[Closed] Glentress/Inners/Peebles, what to ride over two days

I'm a long distance XC racer and the DH trails at Inners are fine for me (ie. Few to no compulsory jumps) I'm far from the quickest down them but they are all doable.
The Golfie is a step up, there's a few bits there i struggle on but generally Inners is fine.
The red route is great and easy to find, or at least was before Arwen... I prefer it to the Glentress marked routes (but I enjoy the big climb 🤷‍♂️)
I would say you can't go wrong there but Arwen has ruined a load of stuff, I've not seen much of Inners since but the top of Yair is a right state. There's a couple of threads on here discussing what is actually open

The glentress blue route is fantastic and has some quality bermy, flowy sections.

Innerleithen red is a longish climb then mostly descent. The final descent has optional drops.

And if you're going to do any off piste, start with angry sheep at innerleithen, it's the most tame of them all, but still a lot steeper than the trail centre stuff!!

There might still be closures/diversions in place so just be aware/check that first.

If you're doing inners red then when you get to marker 40- the end of plora craig/oh deer/razor rock- you can turn left instead of following the loop, and this takes you up the uplift road. Keep right when you come to the junction (you might recognise it as just beside the start of plora craig, you rode past earlier). Up a bit more and watch out for 2 really visible trails on your right as you climb, that's Angry Sheep and Green Wing and they are absolutely brilliant, and a great way into the offpiste- swoopy and cornery and just an absolute joy. They both dump you out almost exactly back at waypoint 40 so it's a perfect bonus loop.

GT is almost a definitive flowy trail centre, the blue is way better than you might expect for a blue. It also has some excellent lower-level offpiste which works well as a bonus loop, around the Soor Plooms trail on the black- check out Careless Whisper, Huntsman and Thunderstruck. You can fireroad your way straight back to the red afterwards. Careless Whisper is probably the easiest and again, very flowy.

Can't go wrong with any of the trail centre stuff in the area tbh. We did the red at Inners in September, first time I've done it in years and the descent off the top is brilliant, moreso when theres 7 or 8 of you hauling down it inches away from each others back wheels. When we hit the fire road at the bottom we did climb up the uplift road and did Angry Sheep though and then followed on with the red. Its a cracking little trail and worth the diversion (may even be a short cut!). If you're staying in Peebles (Tontine is well worth it - ace breakfasts, decent rooms and secure bike storage) then when you finish the day, assuming you finish at the visitor centre, spin back up to Buzzards Nest (the first climb you do as you head away from the visitor centre) and then veer left onto Janet's Brae and then hop onto the Green Trail (short and like a motorway but a lot of fun!). When you finish that, there are a number of options to drop you back down to Peebles near the Hydro. Think we did Dave's Trail and finished on Happy Ending - I think both had been used for the EWS the weekend before/after...

A day at Glentress and a day at Golfie and give Pam a ring here https://www.theoldtownhallbnb.com/ like staying with family and the breakfast is something else 🙂

Although it's "only" a blue, the GT blue is a benchmark for what a blue trail should be. Especially brilliant at night.

I hired a guide. It was money very well spent.

Stay at the Glentress Hotel. It's at the foot of the trails and Murray there will point you in the direction of all the good stuff.

Only part of the GT Blue is open. The bottom part is closed. As above, Angry Sheep / Green Wing at Inners are great. If you find those no probs, then Cresta and Gold are probably also OK. If you want to try Golfie, do Lower Repeat first. It's a very short climb and gives you an idea of what it's like. If that's no problem, try NYNY. If that's fine, then maybe try Repeat from the the top.

Flowy trail centre riding is more Glentress. Golfie and Innerleithen are more gnarly but as above Inners has a few more flowy trails (angry sheep is one) that can easily be repeated without doing the whole hill.

I just used Trailforks at Glentress and found some great stuff, you can get a good idea of gradient from the elevation and distance.

I was up Janet's Brae earlier this week (oo-er) the green trail at the top is gone with tree fall. Loads of trail closures, and be aware of access routes for mountain rescue. If you have to climb over trees to get somewhere, so will they,rule number one etc!

militantmandy
Free Member

If you find those no probs, then Cresta and Gold are probably also OK.

Though as ever, the hardest thing of all on inners dh, is sticking to the trail you meant to, it's pretty easy to accidentally turn off cresta or gold onto something a bit spicier without even knowing.

Dunno where to ride but there's a pie shop coming to Innerleithen https://www.peeblesshirenews.com/news/19917375.innerleithen-pie-bakery-plans-submitted-high-street-site/

There are still a lot of closures after the storm damage so check Trail forks or check with the trail centres / uplift side for an update.

I rode NYNY and Right Side Clyde yesterday at the golfie and both were fine. Golfie is a step up from Inners uplift side so maybe do it after you've ridden the rest.

You will find plenty to ride. It's just a shame storm wrecked so much. Some of the trails won't come back from the damage.

Admiral and the Lower Green mountain bike Route at #Glentress are now back open. Given the current weather you'll not be going for a few weeks.

Inners with angry sheep - there’s a Trailforks route link for you
Also well worth checking out the Three Brethren and Gypsy Glen routes.

I'd agree about Inners DH being hard to follow a trail, there's an awful lot of criss crossing so you can quite easily find yourself on something very steep

Looks like I've been doing it the wrong way round. Did a bit of Inners and thought it was a bit steep and knarly so went and did Golfie and done quite a few over there and found them steep but OK, NYNY, Repeat offender, Big Baw, Right Side Clyde, Flat White.
Boner getting close to my limit of enjoyment. Also found spanner a bit steep in places, had to have a little chat with myself at times. My son didn't seem to have an issue with it at all.

Thanks all, just logged back in so able to see the whole line of answers. This would be early may, so hopefully some recovery from storm damage.

Edit, also, any of the uplifts services of use or is that more for the DH daggers?

Well, there's kind of two answers to that. The first is that most of the official inners dh trails aren't too extreme- a competent rider on a modern trailbike will probably have a good time. And it can be used to access some of the other trails, especially if you're not stressed about getting the absolute best bang for your buck.

But on the other hand, like I mentioned above it's not easy to navigate, since the hill is an absolute tangle of trails and there's little real attempt to waymark it, so it's easy to start off going, frinstance, "the internet says deerhunter is relatively easy" and then accidentally turn onto Pete Williams' Track or Date Night. Whenever I ride there I just follow my nose because I know I'll enjoy it all, but when I'm riding with other people I get stressed because I might accidentally kill them.

Just kind of an inevitable side-effect of what makes the place so great but it's a little frustrating sometimes and way less approachable than most modern uplift venues.

Edit, also, any of the uplifts services of use or is that more for the DH daggers?

The uplift is a great way to get a feel for the Inners hill. As above, it can be a bit confusing, but I would argue that the main trails (Cresta / Gold / Matador) are actually fairly well signposted and easy to follow. There will also always be folk around who are happy to explain which trail is which. Golfie is definitely a bit easier to navigate, but obviously no uplift.