Devils Staircase and Ciaran Trail

Details: Category: Ride Reports; By Rob Friel; 16.May; 16 May 2010; Hits: 8296

We were joined in Glen Coe YHA by Adam Fabulous Ward in time for a beer and a single malt to prepare us for one of the best days riding done by any of us ever the following day. Andy was getting a bit tired and wanted to go back and stroll around Ikea but we talked him round.

We put this route together from internet sites, MBR and word of mouth. Starting near the Glen Coe Ski station on the main road at the foot of the devils staircase followed a 7 hour day of riding with about 1 mile on the road. About 5 miles of it was flat but so tech we were doing walking speed. The rest was straight up or down.

Rob Friel

Devils staircase is one hard warm up, with a fair bit of pushing. Followed by one of the best DH's I've ever done with a couple of obligatory punctures thrown in. The descent starts on rocky switchbacks, rock steps, slabs, bridges and more switchbacks. It turns into a 40mph gravel road DH with a few drifty hairpins to keep it interesting. We rode in and out of Kinlochleven and up the other side of the westhighland way before turning right and climbing up to the pipeline. 8km of flat (and easy we thought). This snaked its way through the undergrowth, and required riding along the top of a huge concrete pipe for part of it. 5 miles took us well over an hour.

Just before reaching the impressive damn we turned hard right into MBR's trail of the year the Ciaran path. This was not as flowing as I expected but tech, with huge rocks to batter your eyeballs, and a few steep rock sections with drops off to the left. It eased up at the bottom but still battered you. Full on and a long DH, about 8km in all.

Then it was a simple case of reversing the devils staircase - a big big climb up fireroad out of kinlochleven. Then a push followed by a suprisingly fun tech uphill challenge to the top. The descent to the cars was awesome with more rocks, swithcbacks and drops. Dave managed to drift through a waterbar cracking his tubeless rim about 300m from the car and had to walk back. We were wasted, bikes were wasted. The weather stayed good.

It was my birthday. We drove back to Glasgow and went out. I drank too many Jagerbombs and became the butt of the jokes for the rest of the week. Enough said I reckon.