Innerleithen

On the Sunday of the July '04 visit we decided to have a go at the new Innerleithen XC loop . It is hard to
describe what a good choice that was. It is essentially one big up and one big down. The climb has nice
little technical bits on the singletrack climbs, which there are a lot of, and an old quarry half way up to
have a play in. The descents are a step up from Glentress. As with Glentress they are bermed but there
are rock gardens, tricky tight rocky corners, flowing singletrack, drops and big, big smiles. The final
'Freeride' descent is like nothing I have ridden before. After walking the top section first I went back and
cleaned all the dropoffs in one, lots of adrenaline and manic laughter followed that. Then we rode to the
car park at the bottom. The whoops led into a track which flows fantastically and allowed you to keep the
speed up. I would have to ride it quite a few times to remember the track properly as in my mind it is just
a blur of drops, berms, table tops, a high G corner, some doubles and jumps. Every time I talk about it my
speech speeds up as the feeling of that ride takes over again. If I meet the man who built this trail there'll
be some pints bought.

Paul P riding the chute in the
quarry

Me riding the chute in the quarry

Keith dropping into the
step-up

In April '05 we were back again
after a morning in Glentress
warming up on the Spooky Wood
trail. It was Roger, Jill and Paul
Bs first outing here and they
really enjoyed the route,
especially since the boggy
section after the top of Minch
Moor had been bypassed by
some sweet fast singletrack and
a bit of fire track. We only
picked up a couple of injuries
with Roger slamming his forearm
arm into a big pointy rock and me
sliding down the back face of a
double on my arse. It's only the
second time I have ridden
Caddon Bank and I still have to
sort out the doubles at the
bottom as I keep bottling the
second one, I need to have
words with my hands, they keep
dragging the brakes when I don't
want them to. At least Paul P
conquered his demons and
finally rode the last of the drops
at the top after knocking himself
out last year. Next time I am up I
think I will devote a whole day as
I always want to redo stuff but
never have the time or energy,
it'll give me time for some better
pics as well.