Warren and Esther Sanders have been part of The Gralloch team since the beginning — Warren checking and reccying every metre of these routes through the seasons, Esther now as part of our marketing team. Based in Galloway, they run Galloway Cycling Holidays together and know this event — and this landscape — from the inside. This is Warren's account of a recent route recce.

It could be all of nine years since I first biked up Fuffock Hill on a gravel bike. 38mm tyres back then, which look pencil thin now until you pick up an old wheel with 23mm still on the rim. The ride to Gatehouse from home always runs in the opposite direction to The Gralloch route. Hard enough first thing in the morning. But there is another way up that joins the race route near the crest of the climb. It is open to debate, but this could be the hardest way up the hill.

The task this morning was to check the Community Weekender course, and taking the tougher alternative climb allowed for a visit to Meg's Monument. This is a memorial cairn to a faithful collie dog, "Meg," put in place and carved by hand by her shepherd in August 1905. You can only see the sign from the Glengap climb side up Fuffock Hill.

Back in 1905, the area looked very different. The stone is now 20 metres in from the track and surrounded by forest, its clear views of open sheep moor long lost. Hard days on the hill are still a thing, but the rhythm of countless years of man and working dog are gone. The shepherd and dog shared cold porridge cut and kept for days. The "porridge drawer" is a traditional Scottish method: thick, cooked porridge poured into a lined wooden kitchen drawer, allowed to cool and set into a solid block that could be sliced off over several days for lunch, fried for breakfast, or taken to the hill for work.

Many of the tracks here in Galloway date back to the times of droving and care for the hill flocks and the hardy hill cattle. Deep in the forest you will still come across walls running through the trees. This was tough work, each metre as hard as any day on a bike. These tracks that we race on all have a deep history.

Today's task is to check the surface, note any problems, and get the issues sorted before race day. Every mile of the route you race on gets checked like this. It is all working forest, battered by more than a few storms in the run-up to race day.

Temperatures are climbing and the worst of the frost is behind us — good timing, because the Community Weekender is a week away. If you have been thinking about joining us in Gatehouse on 18–19 April, come and find out what these gravel roads feel like under your wheels. Sign up at grallochgravel.com/community-weekender.