MBR Doethie Valley Route

Well, confess to being slightly underwhelmed by this trail given it won a trail of the year award back in 2011. Tempted by the description of the singletrack descent, Ally and I drove for nearly 3 hours to get here, through some lovely countryside it must be said. Navigation comes in two flavours. The not-hard-if-you've-done-your-prep kind as you tour the edge of the reservoir and ascend then descend out of the woods whilst enduring soporific forestry commission double track terrain and several unwelcoming padlocked gates. And the where-the-heck-has-the-trail-gone? kind as you turn off the double track and start descending the valley back toward the dam. Oh, there is an interesting "Grand Canyon" feature developing on that last part of double track that is at least 6 foot deep. I know that because I got off the bike and stood in it. I'm 6'3" and I couldn't see out. Anyway, the strange navigation eventually leads to well defined singletrack blighted only by the frequent boggy sections that require trusting-to-luck and ploughing through or hike-a-bike around the edges. The final climb back up to where we started the day was a decent leg tester for us on XC MTB machines. All in all I'm glad I came and tried this route but it's a do-once affair methinks. The tranquil rolling scenery of the second half of this trail is very nice indeed and essentially the real highlight of any visit here.