A weekend of bike riding

As I've had to go down south to visit Mum and Dad a few times this year, a certain amount of cramming has been necessary when it comes to bike rides. This weekend was typical...

Firstly I threw in a bivvy on the Friday night. Having failed to do any multi day trips this year I'm trying to get a few extra nights out to make up my annual bivvy tally. As with my July bonus bivvy, the weather for the Saturday afternoon looked somewhat damp so this would be a way of getting some saddle time in before it got too wet. 

So as usual for a Friday bivvy, I finished work, threw stuff on bike, left. My spot was one I'd scoped last year, above Glen quey, reached via various local trails. Things were a little soggy but I got to the general vicinity of my bivvy site just as dusk was falling, after a short but quality tussock based death march. The ride hadn't been quite the peace and tranquility I'd hoped, firstly due to a horrendous creak from my Bottom Bracket (Bushnell EBB,) then thanks to a few 'coo with a gun' moments on a few very minor technical challenges and finally a short cut which wasn't (hence a death march;) plus as usual my chosen bivvy site didn't look quite as good as when I was here last. A bit of nosing around found a good enough space for tarp and bivvy bag. I knew of a better one not far away but it's close to a regular dog walking route so this would do. A fine evening followed and a good nights kip.

I woke at dawn, as usual, and lay for some time listening to various birds and the wind in the trees. It's one of the many benefits of sleeping out, being able to listen to natural things with nothing between you and them but a bit of nylon. Then humanity intervened with cracks and bangs from the wind turbines across the glen, the first traffic on the road and the first flight out of Edinburgh. I fell asleep soon after and woke at a decadent 9.30!

Another sitka bivvy, tarp well concealed!

Breakfast was tea and pork pies then it was off up the hill (Innerdounie) to see what's, what - in the event a nice view and nice weather, contrary to the forecast. 

BB200 training followed using a fairly marginal trail down the 'burn of sorrow.' I've walked this a few times and ridden it once up and down. It's a fine place, well off the usual beaten tracks and the trail is nicely technical in places.

And a bit hairy in others... Part of the problem is it's quietness - the trail is a bit overgrown and not that well worn. You also really need to cross the burn three times to make the best of the riding. The first crossing was fine then I got distracted by a higher level sheep trail which led me into a sea of bracken and a dead end. I got back across after a deal of faffing then stuck to the west bank from then on which involves a fair bit scrambling past various landslips.

I fought my way down eventually and of course, called into the Stevens bakers in Dollar for a pie based lunch ahead of a leisurely trundle home.

The forecast for Sunday, first day of Autumn, was for cool and breezy sunshine across Fife and Perthshire so I figured on a decent ride. I've been meaning to do a couple of track passes crossing the hills between Glen Almond and Strath Braan for a while now, so today was the day. Getting to them would involve a fair bit of road riding but that was alright.

Apart from the Glen Devon road which got quite busy as the masses departed for their Sunday escape to the country (or at least Crieff.) Anyway, many back roads followed and the climb out of the Earn Valley was a fine warm up for what was to come. 

New track 1 was a route that started at the local big posh estate house (stone gate posts, tarmac road and fake antique lighting columns) but signed as a P&K core path. It would go via a pass to join the A822 near Amulree and would hopefully be a fine alternative to A road drudgery. It's shown on the Heritage Paths website but annoyingly, the link takes you to the Glenfiddich Road (which I've also ridden) so intel was minimal, other than it looked to be well defined. I diverted off the official route to check out a large disused quarry shown on the map, and spied on a sunny day in the Ochills last year (i.e from 20 miles away.) It's quite a scar as it stands out very clearly on the otherwise natural hillside so I was curious to see what the score was.

A sizeable ex-slate quarry. I passed several more on the days ride although all much smaller than this. Large piles of excavated spoil have been left and clearly abandoned for many years. Slates would have been much in demand for the large houses and castles that abound this area so this would have been a nice little earner for Glen Almond estate. In those days there would have been little in the way of planning restrictions or conditions, hence the massive scar on the hillside and no sign of any restoration.

A steep push followed then a rough descent to the main track. 

The track up the hill opposite is new. My route heads up the glen to the pass.

Beyond the pass the track became less used - in fact fairly overgrown and it's descent was a fab grassy line finishing at a seemingly abandoned farm house. So a good one and a route I'll use again.

Road riding to new track number 2 followed accompanied by the usual sunny Sunday stream of day trippers and motorbikes. This heads south west from the A822 over a low moor into little Glenshee. The bridge across the river looked far too elaborate for the couple of farms it served so I figure this will have been a public road at one point. This was confirmed by long sections with well built dry stone wall boundaries and a steady line across the hillside, instead of the usual estate track that just heads straight up any hill it encounters. A squint at some historic mapping confirmed this although intel on it's route history is lacking. Anyway it made for another good trail, with only a herd of cows (and a large bull) tromping the rough surface to mud in a few places making it one to avoid in wet weather.

Speaking of which, the 0% chance of rain forecast was once again wrong as large clouds were moving in from the north.

On the nicest bit of the route (no cows). It's actually raining a bit here but it soon passed over. The track joins the road just past a farm which is an odd out and back again from Glen Almond - further evidence that it must once have been public right across the pass. From here I started on new track 3.

This skirts the hills east to above Bankfoot, my destination for food and drink. It doesn't feature on any historic mapping but is also a core path, which is a bit odd, as after passing another couple of abandoned slate quarries it's quite clearly a grouse and duck shooting access track. Such things are usually jealously guarded by the estates so it must have taken some negotiating to make it so public. The heather on the hills around it are criss-crossed with mown strips to enable grouse to be more easily ID'd (and shot.) 

That said, there were literally thousands of them flying around me so any tactics to actually hunt them seem a bit unnecessary. I'm not against hunting but fail to see the sport in blasting what must be a strong contender for the worlds stupidest bird. They make a huge racket when flying and seem singularly unable to fly away from a suspected predator (i.e. me,) instead just fluttering up the track aways then landing right in front of me, making stalking them and any form of aiming skill somewhat redundant. Still it keeps the toffs happy and leads to tracks such as this one. Which eventually took me onto another dead end back road and the fine shop at Bankfoot.

It was now quite warm in the sun as I sat out drinking coffee and eating cake, however on departing the village for my usual route home a very large cloud appeared from the north west and rapidly overtook me. To be fair I only caught light sprinkles for the most part, the sodden roads suggesting I narrowly missed much worse. It persisted to near Dunning and then the sun shone once more on the climb, done many times this year after a long bike ride. The last time it had been after a 30 plus degree suffer fest, so riding up it on a cool afternoon with a stiff tailwind was most pleasant.

So all in all a great weekend - about 120 miles total, 13 hours out (plus 13 hours in my bivvy site!) and some great trails. More sun next weekend by the looks so I need to cash in on it whilst I can, ahead of a doubtless very wet BB200.

September BAM, the Monega

So last months (and the month before's) assertion of doing something more interesting next month has come to pass but no multi day extravaganza... Yet again my September holiday plans went pear shaped. I'd actually penciled in the UKSS champs for this weekend but that went west as I'd agreed to visit Mum and Dad for various reasons. I still hoped to do a decent tour or even an Autumn HT if the weather was looking favourable. Then Dad ended up in hospital (out now, all good). Then a weather shocker and a further Thursday commitment squeezed my available window into an overnighter. Again. Encouraged by a decent forecast for the Tuesday and a hopefully dry Wed morning I ruminated (and faffed) and ended up in the motor heading up the A9 for a Dunkeld start, destination.... somewhere.

On the GPS was a route I'd done in 2017 that went via various trails and the Capel Mounth to Ballater; and a route I'd done in 2018 via the mighty Monega Pass (alt 1000m) to Braemar. I nearly kept on up the A9 to Blair Atholl and more Cairngorm fun but it looked a bit murky further north and my (nowadays very low) tolerance for traffic saw the Birnam turn made and a rapid getaway. I guess I was desperate to be pedaling after a bike free weekend plus it was sunny!

And for a starter were the fine trails up to Lochs Ordie and Oisinneach (Beag and Mhor.) These are famously boggy (As per the SWB 2021) although in 2018 were bone dry. Today they were somewhere between these extremes...

Lots of extremely pleasant doubletrack followed plus some extremely pleasant bogs, but actually fine overall as I went round the south side of Loch Oisinneach which misses the horrors either side of Sarah's bothy.

On the singletrack climbing away from the main trails, quality tussocks.

I was committed to the Monega route by this time, as the route I'd used in 2017 would be a bit much given sunset at 7.30 or so. And there the hills were, in the sun! Between me and them (well Kirkmichael and the upper reaches of Glen Islay) were about 13 miles of empty back roads. But that was alright. I could have chucked in the Rob Roy way route from Ennochdhu to the Spital and down to Lair but I was aware of the time, sunset and the gathering clouds so tarmac was the way.

A famous sign (on the front cover of the Scottish Hill Tracks book for years) To this point it had been highly sunny although bigger clouds loomed to the north. It's about 30k to Braemar from here including the minor matter of a climb to 1000+m and around 12k above 900m. That said it's actually doubletrack the whole way, more or less. But it is a great route progressing from road to track to the leap up the ridge, a wall of hills in front of you. Near the top, two large birds of prey suddenly appeared. One flapped in a circle and a small bird suddenly flew away from it. Looks like the eagle didn't quite have a firm enough grip on it. Once it had flown the eagle then rejoined its mate and they both circled away from me. Fabulous.

c500m vertical of pushing to the summit of Monega hill. It's pretty steep in places but otherwise just a straight slog, no scrambling. But we ain't done yet.... 

Nav-wise there are a number of epic fails you could make here, but you'd likely soon realise, i.e. as you plummeted into Caenlochan Glen. The Glenshee Ski centre is the escape route as the top of the Glas Maol Pommer looms out of the murk. You could drop down this and up the Coire Fionnh tow back out to the Cairnwell, cafe and toilets. Also the miles of ski fences would guide you if you just headed north, However despite cloud now obscuring the summit of Glas Maol and a stiff breeze (which I'd feared would be gale force but wasn't) I was doing well, so on and up we go.

Being so close to the summit of Cairn a Cleise I figured I should divert to its summit - 1062m. Ben Avon dimples in view. You can head further east off here picking off Tolmount, Fafernie, Cairn Bannoch, Broad Cairn and a precipitous descent into Glen Muik. Or you could throw in Lochnagar if you are keen. This is probably the longest high level traverse do-able by bike in the UK. I'll do it one day but only if it's sunny and with a light breeze, with plenty of daylight, i.e. not today.

Looking back to the Monega ridge. I'd had a few spots of rain but it looked like the sky was clearing. The Lomond hills are just visible in the far distance. For todays ride I'd thought of a more usual Fife expedition over the Lomonds, Pilgrims Way and back via the coastal path which would have been wall to wall sunshine. Hey ho, here I was so get on with it.

I regained the landrover track and clattered off down the long descent. There are a couple of short climbs on the way but soon enough I was dropping into Glen Callater. I had one panic when I stopped to see if there were any signs of life at the bothy only for my back brake to disappear just as I set off again. Some frantic pumping yielded nothing and much front wheel slithering ensued as I brought the plot back under control. I hit the valley bottom and brake pressure magically re-appeared. There is clearly something wrong with this brake (see 'Not the Highland Trail') but I'm damned if I can figure out what. Anyway, despite being empty, I rode away from the bothy, Braemar my destination. It had taken some 2 hours to do the whole traverse.

Tootling down to Braemar on the back road I noted a perfect bivvy spot in a patch of sitka woodland. Ideal - I headed into town, grabbed some supplies from Greens and then back for a fine pitch up. The gale of earlier had dropped so a peaceful evening followed and a sound sleep. The wind reappeared later and woke me but once I'd decided it wasn't going to drop a branch on me I drifted back off.

The next morning. Annoyingly, as I was packing up a sprinkle of rain came in. It was somewhat gloomy (and very breezy) however the wind was still in the south east so hopefully would give me a bit of a shove down Glen Tilt. Breakfast 2 was partaken of in the little retail area behind the high street (benches under cover) then I headed off, the rain varying between dreich and...rain.... I was fairly relaxed about this, even if it was contrary to last forecast I'd seen pre-ride. The current forecast suggested it might cheer up later ahead of a deluge so any vague thought of a second night out was shelved.

My Passage of Glen Tilt was somewhat damp with full on heavy rain for the last miles. I was wary as the rocks on the trail are definitely of the slippery when wet variety. I passed three other people on bikes with bags attached, presumably doing the Cairngorms tour. As expected, some of the trickier sections were well slippy so a fair bit of footing (walking) did ensue but I managed to avoid a drastic fall into the abyss. Given my poor record for injuries of late, this was a relief. 

The SE wind varied between in my face and behind me as the glen made it's turns, finally spitting me out at Blair Atholl as the rain went off and the sky cleared somewhat. A fun ride down the riverside path followed and after lunch at Pitlochry I went with the old NCN83 route finishing with a long length of track back to Dunkeld. Total distance 107 miles! 

The NTS are doing stuff to the Bynack, Geldie and Dee - making piles of rock and old tree trunks. You typically do this sort of thing on heavily canalised water courses to improve habitat and reduce flow velocity but I'm pretty sure these rivers are wholly natural already. A bit of research suggests this is being led by the River Dee Trust trying to improve salmon habitat upstream. If we get another Storm Frank (or even a Muckle Spate) I can see these being scoured clear, so here's hoping for an epic storm free winter until they bed in a bit.

Another clean across the Geldie. The channel on the east side is getting quite deep and there are a few large rocks to catch you out.

I always like this view, knowing I don't have to cross the Tilt, stagger up the climb and splosh my way to Fealar Lodge and the last climbs on the CL300. That said, the rivers today were still low.

Jones looking quite feisty with the Chronicles on - first time I've used these for a few years and I'm liking them. Burly, grippy but actually pretty easy rolling on hard surfaces. As I sat here eating a Heron suddenly swooped into the little dell and sat looking optimistically for a fish - no chance in that burn, but pretty cool in the middle of Pitlochry.