3 Stanes Day Three - Ae Forest.

3 Stanes Day Three - Ae Forest.

Mountain Bike Ride

The Ginger One, Tony, Rod.

23rd April 2015 Ae Forest Red Route

Wigwams vacated, keys returned, Scottish breakfast polished off, gift shops not found. How difficult can it be to buy a tartan tin of shortbread in a Scottish town, very difficult it would seem, The Ginger One’s loved ones were destined to disappointed when he didn’t return home bearing gifts of a Caledonian nature but not as disappointed as he was to return home with Scottish notes in his wallet. Apparently it’s not considered legal tender in Darlington.

The half hour drive to the ultimate trail centre of our mini break, Ae Forest, was lot more straightforward than yesterday’s attempt to find Mabie; soon we were once again assembling bikes in a sundrenched car park. All the advertised facilities were present today, toilets, bike shop and most importantly - cafe. The Red Route began surprisingly flat but it was not long before we began to climb, up Rab’s Slippy One, which turned out to be initially a zig zag through trees followed by a gently rising track through the forest, a chiaroscuro journey on a marginally technical singletrack, so we gained height without too much pain. A regular pattern of big hill, ride up, ride down followed; all the downhills were sublime, dry, not too rocky, superb berms, which always spat us out at the bottom of a steep-sided valley, pleasure and pain mingled as we climbed out. Eventually after many miles in this fashion we arrived at The Omega Man, Ae’s most well known section, we were a bit underwhelmed at first but things improved further down, becoming superlative at the final descent, jumps, doubles, table tops, rideable even by an incompetent 55 year old. Finishing with a choice of North Shore, naturally we chose the red graded.

Waiting at the bottom for the unfortunate Ginger One who had pinch-flatted on the way down, a perusal of the map revealed a section of orange graded track, named The Shredder, which we felt it would be a shame to miss. The Shredder is signposted from the top of the final descent of Omega Man, reached by a thoughtfully placed push up track. The ultra-fit Tony rode up, of course, refusing to buy into the downhiller’s push up: ride down philosophy, at the top we followed the orange arrows, expecting to be heading in a downward direction any time soon, on and on we climbed, on fire roads, turning a corner before climbing some more. Eventually we reached the top of a mountain, trig point and everything, where the downhill course and The Shredder began, suddenly the siren call of darts in Darlington reached the ears’ of The Ginger One (perhaps we ought to change his name to The Double One because that is his usual darts finish) and he was away like Danny Hart down The Shredder, we followed at a more leisurely pace. The Shredder is a good track, continuously interesting  but the best thing about The Shredder is it leads straight to the final descent of Omega Man, which we rode a second time with more gusto as the first, ending dusty, tired and happy back in the car park.

A class three days, perfect weather, excellent trails, good company, haggis fritters, Belhaven Best, hopefully it won’t be too long until we return.

.