Glenariff Fore Park, what a gem!
Located on the east coast of Northern Ireland, approximately 60 minutes drive from Belfast, sits this incredible valley with Glenariff Forest Park pitched up at one end of it with views down over the village of Glenariff.
We met at 10:30 and after the obligatory bike fettling and chat about bikes, (some of those in attendance got to feast their eyes on a brand new Fustle model which is launching soon, so the start of the ride was delayed slightly to gather feedback from everyone on colour choices and what spec they might prefer when it goes finally on sale in January.)
Local hero and 'Queen of the Glens' Catriona Wheeler led us out and straight into a chunky climb out of the car park as we turned North and climbed to just under 900ft within the first mile of the ride. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the ride, and any of those who had checked the route map ahead of time, definitely had a bit of valuable knowledge of what lay ahead for the days ride.
The route then flattened out slightly as we crossed onto some open gravel fire roads that looped us around towards the south west and towards the small village of Cargan at the furthest point.
After that, we re-entered the forest park, and were treated to some incredible high speed fireroad descents where 2 bikes fell victim to the sharp rocks and cried out for repairs, then on to discover some incredible singletrack flowing trails that undulated their way back towards the direction that we started from.
We reached a fork in the road and had the choice of an easy climb back to the car park, or a super steep decent to visit the famous waterfall which threatened a challenging steep climb back up, but it didn't take long for wheels to start turning downhill and off we went to secure the mandatory Waterfall Group Photo as is always required.
We were'nt wrong about the climb back up to the car park from the waterfall, as plenty of heavy legs started to make their presence known over that last few hundred metres.
All in all, a fantastic route, and brilliant day out with a brilliant group of people, all finished off with some complimentary Glens of Antrim crisps laid on courtesy of Glens of Antrim Potatoes
You can download the route map from our Komoot page here:
Huge thanks to everyone who came out, to Catriona for leading the way, and to Connor McCulough for the photos!
Here's to the next one!
