Tír Chonnail Gap CC Halloween Howl Mountain Bike Run
It’s not called a howl for nothing. Expect mud, expect hills, expect obstacles, expect fun, and expect a few headers in fancy dress!
The Halloween Howl takes place on our Mountain Bike Trail, up in the hills above Glenties. Bad weather caused the cancellation of last year’s event but our members have been out in force. The trail is much improved, as borne out by your feedback after our July event.
It doesn’t matter how experienced you are or how fit you are, we guarantee you will enjoy it. There are easy options on pretty much every obstacle, and there is a choice of one lap of the trail or two. Showers and a bike cleaning service will be available afterwards and so will some well earned hot food.
Cycling Ireland licenses are required and must be shown. If you do not have a CI license, then you will need a day license, which can be purchased at registration for €5.
The Route
You will head out of Glenties along the Glen Road for 7km to the trail head. Turn right off the road and right again and start the climb: 2.4km of firetrack. Watch out for sheep, and enjoy the views across the Bluestack Mountains, then a nice gentle descent to the old ruined cottage.
The terrain will start to get interesting now after you turn right and into the bogland and boardwalks. A few twists and turns will see you back off the grass and onto track again. Balance your way over the pump track and try and stay on the path all the way to the forestry. Turn right for the tricky section along the side of the drainage ditch. Please don’t fall in, it stinks! Then across the road to the second forestry section, just a cheeky little up and down with a surprise at the end. (Follow the instructions on the tree!)
Back on the track and you will cycle past the stunningly beautiful Lough Anna (pictured above) before turning back into the forestry again and “Hugh’s Hollow”, a lovely wee technical section. Back out into daylight again and you’ll put in a loop on top of the hill, just for the craic, and then back into the forest and a natural pump track of tree roots and ditches. We challenge you not to put your foot down in here. When you emerge there is just the table top and jump and the exciting descent.
At the bottom, the two lappers turn right and head back to the trail head, whilst the one lappers will turn left towards home. One last challenge left, and that’s to negotiate the narrow footbridge at Meenahalla. Back on tarmac there is one last climb – it’s not steep unless you’ve got a lap of the trail in your legs – and back to Glenties for refreshments.
