Ben Venue – Sunday 25th March

Graham, if you’re reading this it was awful and you didn’t miss a treat. In fact you’d have been glad to have stayed at home nursing your knee …… for everyone else, keep reading.

Fog, sunshine, mud, sweat, sweets and laughter kinda sums it up.

After the ubiquitous faffing for half an hour or so we made our way from the Aberfoyle car park along towards Altskeith on the banks of Loch Ard. Me, Kev, Rob, Stuart, Stu and Hamish then threw/passed our bikes over the big fence before slowly cycling/walking up the long climb up through the relatively dry forest.

By the time we reached the fork in the road, the fog had lifted, the sun came out and Stuart cracked open the jelly babies. We knew it was going to be a good day. Stu in a moment of madness decided that the easiest way up was to carry our bikes up the steep grassy slope for 20 minutes or so. Lets just say he didn’t make many friends that day….

Once we were back on the fire road it was an easy climb up towards the hunting lodge where we had lunch with arguably one of the best views in the central belt. Thankfully Stuart had brought a recent OS printout (my OS map was 10 years old, note to self, always check reliability of map) and we saw a route down that’d join the footpath below.

Stu and Hamish bailed at this point, deciding to sunbathe on the slope of Beinn Bhreac whilst the foolhardy rest of us decided to push for the summit. It was then a mixture of carry, cycle, stop, lift, grunt, cycle along the traverse on the west flanks of the Ben until we reached the steep rocks nearer the summit. It was a bit touch and go at that point but then Stuart pulled out the magical jelly babies and we were off again, this time with the bit between out teeth and the summit in our sites.

A couple of locals asked if they could take a photo of our bikes – they’d never seen bikes at the top of Venue before. We also took our mementos, pulled on the padding, dropped the tyre pressures and prepared for the descent. Most of the top part is kinda ridable with a few segments you have to carry down, as you get lower the sections start to join up and you can find a flow in the rocks, ruts and marshland. That is until you come a cropper, which I think we all managed at one point or another.

Once we were round the Bhealaich the route became tight single track with great technical rocky sections. We were all grinning and whooping away as we made swift progress down the hillside. The route eventually led into the forrest where dappled light shone on the relatively dry trail under wheel and we blasted down, jumping the rocks and roots below.

What a sweet ride. A real blend of mountain riding combined with technical sections for the more adventurous, definitely should be on your to do list.

We’ll be back soon for the descent over the other side down towards Achray, who’s in?

D