The Capital Trail

“The best 18 hours I’ve spent on a bike” came to mind during whatever subconscious cogitation Monday's early morning dog walk on the local moor had triggered. It wasn't until Monday morning after a full night's sleep that I had fully appreciated the awesomeness of the previous weekend's adventures. 

Step up Mr Stitz, fess up and take credit for:

1. Arranging for the Scottish summer to coincide with the Capital Trail 2017 
2. Sending the midges away for the weekend
3. Stitching together a varied and interesting multi terrain route
4. Timing it for the chip stop to still be open in Peebles

Ok, so we were lucky (again) with the Scottish weather but this really had been a great day's riding. Markus Stitz (organiser of the Capital Trail and other Scottish bike packing events) must have spent years searching out and linking trails to make this route. 

Saul and I had travelled up Friday afternoon, eaten Italian in Musselburgh and slept in a posh garden shed at Wallyford campsite. It was the usual early start to get to the start line on Saturday but less adrenaline than usual, we were here to enjoy this one and racing would be shelved for another weekend. 

Down at the start line a breakfast of hot rolls, coffee and orange juice was enjoyed overlooking the Firth of Forth at Portobello beach. A tractor was out combing and tidying the soft sand of the beach, meanwhile many of us riders took a minute to remember Mike Hall who's ashes had recently made it back to his heartland in mid Wales. 

 

The start of the event was beautifully relaxed, all fifty four riders rode as far as they could on the soft sand, shoved up on to the promenade and lazily span off towards Musselburgh. Once off the prom Saul and I picked up the pace along the greenway from Musselburgh out under the East Coast Railway and Edinburgh ring road into a housing estate, up to a large country estate and onto woodland single track. From here we enjoyed single track, old railway lines, narrow country roads and estate tracks up into the hills south of Edinburgh. Flowering gorse, buttercups, cow parsley and lush green grass everywhere. It was like the saturation filter had been turned up to the max on our surroundings, the colours around us were bright and vibrant under clear blue skies and this was a Scotland that I was unfamiliar with - used only to dull green under leaden skies, not this new technicolour version. It really was a privilege to be riding these hills on a day like this. 

We climbed high on estate roads over bilberry and heather covered moorland only to descend raucously into forded burns and grind back up quad searing climbs to the moorland plateau under the metronomic revolutions of wind turbines. Good times indeed.

Eventually we dropped down a long valley back towards civilisation taking in main road, more single track and ancient drove roads into Melrose. Gnarly single track alongside the River Tweed was great fun, Saul was as usual riding every flight of steps, I was more cautious. A particularly tricky set of steps saw Saul performing an emergency dismount and his treasured Yeti bouncing down head over heels to land on the rocks beside the Tweed. A two man recovery effort ensued followed by the realisation that the front brake lever was bent double and dangling under the wheel; broken lever clamp. Was that game over we wondered? 

I like the challenge of trail-side repairs, a couple of hefty cable ties were dragged from my toolkit to lash the broken clamp back on the handlebars. It wasn't ideal but it put us back in the game, or back on route at least.

Following a brief refuel in Selkirk (water and fresh croissants) we slogged our way up to the Three Brethren. Three big piles of stones with a commanding view of Selkirk, I had plenty of time to savour the view before we surfed the ridge with a tail wind towards Innerleithen. Cresting a ridge after a few miles I spotted a familiar sign, "7 Stanes Red". Several miles of fantastic trail centre descent wound sinuously across the hill dropping us back into the Tweed valley where we refuelled at the Co-op. I made friends with a small dog tied up outside the shop after sharing one of my now bruised homemade burritos with it whilst Saul ate cheese sandwiches.

 

From Innerleithen we rode south into a stiff headwind past Traquair house and up onto the rounded heather clad moors south of Peebles. At the end of the estate track we faced a route choice, hike-a-bike straight on or ride round to the left. We opted for the hike-a-bike straight up onto the moor but unfortunately the steep track petered out leaving us wading though thigh deep heather on soft mossy lumps. The track marked on the map at the top of the climb was overgrown with heather and unrideable, so we spent an an hour getting back onto a rideable track. We were both questioning the point of this diversion, half an hour later midway down the descent into Gypsy Glen it was obvious. This descent ROCKED!!! Smooth dry peatland gave way to close cropped meadow and finally woodland at Gypsy Glen. Better than many of the Glentress downhills and yet neglected by the hundreds of MTB'ers pouring into that Trail Centre. We weren't complaining, for twenty minutes we owned the place.

From Peebles we enjoyed familiar trails in Glentress, it was after 8pm so we had the descents to ourselves, a rare privilege. Back in Peebles I spotted an open chippy and treated us both to a portion of salt and vinegar laden chips, I didn't know how tough the rest of the route might be, but chips could only help see us though into the wee small hours. 

Old drove roads led us out of Peebles and across more moorland, a few steep climbs reminded us that this wasn't meant to be easy, but generally the going was good. I chased a badger down a grassy descent and the sun dropped beyond the horizon. The moon rose to share its milky hue with all who were still pedalling at this hour. Shortly after midnight we climbed into the Pentlands, these were right on the edge of Edinburgh yet still wild and beautiful. We looped though this cluster of rounded hills before dropping into the west side of Edinburgh following various tributaries down to the Firth of Forth. Sensing the finish line we picked up the pace here spinning fast in top gear on the promenade alongside the sea as an orange glow brightened the eastern skies ahead of us. A diversion into Edinburgh along sunken railways gave us a flavour of the Victorian city before looping us back on to the promenade and into Portobello beach. A few minutes later Andreas Shäffer rolled in behind us and took our photo. Just the six miles back to the campsite and sleep would be mine. 

Stats

173 miles including ride in from Musselburgh

17371 feet of climbing

16 hours and 5 minutes moving time 

Gear Used

Cannondale F29er

Apidura bags

Exposure lights

Stadium Riders Do 5 Stanes

Mabie Thursday, a sortie north into the eye of winter storm Doris, fingers crossed that she'll blow over leaving us in peace to enjoy as much of the 7 Stanes as we can squeeze into four days. The area around Dumfries has some of the finest trail centres in the UK so eldest son Arran and I are excited to be escaping work and school routines for a few days to rediscover some singletrack skills. 

The weather clears as we pass the market town of Dumfries and glimpse our first sight of Mabie Forest, Google maps routes us round the back of the Forestry Commission woodland onto a dead end track from which we retrace our steps to eventually find the Mabie trail centre car park. It's low key as trail centres go, a car park with a hotel at the top of the drive, no riders' cafe or top end bike shop bike with frames to drool over and ten pound inner tubes. Mabie has a car park and trails, that'll do me and the rest of  the Stadium Riders who we meet up with shortly after 1pm. From the car park we soon spot the Stane, the large headless lady in marble makes the first photo opportunity of the day. Quality singletrack abounds here both on the climbs and descents, there are loads of rocky natural features and enough 'will I won't I?!' moments on the red grade to keep it interesting. 

The native rock is sharp like unweathered slate and it claims a couple of inner tubes within our group. The singletrack ebbs and flows, gentle undulations until we encounter the Scorpion, a tough steep and sustained climb which has the singlespeed riders in the group gasping for precious oxygen. I'm granted an easy time, twenty gears and plush full suspension makes a welcome change to recent singlespeed road training rides. By half past four we are all ripping down the final descent towards the hotel, rusty off road skills are returning and it's a promising start to a long weekend of trails.

Still, cloudless skies are a welcome surprise as I open the curtains the next morning to a pastoral idyll of grazing sheep and cows as low light casts long shadows across closely cropped green meadows. Forty minutes drive on icy roads later and we arrive at Clatteringshaws loch for a loop taking in Glentrool and Kirroughtree trail centres. Before we set off west though we need to visit the Bruce stone, one of several in honour of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots.

the first Bruce Stone of the day

The approach to the stone is idyllic, a short cruise though dappled woodland to views of snow capped hills on the far side of the deep blue loch. Photos taken and we retrace our steps to the car park and then down the main road to the impressive dam that holds back the waters of Loch Clatteringshaws for hydro electric generation. We soon escape the road for a forest road that meanders through majestic scenery to a pass where the giant's axe head Stane lies.

NCN route 7 into Glentrool

From here we drop into Glentrool down a fast and loose forest track, across a river and up a short sharp climb later to another Bruce Stone just as a rain shower passes overhead.

Bruce Stone No 2

The blue sky is darkening but we're undeterred, this is Scotland and it will rain sooner or later (or more likely sooner and later). A brief diversion onto a new piece of riverside singletrack leads on to more quiet forest roads and eventually quiet lanes into Newton Stewart. We stop to attempt a repair to the rear mech on one of the electric bikes, the XT mech has stuck and won't take up the drivetrain chain tension. Fifteen minutes later and it's only slightly improved so we set it the chain to the middle of the cassette and hope that there aren't any steep hills left. Of course there is a steep hill leaving Newton Stewart but a dose of 'turbo' on the Trek eBike sees it cresting the climb ahead of me. The Kirroughtree trails have a new visitor centre and cafe and we've arrived just in time for an al fresco lunch and meet up with Arran who's been riding the red, unfortunately we don't have time or sufficient battery power on the eBikes to ride it today so we press on up the valley for the last ten or so miles back to Clatteringshaws. 

We ride through woodland and up onto the moor where some heavy duty forestry work is taking place, the track is ridged from the tracks of forestry machines and massive stacks of timber line the trail. Round the corner is McMoab's Stone, a challenging rock slab descent that can be rolled if you are feeling brave. Saul and I ride the approach to the stone which is very technical and increasingly slippery now fine mizzle is blowing in from the Irish Sea. Saul rides the stone on his rigid steel bike, I don't. I'm waiting for a dry summer day.

It's a only a few miles back from here but Sandra needs a push on the slopes to nurse the tired eBike back, the battery alarms are showing and these are heavy bikes without battery assistance. We make it back to the vans just as the rain gets serious.

the Kirroughtree gemstone

We get a weather upgrade on Saturday morning, Met Office predictions of doomsday are cast aside because the skies outside are dry and three of us are headed to Kirroughtree for a lap of the red whilst the rest of our group drag themselves out of bed. We are the first van in the car park so we have the trails to ourselves and we don't see another rider for more than an hour. The singletrack is the start to the day that we wanted, technical rocky sections break up undulating climbs whilst the descents flow nicely into slippery rocky sections. It's so good that we head straight back up the red route for a second lap, this time we descend the Jabberwocky for which I need all the suspension my Cannondale Habit offers, tyres skate unpredictably over wet rock but I make it down grinning. Second time round the red route rides more instinctively, we are all getting a feel for it again. Van packed up and we return to the house in time for lunchtime pancakes.

Kids are all raring to go after lunch and it is to Dalbeattie trail centre that we drive. Another tough, rocky and technical red route, 27km of undulating trail mostly made up of singletrack with some challenging rocky features. The best known slab features are avoided today, they are green and greasy and we don't want to spend the afternoon in A & E. there are still some nice flowing sections of trail with lumps of granite to launch you skyward plus enough smaller slabs of rock and little chutes to keep the heart rate up. By half way the kids are tiring but they ride on excited by the prospect of another jump or berm. We are the last vans to leave the car park as darkness falls.

Ae Forrest is our fifth and final Stane of the trip, the cloud base lowers as we near Dumfries and by the time we are riding a fine drizzle is slowly soaking all in the group. The singletrack climbs on the red are largely well graded and easily ride-able but Arran and the other kids are riding for the fourth consecutive day, and they are feeling it on the climbs. Singlespeeding is particularly tough so I swap bikes with Arran for the top part of the climb to give him a chance to spin on a geared bike. At the top of the climb we check the map and look for escape options if the now driving rain becomes too much. The map promises three more climbs and three more descents, the last one shows particular promise so we agree to press on. The kids tough it out and we do our best to keep moving and keep warm, at points we are riding into horizontal rain but the climbs are well graded and the descents bermed and fast so spirits remain positive. The Stane is at the top of the final climb, it's so wet I struggle to operate the touch-screen on my phone to use the camera. Everyone is getting cold now and the final downhill, although the highlight of the ride, is enjoyed in varying degrees by the riders depending on a) how much suspension they have and b) how many fingers, thumbs and toes still have blood circulating to them. The final Ae downhill is a corker and has a parallel path for riders to push up so they can keep going back for more, the black option has some Alpine sized berms and drop-offs which I only get away with due to the suspension on my bike. Back at the vans everyone is in survival mode, desperate to warm up. Someone asks 'why would you ride on a day like today?' Because despite the cold and wet, the wind and weather, these are the days where you realise that you can go further and overcome more hardship than you thought possible. For the kids in the group that's a valuable lesson.

tired and cold but ready for more