Moray Monster Trails

Saturday has been spent in the usual way, out on the mountain bike with Stuart, this time we headed up to Fochabers to try out the Moray Monser Trails and we were in for a surprise!

Starting on the hill closest to Fochabers we headed up around the hill on some of the blue graded trails, normally we dont go near anything other than red or black, but we gave it a shot anyway and straight away were quite impressed, for being an easier trial they had a nice flow to them which meant you could just hammer down them without too much bother, having got round the Haggis trail we headed towards the Gully Monster, a black graded trail which had been cut into the side of a gully! steep hill one side, big drop on the other, this too was fantastic, proving to be a good test of balance with its tight hairpin corners.

Back at the carpark we then cycled through the town down the Buckie road to the next section of forest, straight away we were faced with a good climb, the granny ring climb, up to the top of the hill where there would be spectacular views over speyside, if the clouds were not as low and grey. From here we picked up the orange graded freeride trail where this picture was taken, nothing too extreme, we both managed easy enough on some girly hardtails, but it was so well designed and layed out, it really was a pleasure to ride.

This got us thinking about some of the Forestry Commision sites closer to Aberdeen, which have always ben popular with cyclists but have never been developed properly or even thought about, this baffles me as it means most cyclists from the area have to drive large distances to other areas in Scotland to get some good riding in, and also spend cash in the local villages! Why not here?!