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Spending a few days in Ballater at Whitsun and looking for some local trails. Ideally ride from town and play in the local woods. Teenagers aboard so nothing too strenuous. Fun singltrack for two or three hours. Does anyone have suggestions?
James
Go see Dan in The Bike Station in the town square....he's a local legend And will help you with maps and routes, no problems.....
certainly plenty to do, they had a big bike demo day up there recently
There's a loop round Morven which you can do from the 'town'.
Apparently it's better done clockwise.
Morven looks good but maybe a bit far for my boys. Presume there are trails but nothing marked on the map. How about the local woods?
Summit: it's been a good few years since I did it but my recollection it was sub 3 hours.
If you go up the road on the rh side of the Gairn on to the track, right before Morven lodge then follow the trail turning right before the Rashy Burn and there's a nice downhill section (iirc there's a deer fence/ gate somewhere on the way) to the church. I think you should be able to get on to the old railway line and back in to the village.
As tlr above states, ask Dan at the bike shop. He'll keep you right.
There are three maps all with proper trail marking and £3 each, available form the bike shop in the square.
Thanks Metal. Absence of marked paths on the map makes planning difficult but that ride looks like it could work really well.
Nick. Bought those maps last time i was there and regrettably left them up there. Bit of a pain when i'm trying to justify avoiding the rain by 'researching routes'.
Go to Cyclehighlands and speak to James or Richard. They will steer you in the right direction. Or drop 9zerofreewheelers a message on Facebook, they're the local club. Loads of stuff to do around here, other than a landrover track up Morven.
Dan is more bell than leg end.
+1 for speaking to the guys at Cycle Highlands.
Exceptionally friendly and extremely knowledgeable. They've got appended maps of the local area with some of the decent stuff, you may even be lucky and find the guys going out for a ride themselves.
[url= http://www.ecurieneep.co.uk/routes.asp?routeid=8 ]Green Mile[/url]
[i]Dan is more bell than leg end. [/i]
you stay classy notlocal.
remind me which shop you work in? will give it a bodyswerve if i'm in the area.
@Proteus, it was a personal experience of trying to buy a bike from him at his shop. He couldn't look me in the eye, and seemed totally disinterested even though he had recently set up the shop. I was the only customer, and was looking to buy a Zesty.
Compared to some of the personal malice directed at posters here, I feel my comment was quite subdued.
[i]Compared to some of the personal malice directed at posters here, I feel my comment was quite subdued.[/i]
Congratulations on sinking to the bottom then...
So, this shop you work in. Which one is it?
not had a bad experiance in bike station tbh - they were more than helpful when i was frankly just in wasting my own time trying not to bother them but checking out their cross bikes !
their old mechanic(also a dan) is a good friend of mine - although the guys in the shop dont know me so it wasnt special treatment 😉
much better than my experiance in A.N.other more local to me shop on deeside who just wanted me out the shop.....
Is Dan not the chap who has deliberately barged into folk in the cyclocross series of races on at least two occasions in the quest for glory. He did it to one of my mates at the Mugdock race in 2010. On the basis of that alone, I wouldn't give him any business. He may well be a very nice chap but hearing that was somewhat disappointing and tends to colours one's view. 🙁
Richard in Cycle Highlands on the other hand I would happily recommend. He was very helpful when I was last up there looking for route advice.
Cheers
Sanny
+1 for the GreenMile although I suspect that the start and finish sections might do you as there is a bit of fire road to climb.
Cycle Highlands will help you out in my experience.
Proteus, you seem to be a capable detective, I'm sure you'll manage to work it out. Sorry to disappoint you though, as I left last month.
Luckily for me I'm not too bothered about some random forum poster and their opinion of me. I learned a long time ago that we cannot get on with everyone we meet. You on the other hand seem to form opinions on just one sentence.
See you on the trails, I'll be the well slept, smiley one.
Whooooa. Easy there. Thanks for the advice. In the end i ditched all the electronic maps when my os arrived to find that the paper version has way more detail. Spent a very pleasant evening with map and highlighter pen. Thanks to Neeps and 9zero clubs who have useful stuff on their sites.
Most helpful however was the Www.mtbtrails.info site which had all the local rides on it and is highly recommended to anyoneresearching routes like me. What a fabulous resource. Not much in the Chilterns though -i'll try and put that right.
[i]You on the other hand seem to form opinions on just one sentence.[/i]
On the contrary, knowing (from previous posts) that you were in a similar/same business I was wondering what really motivated your personal abuse...
[i]See you on the trails, I'll be the well slept, smiley one[/i]
I very much doubt it.