Ballyhoura Road Trip

[Martin]

Hi lads, Richie Byrne was telling me last night the trails are great down there and are actually better than Ballinastoe. Is there anyone interested in heading down on Sat 15th in the morning say 6:30am and heading back that night. I've spoken to a few and they seem interested. Its 2.5hrs each way. Alternative is to slum it for a night in a hostel. Again, everyone can road trip it and do the loops in their own time. Car pooling advised.


If not interested suggest a date?

[Morgan]

>actually better than Ballinastoe


Holy cow!!!!!!!! Can it be true? I must be dreaming!!!!


:P

[Martin]

more places for singlespeed madeness!

[Martin]

2 going on Sunday for the day! only decided to go with this last night!


plan leave 6:45 Mad Cow Roundabout

arrice c. 10am

ride until 3pm

return to Dublin 7pm


Martin

[Liam]

Well I can never say no to a road trip.


I'm working sat though so I'll be driving down Sunday morning and can fit one more.


Anyone else driving Sunday morning as I've no idea how to get there?


WAIT....better idea, we steal a school bus off a blind lady and all drive down together.

[Martin]

cool, liam i'll talk to you sat, post up your mobile here! :-)


and now we have 3! see if you can coax someone else!


some nice pics here :- http://rdpics.fotopic.net/c1278492.html

[Scrivo]

Howiya lads,

I have sold a frame to a guy in Cork but he is not too keen on travelling to Dublin. He says he will be down Ballyhoura way on Sunday. Could any of you take the frame up and sell it for me?


Let me know as soon as you can, would be hugely appreciated.

Steve

[paddyobrien]

liam, in the absense of a blind, school bus owning lady, and if the lift is still available i'll take you up on that and provide riveting conversation the whole way!!!


(not a promise .. but i can read a map!)


Paddy

[Martin]

steve shoudl be able to fit it in if its not too big! give me a text and you can drop it to me tonight!


also paddy liam should have a lift for you!

[Liam]

Yeah can give you lift allright Barry, if you live near the red cow roundabout I could pick you up on the way.


PS: Found good directions to this place: http://www.ballyhouramtb.com/find-ballyhoura-2/index.php


And directions from Dublin: http://maps.google.com/maps?dir=to&saddr=dublin&daddr=52.317713741895%2C+-8.467712402343

[Martin]

great stuff Liam


and we are now at 5 people! Cormac might be joining us!


hope the weather holds!!!!

[Martin]

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/wxdetail/EIXX0026?dayNum=1&from=search


only 20% chance of rain! tomorrow might be a good one~

[Liam]

There can't be any rain left after today. Looks good..
<pre> http://www.met.ie/weathermaps/nat01_weather.png
</pre>

[Martin]

liam we should be on th trails by 10am if we leave by 7am. Makesure you take a few spares and bit and bobs as its miles from civilisation! there is a few lads from MBUL tere for 10am so we can get route details if em' however signposts are up the lads from epic said so it should be fine! worse part will be the fecking drive!! nevermind....... if its good we'll buzz back down in april/may for a long weekend and do the red route! 50km.

[Barrydanzig]

don't think i ever asked for a lift...

so i amn't going liam!


i am still broken yo...

[Martin]

he meant paddy!

[Liam]

Did I say Barry?? I'm having a lot of Blonde moments lately.

I'll have to dye my hair.

[Barrydanzig]

no harm done liam, i still respect yo' fo' sho'


i said shit god damn!

(said in southern accent)

[Martin]

lads, lads, what a great MAD day!


set off at 7am thinking we were all MAD!! stopped for breakfast and refueling in ballygobackwards and then again in mitchelstown to ditch some stuff for Scrivo.


Anyway after parking up at the trail cetre (not yet open but looked a fair bit like a few in wales and will be super when it opens) we decided we'd tackle the c.40km white (all well signposted) route which was the just off the longest trail of 50km the red one.


Only out of the carpark and the action began on perfectly contracted trails, with sweeping singletrack and northshore, a few fallen trees slowed us up a bit bit onwards and upwards, every climb was compensated and every section of single track was perfectly laid out!


the singletrack went on and on, and I think one section the lenght of at least 4 sections of B/stoe, and as richie byrne said on the epic site, it went on and on!


On a savage meter :- it gets 6 outa 10. (They should add a black route or a few bits of slab/rock gardens!) but for the newbie /intermediate enought to wizz along too!!

Why:- not enought technical stuff to keep the savages happy, but if its after a good spin in a great location hit BallyH (the middle of fecking nowhere!!)

Compared to B/stoe:- leaves it miles behind! much much faster (me fast???) one seciton was so fast the old "lets do it again rang out!"


....... more pics when I recover, 3 hrs eachway and a 4hr spin have me in bits!! but it is doable!!


thanks to paddy, shane, liam and cormac for a great day!!

[Martin]

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/5692/googleearthimageis9.th.jpg (http://img329.imageshack.us/my.php?image=googleearthimageis9.jpg)

[paddyobrien]

yep a great day, despite the 5:30am alarm clocks!!


The trails were great .. though some sections didn't seem to flow so well, certain sections just left such a massive grin on the face!


I would agree with martin about the lack of technical stuff, but prehaps a weekend should be made of it and try and get a local guide (someone from MBUL maybe) for one day to show us all the natural stuff, of which i believe there is plenty.


All in all a good day .. and still want to do those certain sections again .. despite being knackered

[Liam]

I bloody loved it, at one stage I considered moving to Limerick and starting MAL. Great trails, very fast, could be few more technical bits allright, and less of those bloody big rocks at the side of every trail, wacked my pedal off one and now have a busted knee, which wasn't helped by hours of driving.


All and all worth the trip, would def make weekend of it next time though.


Cheers Martin.

[shane]

yep would second that liam


but all in all was a good day


would love to go back down soon

[Liam]

<pre-code>

<table><tr><td align="center" ;background:url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left">http://lh5.google.com/talk2liam/R92VR2vRugE/AAAAAAAAAOQ/QFgUjhAfsOE/s160-c/BallyhouraSingletrackHeaven.jpg (http://picasaweb.google.com/talk2liam/BallyhouraSingletrackHeaven)</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px">Ballyhoura - singletrac<wbr></wbr>k heaven (http://picasaweb.google.com/talk2liam/BallyhouraSingletrackHeaven)</td></tr></table>

[paddyobrien]

oh and cheers once again for the lift liam

[Martin]

http://web.mac.com/martinlynch75/Site/My_Albums/Pages/Ballyhoura.html pics up :-)