice and dry – never even went near the lower section as even in summer it is boggy! The big puddles at the top of Harlaw Road are nearly impassable now though without risk of a soaking!

Poets Glen – also doing ok – only 2 notable soft bits at the top end near the big tree root!

I wonder if there is scope for looking at Maidens/Phantoms junction next trail repair day, seeing as we did so much of Clubbidean?

I had a meeting with Velda Weir of the Ranger Service today to discuss how we could assist with path repairs and maintenance. Velda is very keen to get cyclists involved, though there are some organisational and logistic issues to be resolved before we can do much. In assessing how we could make a start, we identified the area around Clubbiedean as a potential pilot project. It’s quite short but visible and a few small improvements would enhance the whole route.

Velda is going to contact Scottish Water to obtain their approval for any work and is also going to give us 6 dates through the summer for work parties. It looks like at least 2 of these will be at weekends, but as insurance and responsibility entails the presence of a Ranger, the majority of the work will need to take place during the (less-busy) week-days.

Velda also came up with a couple of suggestions for the longer term including the possibility of formalising a trail repair group with a proper constitution, committee, membership etc. In addition to improving our chances of getting independent funding, this would also give cyclists a voice on various other committees involved in the operation of the park. I am going to make contact with other like-minded groups to see how they have evolved.

Hopefully, Clubbiedean will be a roaring success and we’ll have enough momentum to target some of the larger projects. In the meantime, stand by your “Attend” buttons awaiting my trail maintenance invitations 😉