Falling for the charms of mountain bike trails at Abriachan Forest

ACTIVE OUTDOORS: Black and blue after taking on the blue route on the Kelpies Trails, John Davidson looks back at a great family fun day on the bikes

Let’s cut to the chase. I fell off my bike on this ride, and in the most ridiculous way.

However, I was more concerned later when our youngest came off in much more spectacular style, in a classic case of overconfidence.

Despite the drama, this is one of the best little adventures we’ve had in a long time. In a true twist, none of the children complained and the buzz you get from riding your bike on fun trails like this had us all grinning from ear to ear.

The mountain bike trails at Abriachan have been there for years now, but maintenance and development seems to be on the go all the time.

The longer blue route, which we largely followed on this ride, has had some resurfacing work done since I was last here, and a great jump line has been incorporated on the way down. I’m no expert at getting air, but this section can happily be rolled as well, if you don’t mind some steep drops.

There’s also a fantastic new pump track close to the car park and play area, as well as a fairly easy 2km green loop that’s great for beginners.

All in, it’s a perfect family-friendly introduction to mountain biking. Last time we’d come here with all the kids, we only managed a couple of loops of the green, and I wasn’t sure how Matthew would cope with the climb up to the top of the blue route.

We set out from the car park, following the colourful sign for the Kelpies Trails. The route travels through a little skills area with a few obstacles – there was a little bit of ice about still, so we steered clear of the narrow balance beams but I decided to have a go on the smaller of the two seesaws.

I’ve ridden both before, so I knew what to expect – keep central and ride straight ahead, and once past the tipping point roll carefully down the other side. Except when I got to the top, the seesaw kept pointing skywards…

There was no way back, so I just had to decide how best to fall off. Rather than tumble off the side, I decided to pedal forwards and go off the end, while trying to minimise any damage from my fall.

Meg could do nothing but watch and described me as hanging upside-down as I fell. Thankfully nothing was seriously damaged – beyond my pride – so I was happy to laugh it off and carry on.

Looking at the seesaw afterwards, I think the lowered side had just frozen to the surrounding earth, but it was a valuable lesson to me to always check any trail features before committing to them.

The kids had darted ahead, so we got going, past the roundhouse and climbing up the boardwalk section then over the forest track. It was already clear Matthew wasn’t going to have any trouble making it round the blue route, so we headed left on the second vehicle track to reach the start of the main blue route.

There is a secondary parking area here, but the first section from the main car park makes for a great warm-up, so it’s worth starting there anyway. We climbed the singletrack past the back of the bothy at Rivoulich and along Two Way Halt (all the sections are named on the TrailForks app) then down the fun twisting descent of Drop Mhor.

The sun was shining as we headed up the Elevator, which leads through the felled forest to the viewpoint at Creag Ard – a very short walk from the high point of the bike trail.

From there, the Creag Ard Twist starts with a steep series of turns that had everybody on a high. A little further, I decided to follow a detour over and down a slab rather than the main trail – possibly a little red feature added for good measure.

Matthew was needing a little help as the trail climbed steeply again in short bursts before a lovely drop through bermed corners and more on the Rattle and Hum trail that leads back to the bothy.

We paused here and just took in the views while we relived some of the excitement of the ride so far – but there was still more to come.

After we crossed a short two-way section we arrived at the start of the Jump Park, which begins with a ludicrously steep drop-off. It leads to big bermed corners and some seriously fast, flowing trail. Matthew was a bit nervous but was keen to roll down it following me, with Meg behind him, keeping our speed in check.

It was a real adrenaline-filled ride down here – great fun, even keeping the speed down as we had to. We were soon back close to the start of the main blue section after this exhilarating descent, but a fairly short climb meant we could easily have another go on this last little section.

The girls were way ahead and blasted round it again, while I followed Matthew down the Jump Park with Meg watching from the side. Having seen how fired up he was, I had talked to him on the way back up about keeping control of the speed and being careful on the corners.

So it was almost inevitable that on the first big berm he and his bike disappeared into the trees straight ahead of me, while Meg watched in horror.

I dropped my bike and ran onto the top of the berm to see him sitting, stunned, in a soft clearing beyond a maze of pine trees, his bike tangled the other side of one tree. With first aid mode in full swing, I checked him over in this confined space but somehow he had flown through all the branches of these trees, thankfully avoiding all their solid trunks, without even cutting himself, and landed happily in a soft mossy patch. A bruise on his knee was all he had to show for the drama.

He was soon back on his bike, although we made him take the slightly less exciting route down for one last descent. The incident hadn’t put him off, and we followed the singletrack section of the green loop on our way back – before spending more time at the pump track.

When he got home, Matthew made a comic strip version of this tale from his point of view, which has great pictures he drew of himself after flying through the trees and me riding up the broken seesaw. I think this one might go down in family history – and we’ll surely be back at Abriachan for more.

Route details

Abriachan Blue route

Distance 8 miles / 14 km

Terrain Natural and man-made mountain bike trails

Start/finish Abriachan Forest Trust car park

Map OS Landranger 26; Trailmaps Abriachan – map board at main Abriachan Forest Trust car park shows MTB routes clearly

The Kelpies Trails at Abriachan offer some great mountain biking including the blue route that leads up to the viewpoint

Click here to see the route in OS Maps

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