The Cairngorm Project - Toffs and dirt bags

I love Braemar and it was nice to be back. After stuffing ourselves at the cafe we tried to get supplies at
the Co-op. Lunch supplies were limited but at least Judith got a bottle of wine for the second night. The Fife Arms has recently been renovated and it's a fine building. Slightly surprised and amused by the goings on outside of it on this Saturday morning.

Mercedes, Bentley's, Porche galore! The hotel front of house staff were very smartly dressed in tweed plus fours, waist coat etc and were constantly assisting customers to take their (leather) suitcases to a vehicle. Two young women were standing by one 4x4 with a half empty bottle of gin (I think it was around 11am) and a concierge was offering to make them a GnT on the roadside before they left. Their parents arrived and as they were leaving they reversed to turn around nearly crashing into a chauffeur driven Merc... if Shaw had not shouted "STOP" it could have been a disaster! 

Alas we had to leave the show behind so headed West on the dead end road to Glen Derry. It was hot now and we took our time. At the road end they had opened an overspill carpark and hundred's of fake were enjoying the river. 

As soon as we left the road behind and continued West on estate tracks to White Bridge we only saw a hand full of people again. At the river crossing were the Geldie Burn and Bynack Burn meet there's an old derelict building. It was interesting to see a big work party leaving. I found out later that it is in fact a bothy and they are currently renovating it and have already put in windows and doors - great news! 

Heading South once again we rode a cool piece of single track along side the steep ravine of Allt Garbe Buidhe to the impressive Bedford Bridge. I've been here previously with Kev (coming the other way). With a slight down hill this way round it made the track 5 star! Some of if is quite technical with serious consequences if you mess up! We didn't go fast but both Shaw and I got in a great groove and rode a few crazy sections which really we shouldn't have! But we were in the zone!

After the bridge were I informed Judith that we couldn't have another cup of tea (well we had one an hour before!) you hit estate tracks again. We were all pretty tired and glad of this. Even being mostly flat or gently down hill it still took a while to get to Blair Atholl our next settlement. 

Day 2 we had to do a bigger mileage and we didn't really have a plan of where we would end up or camp so I felt a little pressured. We were all frazzled and Judith bought all of the sausage rolls in the shop in Blair Atholl. I persuaded everyone to buy hot food at a fish and chip shop/pizzeria before we moved on and this was a good call as it picked up all of our moods I think, even if it was going dark as we left with no real plan and no bike lights!

The Cairngorm project - Glenmore to Braemar

I know some of the Cairngorms reasonably well, but it's a massive area and I have only explored a fraction of it. I have been fascinated by the Cairngorm Loop for years. It's a created bike route that consists of two interconnecting loops, and inner and outer. 

The inner loop is approx 90+km in length and I cycled it 2 years ago, a great route but hard going because it has one long boggy section (lots of pushing), and one very long rocky hike a bike bit.

The outer loop is more rideable, but longer at 200km. It's been on my to do list but getting round to it has been slow (2-3 years, maybe more!). Then somehow Judith and Shaw seemed to like the idea (notice Judith's name inserted before Shaw's!). We played around with dates for 6 months or longer...

But finally it happened...

And it couldn't have been more exciting! I was trying to persuade them to do it over 2 days, but they preferred 3 days.. more on that later. 

So new gear was squirrelled away for months, probably longer... but finally last Friday the bike was packed and ready to go. I couldn't quite believe it was happening, particularly with a news article discouraging cross border travel on the day that Shaw and Judith were travelling up to meet. Interestingly the BBC removed this news snap shot, clearly told to do, but I have a screen shot of it!

We met near Glenmore Lodge on Saturday with a great 3 day weather forecast but it was misty and midgy as we set off, but we quickly rode above the inversion as it started to clear. 

Crossing the first river at Abernethy South of the field centre Shaw and Judith went to extreme lengths to try and cross this without getting wet feet after watching me soak mine. 

After Abernethy there was a fantastic section of trail I had never been on through forest and rolling hills. We didn't see a soul for the first half of the day until we got nearer to Tomintoul at Glen Brown where we stopped for lunch at a ruin.

It was hot when we got to Tomintoul and we splurged on ice cream, cake and coffee! 

From here the journey took us South along Glen Avon with initially great estate tracks until we got to Loch Builg. From here there was some nice single track until we crossed the watershed to another neighbouring estate and the River Gairn. 

We found a lovely grassy place to camp by the river and were just setting up the tents when an old guy on a cheap E-bike came past with a sleek female bike packer (we think she was trying to shepherd him to safety. They weren't together). He declared he was trying to get to Ballater (it was absolutely miles) but his battery had run out! He was dressed in casual bowling, or tennis type clothing. We pointed them towards a landcover we had seen in the far distance, and a little later a mountain rescue landcover drove past, with the bike on the roof and he shouted out of the window "I've been saved"!

The midges came, but as it quickly got colder they vanished. I was told that the stars were amazing but I slept through the night! Maybe that was the wine I'd carried in as a surprise for all. 

In the morning my single skin tent was very wet after a monstrous dew. If I moved it dislodged water onto me inside so it was tricky trying to get out without a shower, which actually may have been fitting. Shaw tried to cheer me up by declaring they had a few drips in their double skin tent, so I shouldn't worry! 

When the sun hit us it was lovely and felt so refreshing to have camped out and we packed the bikes for another early start  of 9.30am!

Just after passing an amazing architecturally designed shooting hut we had the first test of the day, a steep and long climb up to the Bealach Dearg. It was tough but we all got up it. From the top (750m) the views were incredible and it was all down hill to Braemar. 

The down hill was brilliant, so long and loose (in a good way) before we hit the forests again. Coming the other way the climb would have been very tedious for sure. 

On the final road section into Braemar I slip-streamed Judith all the way as she was flying,  I think she was ready for coffee! We dined, Shaw thinking he should only have a small cooked breakfast, me going the opposite way and we sat in the sun and stuffed our faces...

The Liathach Horseshoe

A couple of weeks ago just after we were released from lock down I headed out west with a plan to complete a scramble on Meall Dearg and continue round and walk Liathach.

all looking rather nice on the drive in!

I guess it was obvious from the start this was going to be memorable as I couldn't find any information online about the scramble up the buttress of Meall Dearg, it just said there is one!

poop shovel by the rocks!

Just turning West round the back of Liathach Meall Dearg comes into view

I headed over early and was surprised that the carpark was full of camper vans and folk who had pitched a tent by their car - nuts!

Frogs everywhere!

The walk nearly didn't get far as it seems that having wholewheat wraps the night before was about to have explosive results on the initial Beinn Eighe path, luckily a path maintenance team had left a crow bar and shovel next to a section of the path that they were repairing pre-covid I presume. Well I certainly didn't need the crow bar, but the shovel was extensively used!

Looking back to Beinn Eighe

Meall Dearg..

Back on track I headed off track (!) as I got behind Liathach and traversed West passing all the impressive Northern corries of the mountain/s. Loz was right when he said it's an impressive place. Pathless and wild with hundreds of frogs!

Well I've no idea where the scramble is!

Finally on the ridge of Meall Dearg looking back West

Reaching Glass-toll lochan and seeing the big broad East ridge of Meall Dearg rise up it wasn't at all obvious where a scramble might be. There were grassy rakes, and the rock facing me looked too steep and wet to be enticing. So with no idea I skirted round on it's East side hoping to find inspiration...

Looking across to Liathach - lots of up/down

Zoomed in on someone on Meall Dearg's Northern Pinnacles

I certainly didn't find that.. I made 2 attempts at climbing up from just around the corner, the second had me nearly stuck and boxed in with a harrowing down climb on wet steep grass. Being on my own deliberately with no rope/means to abseil/escape I had to be sensible and safe so I continued West because I knew I could safely get up further round.

looking back West from where I'd come

same as last time, Beinn Eighe in back ground

This worked out well because I got up onto the ridge of Meall Dearg via a series of grassy shelves and easy gully which was obviously used by deer as a crossing point. The ridge of Meall Dearg was airy and my nerves were a little jangled after nearly getting stuck so I had lunch on the top which was about 1.5m x 1.5m.

Looking West to Rassay etc from just after Mull..

Meall Dearg and my route looking quite spikey

Between Meal Dearg and Mullach an Rathain on the Liathach ridge are the Northern Pinnacles and they looked horrendous so I didn't linger long at my lunch stop wanting to get to easier ground. They were actually fine, easy grade 1 scrambling some loose bits, mostly solid - phew.

Most of the horseshoe I'd travelled

I relaxed on Mullach, but for got to take a picture looking West to Rassay etc. Now on the main ridge but going against the flow I met quite a few folk coming the conventional way. The ridge seemed long with lots of up and down with the odd easy scrambly bit.

through a notch the Eastern Buttress of Meall Dearg where there is a scramble somewhere!

At one point I heard a drone flying over head. Really I thought! Why here.. But on Spidean a' Choire Leith I met it's owner! A friendly guy in a football shirt from Aberdeen who explained that he lives in Thailand, is an off shore worker but has got stranded back in Aberdeen due to covid so he decided he would walk some of Scotland's hills! He had been up here 6 weeks ago (when he should of been in lock down) and lost a drone.. He was back with his new drone trying to recover his first drone! Initially I assumed he had crashed it off a side of the hill.. but no. Landing it on this rocky top it had fallen down a crevice and he could see it maybe 4 feet down. He had given up and was heading off. Even though I hate drones in the hills I felt sorry for him and thought I could get it out by moving a couple of big stones. So we got it out and he seemed moderately pleased! Weird I know off-shore workers have loads of money so maybe it didn't matter that much... but at least it got some litter off the hill.

Beinn Alligin

I continued on! Next I met Murdo Jamieson just coming up. I bump into this really nice guy and hard climber all over the NW. We had a long chat before he continued. He runs Liathach often in 3+ hours road to road!

my route again..!

I started my decent of the Eastern Summit and noticed I kept nearly tripping up over everything. I then realised I couldn't really control my legs very well. I did wonder if I was having some form of neurological issue before realising that my legs (quads) had just left the building! I literally couldn't walk down with any control. I had to sort of side step lots and stop every few meters! I've never experienced this before. Not sure how accurate but my phone route log said after I'd done 1700m of

ascent/decent which is quite a lot.

the car parks resident stag

I was lying down at this point having finally finished!

I was broken by the time I'd walked the 2 miles or so along the road to the van and had to lie down for 45 minutes before heading home. An epic day for sure. The following day at work by the afternoon I could go up the stairs, but had to use the lift to come back down still unable to control my quads! The Physio's all thought this highly amusing :-).

The Glenshee 6

It seemed a good idea to have a hill day so the plan was hatched to meet Jack and Jen at Glenshee on Sunday am. 6 munro's seemed ambitious but they were all quite closely spaced and we arranged a car shuttle to save 3 + miles of road walking.

other walkers.. very yorkshire dales like (but not limestone!)

The drive over past the Llecht is long and beautiful. It was certainly popular and I'm not sure whether I've seen as many camper vans as this day up here! It was even more surprising seeing approx 20+ tents spaced out from car campers between Braemar and Glenshee. I don't know if this beautiful valley is normally like this in summer but it was crazy. I just really hope they were careful and considerate with their waste, judging by some of the vehicles, fire pits and pop up tents I'm not sure! It would be tragic if the river became polluted from all of these folk.

This is the first munro summit!

Loads of walkers at Glenshee enjoying the day as we set off up our first hill. Amazing how many folk had shorts on given the blustery day which was quite fresh/cold up top when the rain came in, but I guess it takes a lot to get my legs out!

on to the grassy hills..

It was a perfect hill walking day with great views, intermittent rain, fresh, great light and good company. I have previously ski toured 2 of these hills and it was very different with no snow, but easy going walking.

With the heavy rain showers at times I didn't take many pictures but enjoyed the walk very much. For the geeks we started up Creag Leacach - Glas Maol - Carn of Claise. From here we didn't know whether to throw in the extra 2 (Tolmount and Tom Buidhe). To go up these hills separate to this walk involves quite a long trudge so we did. They were fairly indiscript bumps after the first hills but still good to explore.

The decent from the last hill

Heading back it took longer than expected to reach the last top of Carn an Tuirc but from it was a great step direct path back down the strath which was a joy to walk after the initial scree section. So there you have it, 6 hills in around 14 miles! This takes my munro count to 103 .... not that I'm counting! :-)