Which roughly translated means keep your vest on throughout May as it could easily still get very cold. This went through my mind as I entered the snowline half way up Glen tilt on Friday evening. The ride hadn't started well with the forecasted light rain showers (dying out by 7) at Blair Atholl manifesting itself as slashing rain and a black sky. Undeterred I headed off up the long easy climb hoping that the rain would ease up later. It did once past around 375m turning first to sleet, then snow, then these strange star shaped ice crystals which floated gently down all around me. Shortly after I was riding on snow with solid black cloud and mist in front of me...
My camera makes this look a lot brighter than it was. It was 8.30pm at this point but being too early to camp I carried on. The climb up the upper Tilt is a beaut - steady with lots of nice rocky sections to challenge anybody. A thin covering of snow added to the adventure. By the time I emerged from the narrow defile the clouds had lifted with hints of the aforementioned clearing with only varying amounts of ice crystals (called graupel I believe) falling to add a nice wintery air to the scene.
Looking down to my eventual camping spot at 9.15. It was largely dark at this point.
There then followed a not very pleasant night. I scraped the snow off my pitch area and was soon snuggled in but after only a couple of hours I woke up feeling distinctly cold and damp. The inside of the tent was soaked with condensation as per my camp a fortnight previous. This time I had my newly acquired super light pertex sleeping bag cover with me so no problem right? Wrong - inside of said cover was also wet with condensation. Not a good combination with a down sleeping bag. I removed it and actually felt warmer so snuggled back in with thoughts of heading straight back the next morning. After a few more hours sleep I awoke to the equally unwelcome sight of thick mist all around me. So much for the sun drying the tent then. In the end I packed everything up after a leisurely breakfast (lemon and raisin scotch pancakes - fabulous) and 2 large mugs of lifesaving tea.
7am and ready to go. The bike was a block of ice with no brakes and a chain which needed a lot of persuasion to bend again. The next challenge was the infamous Geldie 'burn' crossing which can make the otherwise straightforward Tilt traverse a major challenge. The river had changed course yet again but split into 2 channels making it possible to get across without too much drama and dry feet. With the sun and blue sky breaking through the mist it was a fairly short hop to Braemar and breakfast in the cafe next to the outdoor shop. My destination was Aviemore and a night of luxury staying with friends so feeling much revived I was compelled to go for my original plan and head over to Glen Muik. I went by way of a single track I'd scoped on the map with no idea if it would go but as I needed the hike a bike practice I would do it anyway. In the end it was a gem apart from one overgrown bit and one boggy section - a hard techy climb which as usual I had done in the wrong direction. That said these days I seem to prefer going up stuff like this than down...
The start of the route over to Glen muik - this is an old Wades bridge just upstream of the A93 bridge. You head up through glorious pine woods on double track before the fun begins....
Proper nadgery
The final pull looking back to a very snowy Ben Avon. ICT rules this stuff.
The track over to Glen muick was rough but good with snow on the top mile or so. The descent is good as well - steep rough and rocky.
Thereafter it was an easy spin out to Ballater and then straight on up the A939 to Glen Gairn where I picked up the track to Loch Builg via Corndavon lodge. I blasted up this aided by a fine tailwind noting that the track was nigh on bone dry, unlike the saturated trails further south. The Loch Builg single track was similarly dry and I was soon looking down Glen Avon and nearly 10 miles of tailwind assisted descent.
The moment was made by a pair of eagles circling overhead.
Tomintoul provided much needed refreshment from the excellent old firestation cafe. My mate Rob suddenly appeared so a half hour stop became an hour but I knew I would feel the benefit! Fortunately his van was full and he had work stuff to attend to so no cop out lift back to his house. He was due back at 7 and it was now 4.30 so the race was on! So off via the usual Glen brown track, Dorback Lodge, Eigg mohr path, Ryvoan and Glen more. On the way I bumped into three guys doing the Cairngorms loop. It was the group start this weekend but the foul weather put most folk off so only a few did the full route and these guys were sensibly doing just the outer (a mere 125 miles instead of 186). Aviemore was reached at 7.15 just over 12 hours and 90 miles after my cold and misty start. Much food and beer followed....
Sunday was simply a case of riding back to Blair Atholl via the Gaik but a large amount of rain being blasted into my face made this something to be endured rather than enjoyed! Got home to read that Phil Simcock did the full Cairngorms loop in 22hours 18 minutes beating Aiden Hardings previous record. That's 300k of hardcore biking in under 24 hours....
