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Stuart
Hay (S2) reports on a Mountain Bike Weekend
A
group of twelve pupils and two teachers departed the school on Friday
the 5th of September. We left at almost half four – an hour
after the intended departure time! Before we left, a few teachers had
wished us a good weekend.
The
roads were quite busy, and we arrived at the campsite at half six, and
started setting up the tents. When we finished we wandered round to the
local chipper, and had something to eat, stopping at the park on the way
back to eat it.
When we got back, it was already getting dark, so most people went to
bed. Everyone was wide awake, and didn’t go to sleep for ages, until at
the back of ten, a neighbour staying at the campsite, came round and
complained about the amount of noise we were making, and we were told to
be quiet.
Everyone quietened, but stayed awake. One boy (who shall remain
anonymous) went to the swings in his sleeping bag, and got spotted!!
Finally, though, everyone went to sleep.
When we woke up, we got dressed and ready, then checked the bikes for
any faults, and fixed them. Just before nine, we left to go to Christies
Garden Centre, to get breakfast. Everyone had a cooked breakfast. Soon
after, we went back to the campsite, and set off to do a trail. Before
the trail properly started, was the skills course, which had a few
jumps, a seesaw, and a balancing beam. It was popular, though, and
lots of pictures were taken. It was a Blue trail, and everyone did
it. It was graded as moderate, and it was really good. The initial
uphill part was worth it, when you got to do all the fun down hills. The
first downhill was called ‘The Haggis’, and was windy, and had some
little jumps, and tabletops. After a short uphill section, we came to
another downhill part called ‘Gordzilla’, which was like The Haggis, but
twice the fun. It was longer, faster, on different ground, with more
technical parts and a great way of finishing off the Blue trails.
The
Blue trail is 17.5km, and it had taken about 90 minutes, but we spent
ages of that just positioning the action camera – Mr McConnell’s new
camera that you strap onto your bike, and it records as you cycle.
When we got back, we had a quick lunch, and the group split. Mrs
Rutherford went to a pub to see the Scotland vs Macedonia football
match, some people just stayed at the campsite, and others went on
another trail, the Fochabers Ring – a Red trail. Red is the next step up
from Blue - and is classed as difficult. The red trail was
harder, because of the very steep start, but it gets easier once you
reach the top of the huge hill. At the top is an old monument. We
(Munro, Christer, Jamie, Matthew, Lewis, Stuart, Peter and Mr McConnell)
walked along the first part of the extreme trail – Fochabers Freeride, a
trail which lives up to its difficulty level!! Then, the descents began.
The parts of the red trail were named after Lord of the Rings, with
names like Rivendell, and Helms Deep. There are some really good
descents, where you weave in among the trees, and can’t see much. We
were back at the campsite, exhausted, but exhilarated. It was an 11km
route, and had taken us about 75 mins.
When we got back, another group went back out to the skills course. Once
everybody was ready, we stood in the park and talked about what we were
going to do about tea. Once everyone had done what they wanted, we went
round to the chipper for tea.
It
was already dark when we got back, and the group was tired (not to much
the teachers!!) so everyone went to bed, sleeping much earlier than the
previous night.
In
the morning, we set to work packing the tents away straight away, and
were finished by the time we went to Christies again for breakfast. As
we were leaving, Jake was in the shops buying bouncy balls, and
chocolate but he was taking too long, so Kris was sent in to get him.
Kris came back out, just behind Jake. He told us that the shopkeeper had
said that Jake had gone out with two balls and a bar of chocolate!!
Everyone laughed. When we got back, we took loads of photos of Morag,
our new mascot –the pink pig!!!!
On
our way back, we stopped at Keith to wash the bikes, and bought Mrs
Rutherford a little thanks. We arrived back at about quarter to twelve. |
