Mount Keen from Glen Esk, Big Country Biking (ish)
On Wednesday after tiring Lilly dawg out and leaving her in the hands of our wonderful doggy walker, we headed up the east coast with the bikes, to the Glen Esk side of Mount Keen.
Mount Keen is Scotland's most easterly munro, and also a rather dull one as the landrover track leads right up to 1.5km before the summit. However, on a mountain bike its quite good fun, and if you want to tick off all the munros it will need to be done at some point!
The weather was awesome, but quite windy. Once again we didn't set off from the car until after lunch meaning all of the walkers were walking down as we were ascending. Our late start meant we didn't scare any of them on the descent, and only caught up with the last one on the flat track back to the car.
The route starts off on flat land rover track for about 4.5km until you reach the wee cottage which marks the start of the main ascent.
Sections of the landy track going up the side of the hill are rideable, and parts aren't. There are loads of loose melon sized rocks so not much traction (especially when you're unfit like us and sitting in granny gear), so we pushed these bits. Once you reach the walkers path, its totally rideable until the hike-a-bike section through the boulder field. Considering its not that steep you could just push/lift the bike up, but we found carrying them to be much faster.
The descent from the summit was by far the best bit of the day. Nice wee techy boulder field to negotiate, followed by bunny hopping the drainage ditches before reaching the landy track again.
Heres a short video showing some of the top bits:
Mount Keen 26.6.13 from GetOutAdventures on Vimeo.
The landy track descent was mediocre, although a lot of speed could be gained which was good. It took us about 35 minutes to get from the summit back to the car including the wee bit of faff taking a few videos at the top. In total the whole route took us 3.5 hours, including a stop for lunch.
Ben Chonzie could be on the cards tomorrow evening, we shall see.
Mount Keen is Scotland's most easterly munro, and also a rather dull one as the landrover track leads right up to 1.5km before the summit. However, on a mountain bike its quite good fun, and if you want to tick off all the munros it will need to be done at some point!
The weather was awesome, but quite windy. Once again we didn't set off from the car until after lunch meaning all of the walkers were walking down as we were ascending. Our late start meant we didn't scare any of them on the descent, and only caught up with the last one on the flat track back to the car.
The route starts off on flat land rover track for about 4.5km until you reach the wee cottage which marks the start of the main ascent.
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| Having a break before the ascent starts |
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| Happy faces at the summit |
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| Happy bikes at the summit! |
Heres a short video showing some of the top bits:
Mount Keen 26.6.13 from GetOutAdventures on Vimeo.
The landy track descent was mediocre, although a lot of speed could be gained which was good. It took us about 35 minutes to get from the summit back to the car including the wee bit of faff taking a few videos at the top. In total the whole route took us 3.5 hours, including a stop for lunch.
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| Tongue out concentration! |
Ben Chonzie could be on the cards tomorrow evening, we shall see.
posted by Janey @ 23:19
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