Day 2 - Kirroughtree

Day two - The remainder of the group arrived during the course of Friday, so a full complement set off for our second destination - Kirroughtree. The weather was far better than yesterday, sunny spells and high cloud. After another good breakfast and some faffing (increased the pressure to my shocks and reduced the pressure in my tyres!) we set off. I didn't know where Kirroughtree was, but I expected it to be closer! Quite a long journey, but the beautiful countryside made it worth while. When we got to the car park, the pay and display machines weren't working, so we parked for free.
Fortunately the small bike shop on site was open, so the quicker amongst us at getting ready headed off there for a coffee and a bite to eat. The rest of us joined them once we were ready, I took the opportunity to get an inch removed from the seatpost.

Kirroughtree is a trail that a dropper seat post is made for! Short techy climb followed by short descent followed by techy climb..... with fresh legs, may not have needed quite so many seat adjustments. Strangely, we actually sessioned an uphill! a steep, rutted slab on a sharp left turn in the trail. I didn't make it to the top, but a couple of guys did, some making it look easy!


Screen shot of Strava Gradient map.

After the initial singletrack sections we dropped down onto some forestry road - black was up, red was down. I really was in two minds about attempting the black and McMoab - whatever the hell that was! The terrain up until now had been not to dissimilar to home, but as we climbed the fireroad, it began to look more like what I expected Scotland to be like, the hills had become rougher and heather covered with patches of snow remaining from the heavy falls earlier in the year.
The trail turned left, off the fireroad and onto rounded granite outcrops - this was going to be interesting!
There is a line marked on the rock with blue arrows, I tried to follow them, until my back wheel got pulled out of the dropouts, this almost sent me flying down the slope. I can't have tightened the QR enough, but word of warning, check your QR's before riding this section!
We weaved our way back and forth over the granite until one of the guys had what appeared to be a really innocuous fall off. He fell over to the left into a pool - a soft if cold landing. But he had done, was hit his head on a tree stump, this had broken his helmet in 3 places - without the lid, it would have been his head - yet another example of why you'd be foolish to ride a bike without one! A quick change of wet clothes and we continued along the granite. The scenery was dramatic - and the closing weather made it seem even more rugged and remote.

The final section of granite before McMoab.

After several zigzags on the granite we dropped onto a short loop of single track, this lead us around and back up onto McMoab! A 15 to 18 ft lump of granite, with a steep drop down onto the fireroad.

Over the top - McMoab.

I looped round to the bottom of McM' and watched the more adventurous of us ride the slab. I was getting quite chilled, so decided to ride up the track to have a look for some photo opportunities, but only a short way up the track I came to a tarmac road, the A712 - it was a bit of a surprise to find the road, as the area had felt so remote.

The trail crossed the road and headed up a steep climb, which seemed to go on forever! At the top we took a forced break for a puncture, whilst it was been repaired, the rest of us had a bite to eat and tried to shelter from the cold wind. Tyre repaired and we set off, a short section of fireroad and then back to the singletrack. The track twisted round some rough terrain of short climbs and descents, by now I was struggling, I didn't have much left in the legs and was beginning to worry. The amazing views from this section of the track did a little to raise the spirits. But the fact that we were only about 50% of the way round, meant there was still a lot of riding left to do. The singletrack eventually dropped back down onto the A712, which we had crossed earlier. The rest of the guys were here waiting for me - this was one of my concerns before deciding to go - I didn't want to be the guy holding everyone up. I used the rest of my energy drink up and had some more to eat, before setting off. Two of the guys had held back, whilst I fuelled up, they set off and I followed on what I hoped would be the long downhill back to the car. If I've not already mentioned undulating - then I will now, as that's certainly the best way to describe the final 'descent', for tired legs this wasn't good! It was difficult to get in a rhythm, and once again it was seatpost up, then seatpost down etc. I was glad to get back to the car park and sit down.

Today was our last day in the B&B, tomorrow we up camp and set off to the forest lodges in Glentress.