A mountainbike crossing of Eaglesham moor (whitelee windfarm) 18th Dec 2011

[davyowens]

Me & my Bro Garry - Crossing over the frozen moor today on the bikes with a nice brew stop & a wee fire - It was dark & 7 below by the time we got back to the car - another crackin day though. Not too fond of these turbines but it has opened up 100 miles of forest roads right in my backyard - the main access roads were pretty well compacted - the offshoots were way too deep to ride.

You can see the bushie touch on my self built rig - sewn leather grips - lovely stuff -& very shiney as well -'applied mechanics in the great outdoors'

The bikes stood up to it no probs & wee were hitting beakneck speeds on some of the downhills.

Stopped off here for a well deserved brew & a wee heat - we seem to be the only cyclists each have an axe & bow-saw strapped to our backpacs....

Suns gettin low now - time to get movin...

 

[R3XXY]

Nice pics, looks like fun.

 

[alex1812]

Great pict`s
I have walked up there in the summer, its very handy to have these roads open.

 

[JAG009]

Davie that looks like a fun day out ,i have not been out on the Eaglesham moor in years
Looks like a good fall of snow you have had


Jason

 

[davyowens]

Great pict`s
I have walked up there in the summer, its very handy to have these roads open.

Yeh but sometimes I wonder - there was always tracks across that moor - we went up there before the additional roads were put in. Anyway they're currently putting in - is it 70 new turbines?? - we had a very helpful chap stop in his 4x4 (on a sunday as well) & inform us that 'there's no fires allowed' - so I asked 'Why is that then mate??' & he nodded towards the forest (ie) trees - so I laughed & asked -'is that what you came up here to tell us' - & he replied - 'no i'm just working up here - (yep - on the new turbine installations - just quoting health & safety kind of thing)' - Ok thanks for the advice big man but it's just took us twenty minutes to get this wee flame going - I dinna think you have anything to worry about - but we'll be sure to put it out before we leave!!

A few months ago - we were threatened with the police - for having an MSR pockit rocket!!!!!!! going on the same moor -again by 'constuction site' officials - we laughed in disbelif - but these guys were serious - flapping - they seem to be ****e scared of flame - a cigarette is a sacking offence up there!! the chap went away flapping - talked on his radio & - basically asked us really really nicely could we please just go up the road a few miles - outside the 'construction site boundary with our Naked Flame!!!' - to save any dramas, we agreed to disagree - & moved on - apparently at the minute - most of the moor is shut off - {as a bon-afide} building site with H&S - red & white tape - we read the signs - ( as we rode past } ' no unauthorised access - construction site (60 square miles of it)- yep thanks very much for the forrest roads, now hurry up & gie us our moor back.

 

[davyowens]

Davie that looks like a fun day out ,i have not been out on the Eaglesham moor in years
Looks like a good fall of snow you have had


Jason

Yep magic day big man - we try to do this once or twice a month - but all the better in the snow.

 

[davyowens]

Theres always been some crackin spots up there - it's just more easy accessed now - good wildlife as well - we're defo up for a mountainbike bivvy in the spring......watch this space

 

[Barn Owl]

Great pics guys.

 

[gsfgaz]

Great pics bro ...

 

[red devil]

Cracking pics - looks like you had a great time. I fly fish regularly at the High Dam fishery up on the moors outside Eaglesham - you probably rode past it on your day out. Haven't been for a few weeks (no time, no money) but hoping to get a session in before the turn of the year. Will have to dust off the old mountain bike too - but not until the Spring (brrrr).
Cheers,
Steve fae Newton Mearns

 

[Shewie]

Great pics Davy, that looks like fun

Mag MTB wheels? I've not seen those since I had my Raleigh Burner

 

[filcon]

Well done Davy, its been a few years since I was up there.

phil

 

[davyowens]

Cracking pics - looks like you had a great time. I fly fish regularly at the High Dam fishery up on the moors outside Eaglesham - you probably rode past it on your day out. Haven't been for a few weeks (no time, no money) but hoping to get a session in before the turn of the year. Will have to dust off the old mountain bike too - but not until the Spring (brrrr).
Cheers,
Steve fae Newton Mearns

Yeh I do a spot of fly fishing as well - noticed that the high dam fishery looks as if it's had a fair bit of investment in the past couple of years - handy wee fishery in a fine location.

 

[davyowens]

Great pics Davy, that looks like fun

Mag MTB wheels? I've not seen those since I had my Raleigh Burner

Yeah alloy mag wheels - look the part, light & solid as well - love my mtb.

 

[bear1873]

cracking pics buddy. spend most of my summer nights up there fishing loch goin love the place. the only good to come out of the windfarm is we have miles of cycling tracks..... which is nice !

 

[alex1812]

Last summer we saw a group with a big plastic cool box and a couple of those disposable barbeques, (i hate them! we are forever picking them up at work) just a few
hundred yards from the visitor center.
Now that they should have issues with!!.
but a couple of guys with a gas stove or a small fire in the snow!
sounds like h&s gone mad or a "tin pot jobs worth meddlesome busy-body".
It`s allways handy if someone warns you about dangers you maybe unaware of, but i feel this can be done in a reasonable manner and not
by "flapping" or threatening to set the police on you.
Still it looks like you had a great day out.

 

[shortymcsteve]

One time i went up there with no idea it was a wind farm.. a friend of mine told us is was a massive forrest and had an OS map which showed that to be true.
We planned to go a 3 day trip and our packs were heavy as hell so walking around there was a little difficult at first but after we got used to it we ended up walking around the whole wind farm, i couldn't believe it when i saw the turbines.. that was the last time i trusted anyone to pick a good place for a nice camp out, haha.
Ended up staying only one night and ditching that idea, hah. Worst part was the midges up there, ive never experiences them so bad in my life! Million of them up there during the summer. We woke up in the morning with our tent all black, took us a minute to work it it was actually thousands of midges. I gotta go back there some time with a bike and check it out properly.

 

[Bluemerle]

Looks like you had a great day, love the idea of all those tracks for mountain biking, but hate the Turbines!!