coastrider: Roadtrip; Eildon Hills- Scottish Borders

Another weekend camping and cycling. Friday i drove down to Newton St Boswells in the Borders with the tent and bikes to meet up with Francis who already was down there. Riding the 30km ride on Saturday she was vetting on Sunday. With the tent pitched we cycled on Friday evening to do some course marking and would end up riding just over 25km, what a lovely evening for a cycle...

Friday; 25km ride...

The St Cuthberts Way has some lovely trails and over the weekend i rode most of the routes trails around the Eildons...

Bowden village...

And onto Bowden Common..

Onto the Endurance route we cycled to where Francis had to course mark...

Mowgli was feeling the heat!, it was a warm evening, nice cycling in T shirts in 15 degrees Celsius...

Were about here on my map!...

Good thing about doing this is getting to cycle where there are no paths, like here through a meadow!...

Mowgli on full bore!!!...

Onto part of the Borders Abby Way, time to start course marking, and a lovely old road...

Mowgli feeling the heat when we stopped to mark the course...

Very brown cows!...

What a lovely old road....

Mowgli was struggling to keep up on the long descent that we flew down, but i told him to keep calm and carry on....

Marking done we followed the route as marked along a flooded path which led to Bowdon Moor...

Mowgli cooled down in the loch...

Was a hike a bike ahead with the long grass...

And a steep climb...

The view behind as we pushed up the hill...

lol...

Up onto Bowden Moor...

Fantastic views...

Just follow the trail....

And the markers...

Down to Bowden Common and a lovely old road back to Newton St Boswells...

Come on Mowgli!...

Still a few old phone boxes left!...

Pasta and wine back at camp as the sun set...

Lol...

Saturday; 45km XC cycle along riverside trails and old roads and ascent of the Eildon...

Saturday dawned with broken cloud but still warm, and the forecast was for a lovely day...

Francis`s horses ready in the corral, on the left is Phoebe, who Tessa was riding, and of course Aphrodite!, two of Francis`s `A Team`...

Beside the corral i spied this trail which on the map led to the river Tweed and my starting point of the days cycling...

With Francis and Tessa ready to go i split and headed for some trails on the drop bar 29er Karate Monkey...

And what a trail!

A steep climb lead to the Wallace Statue...

And looking across to the venue at Newton St Boswells where we were camped...

A few road miles to another view point...

The Scott View...

I had a trail marked on my old OS map from about 10 years ago, cross referenced with an old map of a road so went to investigate...

And here it was...

It led to another old road to a now disused quarry...

But sadly ended at this field, the roads have been ploughed in and so i back tracked...

A stroke of luck...
What is lost can often be replaced, and i stumbled across a trail only opened two years ago according to a local couple i met and spoke to out walking. This turned out to be a fantastic trail!...

At Leaderfoot i cycled to a famous landmark...

The leaderfoot viaduct...

Shame it is not assessable...

Midday it was time for some lunch down at the river Tweed...

Time to head for that hill and some views...

A lane climbed up to the common and i joined the endurance route...

Horses approached from behind and it was Francis and Tessa!

The endurance route went around the north Eildon,

I went straight up following the way markers...

Too steep to cycle i pushed for a bit then shouldered the bike to hike to the top, it was warm work!...

But we made it!

It was windy up top, as the bike blew over before another pic...

Amazing views...

Time to head down- no pic stops until the bottom of the steep part of the descent as i was enjoying a hard earned climb!...

Crossing the saddle was the Endurance ride route...

That was a fun descent...

I parked up and soaked up the views and watched some of the horses pass by...

Time to ride on and stopping for any horses on the two way track i headed for the woods below...

Onto some of the St Cuthberts Way and some lovely trails...

And old Byways back to Newton St Boswell...

Francis was finished her 30km ride and it was time for a G and T! then munchies, dinner and some wine...

Lol...

Sunday; more woodland trails...
Francis was vetting today so i headed off for a half days ride and again rode down alongside the river tweed and found some amazing trails...

Check this out for tech!...

If you like the River Tyne trail here in East Lothian between Haddington and East Linton then you will like this trail...

From St Boswells some old roads led to the A68...

I rode a few miles west on the road toward Bowden again where we cycled through on Friday...
Passed a few more trails, many like this were overgrown...