The Red turns 'red'....

At last we're off the open hill - which was nice, but not that exciting for a red, and into the more interesting terrain in the woods, mix in some rocks and the red grade is now being earned.
I'm happy about this.
The blue is fine, it's rolling out in a nice 'flowy' way, weaving through trees, gently undulating along and opening out every now and again into lovely views across to the Cairngorms. But the red just wasn't red enough for my tastes: the open hill was lovely for the start of the journey - especially to take in the views as reward for the inevitable long climb (sorry, but a good red needs a good climb), but lacked 'teeth'.
Well that's all sorted now that we're onto steeper ground.
With sideslope, good material and some of our precious rocks we set about mixing it up a bit with a Golspie/Caddon Bank sort of a mix - bit jumpy, bit rocky and all rideable whether you've taken your bravery pills or just in the mood to keep your wheels on the ground.
Obviously we had to check it - me representing the MAMIL, the lads representing the more 'rad' and jumpy crowd.
Everyone happy.
Next, tight n twisty bit coming up - good for me, bad for digger drivers!