So we set out following the wicklow way through the stunning grounds of marlay park, which is a maze of streams, bridges and wonderful trails through the woods that gives a sense of tranquility while still in the cities suburbs.  From here the wicklow way comes onto some country road before heading steep uphill and into kilmashogue forest where we took a well deserved rest for some food!

After our well earned rest we continued our walk up alongside kilmashogue forest which gave way to wonderful views of dublin city and beyond.  It has to be said kilmashogue has to be one of the steepest sections of the wicklow way but at least we got alot of our climbing done at once and it was a nice gentle walk onto the open mountain from here. We decided to take our lunch break here before we tackled fairy castle mountain which lay in the mist in the backround.

After lunch the group lead the way along the wicklow way which then turns off and onto the dublin mountain way walking route that brought us up to the summit of the famous fairy castle mountain which was covered in mist.  With the weather deteriorating with mist and rain on the way we decided to keep going along our planned route and decided to take in 3rock mountain with its giant tors on the summit.

For the students this was an opportunity to show off some rock climbing skills!

After our rock climbing session we continued down to ticknock car park that is home to some great amenities from looped walks, orienteering permanent courses and a new mountain bike trail thats all FREE to use.  With all the hard work done it was all downhill from here along the country roads and back into the grounds of marlay park.

Check out our route map we recorded on our walk!

Liam Phelan of MAD mountain bike club taking on the Drop-off with style!

We had a great turnout from members of local mountain bike clubs and individuals who are keen to see the opening of this wonderful facility in the heart of the wicklow mountains, which can only be a great benefit to local tourism and for the sport of mountain biking in the future. The G Ride bike trails will be a pay and ride system with safe parking  and facilities such as bike wash, cafe etc, with some beautiful walks for all the family to enjoy.

Track and Trail will have full access to the G Ride Mountain Bike Trails to run various bike skills courses for Schools, Youth, Corporate, and Hen/Stag packages, and we will be also running a Bike Hire system at the trailhead.

Check out some video footage HERE of the G Ride Bike Trails!

Lots of you have enquired about looking to ride the excellent privately owned G Ride trails at Glendalough House Estate, most of you know now that this coming Sunday we are hosting a social spin for capable Mountain Bikers on May 6th.

The day is styled on a spin you might have with your mates starting off with a guided loop of the trails showing you the way around and letting you know the best lines to some of the features you will encounter. We will encourage every one along on the climbs and even take five before blasting off along the single track again. We want you to really enjoy yourself and there will be lots of opportunity for some photos if that is what your into.

Once we finish our first loop there will be a chance to take a break or those who want are free to take off again at their own pace unguided and make the most of the trails. All riders are expected to be self sufficient on the day so don’t forget the basics like spare tubes, pump, power links and magic jellies that will power you up the seemingly endless switchbacks

As we said these trails are not yet open to the public so this is a great chance to get to be shown around and then let loose on the trails built by Mr Robin Seymour a living legend of the Irish Mountain Bike scene and two time Olympian so it’s fair to say the man knows how to design and build trails.

To confirm your place contact Paul on info@trackandtrail.ie or 086 872 4176

To those that have already confirmed their attendance we look forward to seeing you at 10am at Glendalough Estate House, Annamoe , Co Wicklow

The entrance to the Estate is where the green arrow is marked on the above map, the lane way is on quiet a bad bend on the road so please be careful when turning in. This is the view you can expect to see when coming from Roundwood Village direction.

The gates to the Estate will be open on your arrival, drive up the avenue taking note of the speed limit and stay left at the junction, it will be well sign posted and we will see you at the trail head car park on the right.

All riders bikes must be in good mechanical order and each person must have a correctly fitting helmet. Track and Trail reserve the right not to let people take part in the ride if their equipment is not safe to use as determined by Track and Trail.

Body armour is not needed but if you feel more comfortable riding with it that is okay, we do recommend that everyone wear gloves.

If you have any questions at all please contact Paul on info@trackandtrail.ie or 086 872 4176

We look forward to seeing you there.

Well what a great start to our day with the weather reaching 20 degrees even before we set off on our Gaisce hillwalk with transition year students from cois life secondary school in Lucan. As the group arrived we greeted them and outlined the day ahead and our intended route with various options on the way. On our Gaisce hillwalking trips we encourage each student to try their hand at some basic map reading skills and today was no different as one of the students took control to lead alot of the walk without any convincing from us.

We started our hillwalk from Djouce woods outside Enniskerry, then made our way down through the forest while overlooking amazing views of Powerscourt waterfall and Dargle valley before the uphill leg of our walk. After 40 mins of walking and gaining alot of height quickly we came onto the Wicklow way walking trail which is the longest walking route in Europe covering a distance of 130kms from Marlay park to Clonegal in Carlow. Here we took the opportunity of a small break while taking stunning views of Djouce mountain and Wicklow national park.

After our small break and the batteries recharged our great transition year students took control and decided to lead the next leg of our hillwalk onto the summit of Djouce mountain which can be seen clearly in the picture above. We continued along the Wicklow way walking trail which takes us up to the spur of Djouce mountain where we all regrouped to encourage each other to try summit the 725 metre peak. From here we climbed the spur and onto the summit of Djouce mountain where we decided to have our lunch while overlooking some of the nicest views of the Wicklow mountains in the baking sunshine.

After lunch we continued our walk down off the summit of Djouce and back onto the Wicklow way walking trail which we still had some spectacular scenery ahead as we ventured deeper into Wicklow mountains national park. On our next leg we walked along the manmade boardwalk section of the Wicklow way onto the summit of white hill which is actually the highest section of the 130km walking trail at a height of 601 metres.

After a quick look of the map our students took us on our next leg of the hillwalk down to jb malone memorial stone overlooking on of the nicest views in Ireland, Lough tay. This is one of Wicklows well known beautiful hotspots and some of the best hillwalking surrounds this and the neighbouring Lough Dan to the south. As we overlooked the Lough you could see the students were blown away by the sheer beauty so we decided to stop for a quick break to take in the views.

We continued along the last leg of the Wicklow way down to Ballinastoe woods carpark where our coach was to pick up. Here is a GPS of the trail we walked. See if you can spot the wee mistake we forgot to do

For us at trackandtrail.ie, it was one of those special days we will always remember as the group were brilliant and couldn’t of asked for better weather!

If you follow us on Facebook you will be aware that here at trackandtrail.ie towers it has been all go go go with lots of exciting things happening. As you might have noticed we’re currently re branding the company and have gotten some great help form the folks at Slick Fish Design in Bray, you might have seen our new van on the road with it’s new livery. Below you can see it set up for a corporate Team Challenge day just before the off, if you pass us on the road or at the trails be sure to say hi.

As part of our re branding we decided to run a quick competition on out Facebook page to celebrate and to say thank you to all those that have followed us so far.It was super simple and all people had to do was to enter their name and contact details to be in with a chance to win a free half days bike hire for two with bikes and all necessary equipment.

We announced the winner on Saturday morning and Sarah Moore was the lucky winner, it turns out Sarah does some road cycling and is really looking forward to trying out Mountain Biking with Track and Trail. We are can’t wait to see how she gets on and if we have converted her to the Mountians rather than the road.

As if all that wasn’t excitement enough for a Monday we are delighted to announce that we have just launched our new mobile optimized website that will allow you to keep update with all things trackandtrail.ie related with your smart phone while on the go.

Our new tracandtrail.ie mobile website has lots of new features that are unique to it and not on the main website including GPS integration and the ability to call us directly from the mobile site. We have lots of other things planned that will be added to the site over the coming weeks.

That’s all our news for now but be sure to keep an eye our blog and Facebook page for details of our new courses and products for 2012 as well as for details of or next give away competition.

Hi,

To celebrate spring and to help those that are still on a new year get fit buzz we are offering free bike hire for you and a friend. To enter all you have to do it make your way to our facebook page and click on the competition tab to fill in your name and contact details

It couldn’t be any easier than that. Of course Track and Trail will provide you with all the extras you might need such as helmet, gloves, pads to make your time on the bike super safe and enjoyable.

Feel free to share the competition details with all of your friends so if they win there is every chance that they’ll share the prize with you.

The competition ends on the 10th of Feb 2012 so get your entry in now.

Track and Trail

The wicklow mountains is the largest mountain range in the country which offers the outdoor enthuasiast lots of adventure activities such as, mountain biking, hillwalking, kayaking, rockclimbing and much more.  Due to its unique landscapes and stunning scenery, wicklow is known as the “garden of ireland” and is only a 50 minute commute from dublin city centre to the heart of the wicklow mountains. As a daytripper or weekend break to get away from it all, wicklow has many varieties of accommodation such as hostels, b&bs and hotels that overlook many of the famous attractions such as glendalough, powerscourt waterfall, roundwood village, and lough tay to name a few. There are regular day trip tours from dublin city centre that stop along the way of some of the most famous sights that county wicklow is known for, glendalough, lough tay, braveheart drive, and michael collins drive. The st. kevin bus company offers a great service from dublin city centre to glendalough as a daily service.

We at TrackandTrail.ie offer the daytripper, backpacker or holiday maker a wide option of adventure activities in the wicklow mountains such as, mountain biking, bike hire, guided bike tours, rockclimbing, hillwalking and much more at great prices for 2012. We are a mobile adventure activities company based in roundwood, co. wicklow that is very unique in what we provide for the customer, and offer a great day out with an experience you will take home with you.

Contact us now for more information on our activities!

Have you ever wanted to try mountain biking in co. wicklow but dont know where to go?

As a beginner to the sport it can be confusing of where you can actually ride your bike in the wicklow mountains area. There are many coillte forrests that are out of bounds to mountain bikers and can only be used if a permit is required for various races and events. There is only one permitted public mountain bike trail in co. wicklow which is the very popular, ballinastoe mtb trails, located outside the village of roundwood and covers over 14kms of offroad singletrack for everyone to enjoy for free.

If you like funky fun singletrack trails, then ballinastoe trails is the best place. Forest road climbs lead you into tight twisty singletrack with loads of ups and downs, tight turns and technical rocky bits. The waymarked loop includes long climbs and descents over a wide variety of sometimes difficult terrain on trails that are only suitable for mountain bikes i.e. bikes with 26inch wheels, knobbly tyres and flat handlebars.

Roughly 9km of the waymarked loop is singletrack and these sections are narrow, sometimes steep trails of not more than 1m in width.  On these sections, you will also experience variable surfaces including rocks, mud, roots, loose stones and gravel and they may become slippery in wet weather.

The remaining 5km of the waymarked loop are forest roads, which are wide gravel roads and tracks with variable surfaces including loose gravel and pot holes. You should expect to encounter vehicles at any time on these parts of the loop. The waymarked loop accesses high and sometimes exposed ground in remote situations and both bike and rider should be prepared for any eventuality. If you dont have a mountain bike with front suspension and in good working order thats needed for the ballinastoe mtb trails there are local biking companies that offer bike hire and beginner coaching sessions to help you to the next level.

We at TrackandTrail.ie are mobile adventure sports company specialising in mountain bike lessons and bike hire in the wicklow area so we deliver bikes to you!

Contact us now for more info!

Track and Trail.ie have now launched their new 2012 all new cycling holiday packages around the amazing scenery of the wicklow mountains.  We offer customers various packages to choose from, so whether your looking for a 1 day, or multi-day bike tours of the wicklow mountains we have the best cycling packages at great rates.  All our guided bike tours take in some of the nicest scenery in the wicklow mountains, Powerscourt waterfall, Glendalough (monaistic site, round tower), Sally Gap (highest road in ireland), Roundwood village and much more.  Each bike tour can vary on road and off road trails depending on each customers needs so we have all the appropiate bikes for your bike tour.                     We organise all accommodation, bikes and all other equipment so you can relax and get the most from your experience in the surrounding scenery of the wicklow mountains and national park.

So why not contact us know for more information on our guided bike tours of wicklow.

Track and Trail.ie have now launched their new 2012 Gaisce Hillwalking Award package for all schools and youth groups. We understand everyone has different goals and achievements for each one of the presidents awards so students can choose from either Bronze, Silver, or Gold gaisce packages which we design our new package around you. We run all our gaisce hillwalking award expeditions in the stunning scenery of the wicklow mountains, taking in many parts of the wicklow way, powerscourt waterfall, glendalough and much more. With over 10 yeras of experience in the outdoors, Track and Trail.ie only use qualified Mountain Leader Instructors and only the best international recognised self catering hostels for overnight stays. On each of our walks we encourage students to take part in map reading, basic navigation and the “leave no trace policy”.

Contact Track and Trail.ie now for our special prices on all gaisce awards!

Some transition year students on their recent bronze gaisce award which took place over the wicklow way from crone wood to glendalough covering a distance of 28kms. Well done!