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Description:-
This is a great natural trail, three long hard climbs over 28km (total climbing exceeds 1km) means its not for the unfit, fast loose downs follow each so make sure your brakes work. The link on the main road in the middle is the only rubbish bit.
Ride Report by Spanishfly Dec 2011:-
Ladder Hills a Spring/Summer ride. PAH!! Winter ride for the Collective. Hell we might even stick it on as BC Ride. Myself & Fly had a guest appearance live & direct from Montrose. BCFM got a late pass, so now 3 of us were in for a bit of a battering!! The gale force wind/driving rain/heavy snow were going to hit us all through the ride. The 1st climb is always a hard one, but with a strong cross wind & snow driving in our faces it was no picnic. But, we all climbed steadily, zig zagging all the way up. We had a brief stop at the top, then we blasted down the snow covered tracks to the bottom and crossed the stream to the shelter of the Bothy. Some JB's down our neck for powering up the BIG climb. We were under no illusions of how hard this climb is, but with our best bud the wind in close... attendance and the snow and loose surface to add to the torture, we climbed and climbed and climbed. Best effort was from BCFM who made about 3/4 of the way up before he had a dab. Myself & Fly put a good shift aswell, and with a small bit of pushing we were at the top and the Bombhole for some shelter & snacks. Rested we clambered out of the hole. Now, this was hilarious the wind was sooo strong we struggled to get to our bikes. I picked mine up by the saddle & stem and it was blowing in the wind, and I was struggling to keep a hold of it. We set off and we all could hardly stay on the track, I mean it was a major effort trying to stay on a 10ft wide bit of track and to add to our woes the snow was now ice. Come on Mother Nature is this all you got? We were now going down, and we were flying. We had some shelter, so our speed picked up as we blazed a trail through virgin snow. All had a great ride down to the Bothy by the lake where Fly shared his JB's again. Looking at our bikes the snow had gathered & frozen on all the bikes moving & non moving parts. But, the temp had risen & the sun was out. Things were goooood!! We set off again along slushy tracks which was just great for our already soaking feet. Another fast descent down towards the road section, which was happily clear of cows. Now, all who have ridden Ladder Hills will know how much we hate the road section. It's never easy and today was no exception. It was hard. But, The Collective powered on and we made it to the bottom of our final climb. It was food time, just to keep us going and give us that wee oomph!! to power up the steep grassy climb. The gate was closed just after the steepest part of the climb, which interupts your flow, but these things are sent to test us. As did the next part of the climb up to the shelter of the trees. Fine and grippy till we turned up left which turned in to soft gloopy wheel spinning mud. All the climbing was now finished but we still had the open moorland to navigate across. Again, this was not easy. Between the narrow tracks with the heather encroaching on your pedals, the snow and the soft surface it was just what we needed to get the legs burning for one last time. By this time BCFM's Hope rear brake was completing useless, but it didn't slow him down too much. Nearly home with one fast down towards the Cafe. It's a great near end finish to our ride. FAST FAST FAST. At the end we turned onto the road and trudged back towards our vans. This was the last of our legs feeling they were going to explode. Which was nice. A great days riding in very challenging conditions, very challenging conditions. But, it was ended well with some bacon/egg rolls, soup and toasties. Thank You to GCFM xx