Glentrool Forest Park

Sunday  26th April 2015

Arrived at Glentrool Visitors Centre at 9.15 am and had the whole place to ourselves. The weather was good but there was a cold nip in the air. We decided to do the Blue Route so we started off.

Everything was going well till we were almost at the summit of Green Torr, when we were hit by a hail storm. The first hail storm only lasted for a few minutes so we stopped and took a few photo’s.

While admiring the view we saw the second hail storm coming in so we headed back down the long decent which is the best part of the route.

It was on this part of the route the hail storm caught up with us, it made for a very interesting run back to the Visitors Centre.

To finish of the morning run we headed to the café for coffee and a fantastic toastie.   

 At the summit of Green Torr with the hail storm coming 

Island of Cumbrae

Thursday 16^th April 2015

It was such a nice day that I decided to take the wife on a cycling trip to the Island of Cumbrae.

We caught the 9.15 ferry over to Cumbrae which took about 10 – 15 min. once at Cumbrae we headed for Millport. Our first stop was at the Lion Rock, which is a rock that is shaped like a lion depending where you are standing.

                                                    Cumbrae Ferry

                                                     The Lion Rock

Continuing on into Millport, we stopped on the promenade at the Crocodile Rock. This rock is in the shape of a crocodiles head and painted with eyes, noise and teeth.

                                                       Millport

                                                The Crocodile Rock

 From here we headed inland and climbed a very steep hill (which was very hard going on the bike) till we reached the Glaid Stone. You get fantastic views from here on a clear day. The good thing about riding up here is the ride back down WOW !!! very very fast.

The Glaid Stone

The next stop that we had was at Fintry Bay which has a very nice tea room and serves a great coffee and toastie, it went down a treat.

Fintry Bay Tea Room

Back on the road again and up to the Indians Face. Again this is a rock that looks like a face so it has been painted up to look like a very frightened Indian.

                                                    Indian's Face

Next we headed round the top end of the island where we stopped at a memorial to two young sailors from HMS Shearwater that were drowned in 1844. Once you are here you are only about a 10 min ride to the ferry terminal.

                                            HMS Shearwater Memorial 

The whole ride lasted under 3 hours which included all the stops to take photo’s and a half hour coffee break at Fintry Bay.

It was a quiet ride, great weather and some quality time with the wife, couldn’t be better. 

                                                     The Wife

Glentrool Forest - Trail side Repair Course

Monday 13 April 2015

Glentrool again!!! hard to beat these trails for training cyclists.

Run a Trail Side Repair Course today and had a great laugh watching two 50 year old men trying to beat an 18 year old girl at swapping a tube on a rear wheel. The 18 year old did it in 9 min 32 sec, one 50 year old did it in 12 min 22 sec while the other 50 year old gave up. The group also did a chain repair and a broken bottom bracket scenario.

The weather was dry but dull and we managed to miss the rain, we also had the trails all to ourselves.

Once back at the visitors center it was toasties and coffee all round Brilliant.

                                                Puncture Repair Training

                                                 Glentrool Visitor Center

                                                       The Beast    

                            View from Green Torr over looking Loch Trool                                                                 

Glentrool Forest GO MTB

April 8^th 2015

The first introductory GO MTB course of the season at Glentrool Forest today, what a difference from last year, there’s hardly any trees left on the Blue Route. It was still a good ride and the weather was great. The only wildlife to be seen was a Red Squirrel.

It was the busiest I have seen with bikers for a long time. As usual at the end of the course I had my obligatory cheese and pickle toastie to round of the day.