I live near a mountain bike route. Part of the route goes through a forest. In the forest section there is a very steep drop.

Earlier in the year, during “lockdown” I saw lots of middle aged men cycle into the forest. They were on old mountain bikes that they hadn’t touched in years. Many of them did not cycle out of the forest. They pushed their bike out after braking a bone falling off the steep slope.

I have to admit I’ve never cycled the slope. I get off my bike and push it to the bottom of the drop before getting back on and continuing. So I am not the person to turn too to tell you where scary technical routes are unless you want to know how to avoid them.

I do love cycling off-road BUT on nice tracks. So, over the years, I’ve found lots of safer routes that are technical enough for me and safe enough that anyone could do them.

This is a great route near Glasgow. It comprises two different forest sections and its all on good wide fire-track roads. There’s plenty of options on the route to make it more technical.

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Video

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Route Review

Difficulty:

Nearly 600m of climbing in 16 miles is a lot but that means there’s some great downhill sections.

Views:

Great views over Carron valley reservoir and there a mix of different types of forests to ride through.

Traffic: 

There is only a very short section on road and normally there are very few cars along this way.

Parking

I parked at Todholes car park. This can be full by 10AM in summer as it’s a very popular spot. If the car park is full go further along the road and ride to the start.

Toilets

There were no public toilets open.

Cafe

I haven’t tried it but there is a café at the Carron Valley main car park.

Route