MTB ride report - 20th of September

This week's mtb ride was the first outing with myself (Euan) as the ride leader. After an initial counting error meaning there was seven of us we headed off from Bonaly - we'd initially limited places to be in the spirit of the "rule of six", but the limit for sports is actually 30 and we were all happy to go ahead.

We first climbed up to Torduff reservoir and added a little bit of extra climbing by heading round the trail at the west of the loch, above the normal tarmac path. This offered some lovely views, but we were quickly on from there to the rooty trails east of Clubbiedean.

It was then up some more, continuing on the gravel road at the top of Kirkgate including some of the singletrack sections and even more climbing to Maiden's Cleugh. All our efforts were rewarded with a long descent down to Glencourse reservoir. After a quick fix to Scott's front mech (both me and Scott's bikes are too old school for 1x), we were climbing up the tarmac to Loganlea reservoir.

After the refreshing river crossing from The Howe we rode along to Bavelaw with an enjoyable tailwind, and the low cloud started to lift. Then descended down towards Threipmuir on the singletrack at the side of the tarmac of the Parabola climb, giving an instagram photographer a mild fright.

It was then along Threipmuir and then through some of the maze of single track at the side of Harlaw. Andy, Scott and Stephen had to get back some so headed straight via Harlaw road, but myself, Elke, Damien and Darina had a bit more time so added some more singletrack and stopped for a nice coffee at the wee cafe that's opened up near Clubbiedean reservoir's dam. At this point, the sun was properly out as was promised in the forecast.

The next ride is on the 4th of October and is due to be hosted by Andy - which he found out when I mentioned it to him today. Here's hoping he doesn't fall off on his paragliding tandem flight tomorrow!