That trail at Innerliethen

You know the one, that seems to be almost plumb vertical, slight exageration, but incredibly steep and quite conditions dependant, I stumbled upon it on it on a wet day and gave it a wide birth, boy would I like to clean that thing, have you ridden it?

Would be interesting to know the history behind it and it’s rather illuminating name.

not sure I know of it.

The first rule of secret-trail-club, is that you don’t speak about secret-trail-club.

Yep alas I know that, but i’m excited, I have no intention of giving away the location or the name, this trail is south of the river.

Besides I have been biting my tongue for a week, I didn’t know that trails of such an angle even existed. It has been ridden a lot, looking at the erosion.

I know the trail of which you speak and yes it is very steep. There are a few trails in the valley that I can only clean in dry conditions, this is one of them. The others would be north of the river. I’m not sure about the name or history.

Thanks for the reply, I walked the trail, with eyes on storks in anticipation, i’m sure it will be eventful, even if I have to wait till next summer to do the deed.

Can we have a clue, perhaps an anagram?

Amateur Genius? 😉

edit. Still very much ridable, in very greasy conditions I would love to see the benny hill antics.

Is that still ridable or was it mashed in the tree felling?

I’m slowly working my way through the inners off piste stuff.

Northwind that was me that you twice passed randomly standing by the side of enduro trails last weekend. I’m stalking you from the future.

Heh, I remember that! I only get to pass people when they’re standing still.

fergal – Member

I’m probably going to be sent to Coventry for this, but if you had ridden PS you would know.

Reason I ask is there’s a strava segment for the classic that describes it as “vertical section” so it could also be that. I thought PS was closed for forestry?

They have finished as far as I know, beginning of September.

No idea which one you mean, I’ve found loads of cheeky trails at Inners and most are pretty dang steep!

This one is the steepest I can think of ok that side of the valley. It’s fine in the wet though, it’s just the flat bits in the middle that get a bit mingin

so in conclusion are we talking about the same one or different ones?

Northwind, is there more forestry work going on up that way? Haven’t been up for ages, but PS missed the initial cull that claimed Inter-stella 🙁

Ah! I thought they’d both been hit. Haven’t been up that way for ages (for that reason 😛 )

Northwind i thought it was ok to talk about trails south of the river, do you not rate this trail.

Would be interesting to know the history behind it and it’s rather illuminating name.

i heard that the name came about because you ride it and come away looking either like a whizzkid or a complete knobski…

@ Fergal- Ach, who really knows what the rules are 🙂 I always figure if it’s a race trail, like mince baby mince and the likes, then they’re more offpiste than secret- FC approved, etc. But some of the other stuff is more secret. I’d sooner err on the side of caution myself, not my trails so not my place.

Oh, PS, names. Clues are often on the map- PS is fairly obvious when you remember the lead mine. IS confuses people because it’s not named for the burn, it’s named for the cleugh. (or, possibly, someone got their burns mixed up)

<not naming names for the same reason as above, btw, maybe I’m being an arse, who knows… but armed with names you can find trails in seconds these days>

The naming of trails is a difficult matter,
it isn’t just one of your holiday games…

All this cloak and dagger stuff is a little tedious, the trail in question is ridden a lot, has appeared in video’s, it’s hardly a secret if you want to look a little harder, I was just seeking others experiences of this trail, good or bad, because I know for me to ride this trail well, I would have to be at the top of my game.

I come from a climbing background, where sharing and discussing first ascents/routes is the norm, in a few years this trail will be clear fell, just like IS and forgotten.

Been there its a grand run, was watching my nephew in a race that day- must have been about 6or 7 years ago.

as for this one’s rideability…i only tried it once, and it was wet, back when i still rode clipless pedals. it was the trail that made me wanna get flats, so i could dab/mx drift if the need arose.

irony is, i ride more north of the tweed now, and ain’t been back since.

i really should, eh?

Yeah get in quick before the lumberjacks! I will certainly behaving a stab.

Been riding some of that stuff meself lately, has totally reinvigorated my riding, there is so much incredible riding to be had in the vicinity.

there is so much incredible riding to be had in the vicinity.

yuppers. 😀

heavyman – Member
Been there its a grand run, was watching my nephew in a race that day- must have been about 6or 7 years ago.

I assume you don’t mean the race was on the run in question? It’s never been used off any events, not even slightly practical to marshal of extract injured folk from

I know who built it and why it was named ps. My mate broke his shoulder on it 2 weeks ago. Now to move home and take on a new identity !!

I’m slowly working my way through the inners off piste stuff.

Can I also recommend you try the on-piste stuff, but in the dark, and going the wrong way. Last night off Minch was fun, although foggy so had to run lights low – and then the new clear fell was well fast.

We also did some off-piste too, and running well and pretty dry.

This? It’s never been raced.

It’s hardly secret or covert.. go talk to the gentlemen in iCycles and they’ll point you in the direction of fun stuff.

Surely everything at Inners is South of the river, otherwise you’re at Golfy or Thornilee?

“The Nightmare” AKA “Burts Trail” is probably the most difficult thing to ride fast at Inners. It was raced in the Alpinebikesinnerleithenwinterdurobicyclemountainrace last year and it’s never really recovered. It runs down the hill to the right of the fun bit of Make or Brake. It used to leave the first berm on MoB, but that’s blocked now. The current line drops down, slightly up the fireroad towards the uplift dropoff.

“Casey Stoner” AKA “Not For *****” is probably the next hardest off-piste thing as the “jumps” are all made of slippy wood. Really fun trail. It’s the thing that plummets to the right just after the uplift dropoff. Exits on the fire-road that leads to the top of Caddon Bank.

Quite funny all this, I’d worked out it might have been that trail from the name hints and just looking for the steepest off piste trail I could find on strava.

I seem to tear a sidewall every other visit to these trails at the moment though 😐

The steepest bit of off-piste trail has a gradient of -58% but it’s not ready for public consumption yet. There’s a suitable squirrel trap at the top to ward off people who might die.

That is a touch steep. Do many people wear full faces on the Alpinebikesinnerleithenwinterdurobicyclemountainrace and day/night races? Keen to give them a go but these trails aren’t very face friendly.

I’m sure now that every single secret trail in the uk is easily accessible due to to beauty of strava.
It would be interesting to know how many will get destroyed because of this.

The last FC news I heard is that if a trail is an “established trail” it’ll be left alone. So, if a trail is on Strava it already exists and is therefore ‘established’……. which, strangely, means that it’s kinda good that people know how to get to them

Although, I can see the situation of with someone getting way out of their depth on one of these trails and causing the Emergency Services a nightmare. That could well changes things up a bit

All this talk about these trails, think i’m going to have a look tomorrow, also going to try the enduro ones that start at the top of the hill. Should be fun 😀

legend – Member

The last FC news I heard is that if a trail is an “established trail” it’ll be left alone. So, if a trail is on Strava it already exists and is therefore ‘established’…….

Not quite, that definition would mean that every trail would be “established”. Established is just taken to mean “has been around for a while”, the rule of thumb Andy was using at first was “did it exist before we started talking about established trails” though I’m sure that’s moved on since. It’s not definitive though, new trails and lines are just judged basically on merit and most diggers know where the lines are.

Buuuut, if an existing trail became a real problem- ie, suddenly the entire of STW decides to go and ride PS tomorrow night and half of them leave in an ambulance- then things change. It’s all surprisingly sensible tbh!

bigjim – Member

That is a touch steep. Do many people wear full faces on the Alpinebikesinnerleithenwinterdurobicyclemountainrace and day/night races?

The races tend not to use the madder trails. Though frankly still mad enough sometimes 😉 Some people do wear fullface, it’s entirely up to you. I don’t but then, I’m not that fast.

I can’t remember if they’re afflicted with a “helmets all the time” rule or not, wearing a fullface is a pain if you’re not allowed to climb without a helmet on. The one time i did use one for an innerleithen mtb racing event I just climbed sans hat, no bother but that was years ago.

It is supposed to be “helmets all the time” but I did see folk last year (was riding as sweeper) riding up with them strapped to their backs instead – nobody seemed to care

Cool, ta.

Oh yes they do care! It’s helmets all the time. If the chief commissaire picked up on that we’d soon find ourselves being scrutinised very closely. A pain I know but those are the rules.