Tweedsmuir Hills cycle...

A great days cycling around the Hills of Peebles, organised by Stuart, I gave Craig a lift down and we met up in the town along with Brian, Jason and Mark for what would be a cool but superb day up on the hills in winter sunshine the Larch and Beech trees golden brown in the low sun...

The ride started with a tough climb out the town onto Venlaw, this ride Stuart had planned a ride of approx 25 miles of proper old school cross country with 3000 feet of big climbs, superb views and fun descents with two options to finish back in Peebles depending on time of day, energy of the group and any breakdowns etc, always good to have a shorter option to end a big ride esp in winter...

First of the big sky views, looking NW across to the old Roman road  that leads to Romano Bridge and on to West Linton, the route followed on the Capital Trail as it returns to The Pentland Hills and home to Edinburgh...

South to the hills around Hundleshope  Heights and The Drove road west of Cardrona Forest...

Up past the old house at Shieldgreen, that would make a great Bothy, and into Glentress Forest...

We joined the black route and climbed up the old original black route climb now a shared path and rejoined the route up to the mast where a large group of riders had stopped for a breather, there was friend Donald out with the group and after a chat they continued on the Black route while we descended on forest tracks to leave the forest where we were met with superb views across to Leithen Hopes...

The grassy track descent down to the Whitehope Farm is superb and fast, my bike was flying with the 29+ wheels down here and the wide bars and forks  made the bike planted on the soft ruts in the grass, `this is what I bought this bike for` I said to myself as I descended off the brakes and grinning like a dafty while also trying to soak up the views...

Regrouped we took to the main road then rode down to Innerliethen and south of the town rode through Glen House estate and more climbing/ hike a bike up by Ochard Rig...

With 20 miles now ridden with a lot of climbing Stuart/we decided to take the shorter option and skip crossing to meet the Gypsy Glen Drove road and instead descended down through Cardrona Forest...

Winter has certainly arrived!, the temperature had plummeted with a real damp cold as we returned along the old railway path to Peebles and grabbing some hot food returned to the cars and enjoyed having the back of the van to sit it and east and reflect of a great days cycling, proper mountinbiking,

Here is some film from the route,
Song is `Cello Song` by Nick Drake...


Tweedsmuir Hills  XC cycle Nov 17 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

More soon...