Glentress 2003
On the 6th of April, a group of eleven customers and James Burrell staff
tackled the formidable 'Black Run' at the Glentress Forest in the Scottish
borders. Our guests, who included buyers and site managers from the likes
of South Tyneside MBC and Harbour & General managed to drag themselves
out of bed for and early start (6am) from Ponteland. After loading our
bikes and gear into a waiting van, we headed north in convoy to the border
and onto Galashiels for breakfast (if you can call McDonalds breakfast
that is).
With full bellies and good spirits, we set off for the Glentress Forest
near Peebles, murdering a variety of wildlife on the way, (sorry Gary
- I tried to avoid it but the van wasn't as nimble as I thought) arriving
at 'The Hub' at 9am. Having slipped into our day-glo spandex suits (I
kid you not) we mounted our trusty steeds and set off up 'the hill' (and
I use that term as loosely as possible) for the 1800ft climb to the 'Observatory'.
With the weather on our side for once, spirits were high for the first
3 minutes or so when the enormity of the task became apparent and a chorus
of 'are we there yet?' and 'how much further?' could be heard echoing
around the forest! The answer was I'm afraid, 'not even close' and 'only
another 4 hours to go'. Some 4 hours later, having negotiated bloody
great big hills, streams, rock faces and pretty much every other obstacle
that nature could throw at us, we finally made it to the impressively
named 'Observatory' (which is essentially a tiny and overcrowded wooden
hut perched on the top of the mountain). A timely opportunity was taken
to take a rest and and feed our faces with the meagre rations that we
had brought!
The Descent!
There is only one thing that is good about climbing 602 metres on a bike - you get to drop 602 metres back down to terra firma! A chance of a bit of fun at last, and judging by the shrieks of laughter, fun was certainly had by all. A welcome break from all of the huffing and puffing and moaning and whinging that went on during the climb!
Not Big, not clever, but very funny!
After a bit of 'showboating' on the way back down the mountain (resulting in two spectacular crashes and one 'bleeder'!) we arrived back at 'The Hub' for a BBQ where we compared notes on exactly how close we had come to death - lungs bursting and hearts exploding on the way up, forget about the descent!
The whole day was a great success. My thanks to Gary for ignoring all of his principles and coming along and to all of the James Burrell customers who now have near death experiences to tell their grand children about in years to come!
MY APOLOGIES TO THE PHEASANT AND THE CAT...
It could only be the phoney!
Having launched himself off a huge ramp, landing front wheel first, PDP (alias Phil) decided to plough the land with his face, thus sending his much beloved steed somersaulting down the mountain!
PDP had ............ winded himself much to everyones delight!
