Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th January 2014

Alex, Carmen, Dan, Matt and Niall went to Dalbeattie to ride
the Dumfries and Galloway trail centers, the trip started out with a drive through the sort of
conditions that encouraged Noah to take up shipbuilding for, therefore abandoning plans to visit
Ae on the way down. Conveniently the weather dried up in the late afternoon
allowing for a few small laps of the taster circuit at the Dalbeattie to be
taken before taking on the full circuit the following day.

Unfortunately for Niall some locational information was lost
after taking one of the early extra “skills loop” sections and shot off at
a fast pace to catch Dan and Alex, who were of course also doing one of the
“skill loop sections”, so while Niall battered on doing the full loop and then
2 “taster loops” thinking Alex had discovered EPO, the rest of the group took a
leisurely ride round of essentially the same structure trying out perfecting
the various technical sections.

The group returned to discover a showered and luncheoned
Niall relaxing by the log fire wondering why he’d never caught them. Another Night ride was discussed over a varied lunch, so Niall and
Alex ventured out to do some more loops of the Taster section in the dark
before returning to fish suppers and Die Hard.

The original plan for Sunday was for Dan to show some of the
wild trails in the area, however with options having been eroded by the storms
the Trail Centre at Ae was the best remaining option with a loop completed in
the morning before another deluge provided for trick conditions on the way home.

• Niall Wallace