Pentlands South, 27/10/2001
[Click thumbnails for fullsize (800x600) images]
This was the second off-road ride I have been with my mountain bike. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of my first ride, which was also in the Pentlands but to the North, but I plan to repeat the ride as it has an excellent downhill section.
I started at Portobello and rode through Edinburgh and out at Lothianburn junction, past Hillend Ski Slope and along the A702 down the southeast side of the Pentland hills until I arrived at a farm road about half a mile northeast of Eight Mile Burn.
The farm road skirts round South Black Hill and then climbs to a saddle between Cap Law and West Kip. This is the more straightforward part of the ride. Here's a view down the road, over Eight Mile Burn:
And here is the view of the rest of the climb:
After reaching the saddle, I realised the mistake I had made. My planned route went over West Kip. This hill has very steep gradients and a very poor (i.e. non-existant) path. There was not much cycling to be done, as I hoisted my bike awkwardly up this hill. Still, the views from up there are superb. To the northeast:
And to the southwest:
.
See, my bike is there to prove I made it up there!
East Kip is a similar affair, though because you're already quite high there's not so much to climb :-)
Scald Law is slightly less vicious in it's angles. A path like a scar on the hillside meanders up to the summit, where there's room to relax if you can hide from the wind behind the trig point.
The bike takes a well-earned rest, not:
After Scald Law, Carnethy Hill and Turnhouse Hill had been on my plan. But I was in no state at this time to climb any further with this heap of steel. The track from Scald Law to Carnethy Hill is crossed by a small path which leads down to LoganLea Reservoir to the northwest. Don't take this route with a bike! Unless you are one of those mad downhill types you likes broken collar bones, it's way too steep to cycle down; therefore it's also way too steep to carry a bike down... You can't push the bike, because it runs ahead of you, and you can't carry it, because the weight pulls you dangerously fast down the slope. So you have to sort of drag it down... Not much fun.
In summary, I can heartily recommend this route, but leave the bike at home, unless you like pain and frustration...
Dave Henniker has some more pictures of the Pentlands including good ones of West and East Kip, and the views from there. I'm not sure when he took his photos of West Kip, but the path looks much more worn than when I was there - I think there must be several years between them, and usage of the route must have gone down dramatically to allow the vegetation growth seen in mine above.
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