Galloway Glorious Gravel

8th July 2023

By: Nadine Reilly

78 miles of trails and fire roads in Galloway Forest was the challenge taken on by some of our members this weekend.

Setting off just after 8am the first section was a long slow climb. In >20 degrees with no wind it wasn’t long before I was overheating. First puncture of the day for Paul too. Quick change and strip off some clothes and we were off again to catch the group.

Euan had shot off ahead up the climb but it wasn’t long before we caught him as he too had punctured. Unable to fix it as he has only grabbed a mtb tube when leaving this morning. John sailed on past him obviously oblivious to his situation (or thinking he’d get a good lead on him up the next climb :).

A tube kindly donated to Euan by Jerry and we continued down the loose gravel decent.

First food stop took us in a detour over some big chunky gravel where I’m sure I slow punctured on the way back across. Plenty cakes n goodies on offer so we fuelled up and cracked on.

From there we took the old port Patrick railway line all the way to Mossdale.

It was round about the top of Loch Ken that Euan punctured again on the descent. Inner tube donated by John this time. Only just got it fixed when John realised he had a slow puncture too. He attempted to top up the sealant, which was hugely unsuccessful and tyre ended up flatter. Tried putting air in, more sealant, nothing worked. Having given his only tube to Euan he now was left tubeless. Ian gave him a tube and off we went but it wasn’t to be for long as he punctured again about 100 yards down the trail. Yet another stop to put the foam insert back in and accept the fact that he needed to cut the ride short. Unfortunately it was about 6 miles to the road cut off and that was really slow going.

Jerry decided to cut short with John, given that we had only done 35 miles and the time it had taken so far. The rest of us pressed on as we wanted to complete it.

Up the road to the next food stop where they had spare tubes, gas canisters, chains etc (if only we’d known!) A quick munch then going again. Lost Ian for a bit not long after this when he missed the big pink arrow signs! 20 mins of waiting and trying to call him and finally he called to say he had been rerouted and was further up the trail!

The heavens opened on us so out came the rain jackets and gloves and we pressed on. The sun didn’t really make an appearance again but the pace was definitely higher and we made good time for the second half.

Last few miles were tough and i was glad to see the finish in sight. We even got a wee medal. Paul even bought me a t shirt (with my credit card hmm?)

Quick change into dry clothes and bikes packed up as the west coast midgies had come out to play and they were hungry!

Great day out and great banter and company. Thanks to everyone who joined us. Lesson learned from today if we do another event like this, carry at least 4 inner tubes each!!