Mountain Biking and Walking the Rob Roy Way

Sunday 9th April. This week saw the continuation of the Glasgow City Culture and Leisure service outdoor teams Spring Break Programme. Each day from Monday the 3rd April groups of young people from youth groups throughout the city made their way to Aberfoyle by mini bus driven by the bold Willie, where they met up with myself and the bikes. After being kited up and some basic instruction on how to handle a bike we set of. The route taken varied depending on the groups over all abilities. They all visited the David Marshal Lodge visitor centre, for lunch and use of the very good facilities. The playground at the rear of the centre was a big attraction.
The route to the centre provides a good taste of riding skills, particularly the climbing side. It also allows the leaders the opportunity to suss out the fitness and skill levels. Most of the groups then undertook a longer ride into the forest park south of Aberfoyle and returning by the way of the cycle track. The feed back from the participants was when/how can we do more, this was despite some very bad weather which delayed some groups setting of. Next week we have another 3 days planned and the long range weather forecast is for more unsettled weather, we will see how the groups attending these sessions get on.
Thursday 6th April saw the first baggage transfers on the Rob Roy Way of the season. A party of 4 from Kirriemuir and on Saturday 8th a father and son from Bearsden.