Braeriach to the Devil's Point

On Tuesday morning we headed into the Cairngorms to spend a couple of days bagging hills.

The first day consisted of Braeriach along to The Devil's Point. We parked at the Sugarbowl and then headed up through the Chalamain Gap and into the Lairig Ghru. Went up onto Braeriach via Sron na Lairige, and practised some micro nav in the mist. MWIS claimed that rain was 'unlikely' - but actually we got rained on for 2.5 hours up on the Braeriach plateau...and no view what so ever.

View over to Braeriach from Angels Peak

 Once we reached Angel's Peak (Sgor an Lochain Uaine) though, the weather had cleared and the day was pleasant after that! After 11 long hours we had dropped down back into the Lairig Ghru, past the rather busy Corrour bothy, and found ourselves a nice little bivi spot.

Ben Macdui

Carn a' Mhaim from The Devil's Point

Night time view from bivi spot

Wakey Wakey :)

Cairn Toul

The Devil's Point

By Wednesday morning we were so tired so our plans to head up onto Cairngorm plateau fell through and we just walked the Lairig Ghru. Lovely weather and views though!

 

Biking the Beinn a'Ghlo Munros

The Beinn a'Ghlo munros - awkward no matter what way you look at it. Walking alone was never going to be an option for us given the 6km of landy track/road bashing to get to the start of Carn Liath's ascent, so at the very least the bikes would be with us until there. But then the descent by Allt Bealach an Fhiodha after reaching the end of the ridge followed by 4 km of landy track to get back to where you leave the bikes didn't appeal to us on foot either. So why not take the bikes the whole way - the epic but wise choice! Especially with trashed knees that don't cope with walking downhill!

This is what we did in a clockwise direction:

It begins with a fairly dull landy track for about 17km, handrailing the river Tilt. The views are nice however, and the cycling is easy going. Makes for a good warm up before the epic hike-a-bike begins. We ascended up the NW slopes of Meall a'Mhuirich on what started off as a faint stalkers path, then had a bit of heather bashing before we rejoined some fairly well worn path to reach the plateau. This took about 2 hours as it was rather hot and the terrain underfoot was hard going with a bike on your back!

Initial landy track

Mid hike-a-bike

On better path again

We've made it!

glad to be back in the saddle

We had a massive rest and some lunch and enjoyed the views before heading on to our first munro summit - Carn nan Gabhar.

View from our lunch spot

Carn nan Gabhar summit

We saw literally hundreds of deer in Coire Cas-eagallach, which was awesome, I haven't seen that many together for a long time. Sounded like an earthquake or something when they all sprinted off. We also saw heaps of baby ptarmigans fly away about a metre from our heads which was cool :)

We reached Carn nan Gabhar at 2pm, 5.5 hours after we left the Glen Tilt car park!

Carn nan Gabhar summit

The descent from here towards the next munro (Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain) was the best of the links between hills. We were stopped not long into it by some fascinated walkers who wanted to take our picture, not going to say no to a wee bit of fame! I'm sure they'll be telling all their pals about us!

Initally there was a bit of boulder field negotiation (parts were unrideable), then it drops onto the walkers path which is awesome, loose and rocky! So much fun! And we were down at the bealach in a matter of minutes looking up at our next hike-a-bike (a short one though!).

Bikes at summit number 2

From here the descent was techy. Lots of boulder field to get through, then onto a loose scree path. We had to stop a few times for some of the bigger rocks - this is not the place to rip a mech off!

Riding the awesomeness.

We were then faced with our final ascent for the day. I ran out of water not long into this but wasnt about to turn around and head back downhill to find a stream, so I got on with it and stole a bit of what Keith had left. The heat was getting to us by this point and we had quite sore backs/shoulders from all the bike carrying. We made it though and it felt good to be at the final summit and looking down on our descent!

 

Looking back to where we came from

Sadly part of the descent off Carn Liath was unrideable. It was really loose big mech ripping blocks, really tight turns - too tight for a bike (or we're just rubbish), and just quite dangerous considering how remote the situation is. So we heather bashed for a couple hundred metres!

After that was over with though, the descent was absolutely amazing. No drainage ditches, just naturally eroded path! Bits of rock, bits of grass and bits of mud! Before long we were down at the landy track and freewheeling pretty much the whole 6km back to the car!

Carn Liath descent

The whole day took us 9.5 hours. Totalling at 35 km and 1800m of ascent. It was hard going, but we made the right choice, I wouldn't have wanted to do these munros any other way, even if my back did seriously pay for it the next day!

Heres a video of the riding:

Biking the Beinn a'Ghlo Munros from GetOutAdventures on Vimeo.

Glen Feshie Bike Circuit

On Tuesday, in the boiling heat, Keith and I had plans to head up to Glen Feshie, do a couple of munros by bike and descend via Carn Ban Mor. However it was so hot when we parked up we decided to just do the Glen Feshie bike circuit and go for a swim in the river.

Wise decision it seems as reading someones post on trail scotland earlier, the trail has been re-laid with grit and lots of drainage ditches, so won't be anywhere near as good as it was meant to be now :(

The Feshie circuit was really nice, although there's quite a bit of landy track cycling (which we don't like so much). The views were awesome though, and the single track was good once you reach it.

Map of our route

The route is just under 16km long, and only about 330m of ascent. Nice gentle day on the bikes!

Heres a video showing some of the best bits:


Glen Feshie Bike Circuit, July 2013 from GetOutAdventures on Vimeo.

Two Days in Ben Alder

Ben Alder Bike Circuit - 53km

On Friday, after sleeping in three hours later than planned, we headed up to Ben Alder area with all our overnight gear to spend a couple of days based at Culra Bothy. 

The cycle in was much harder than we had imagined. Simple land rover track, but not so simple with a massive pack to carry! Not to mention the heat - a balmy 18 degrees or so. I felt like a proper girl on this trip - I took THREE pairs of shoes for two days. Flip flops for the bothy - essential, my five ten biking shoes as I didn't like the idea of cycling in my walking boots (and my pedals would probably have shredded the soles anyway), and finally the hill boots. However, the suffering was worth it as my five tens were soaked through in bog by Friday night so I was glad to have some dry boots for Saturday morning. 

We also lugged several locks for leaving the bikes unattended at the bothy - will never take the risk of 'The Beast' being stolen. 

Landy track cycle in

Approach towards the bothy

The cycle in took us just over 2 hours, with a break for some food and shoulder resting. We reached the bothy at 3pm. 

We left loads of stuff, packed up our day sacs and headed off to do the Ben Alder bike circuit:

Green = Rideable, Red = push/carry

It starts off with some nice single track up a valley for about 4-5 km. There are some drainage ditches to negoitate, a couple of which we got off the bikes for as they were quite wide. Also a few stream crossings, but it was rideable until the very end when you reach the steep ascent. The steepness only lasts for about 500m or so, and I'm sure some of the super fit xc lycra riders would manage to cycle, but we just pushed.

View to the East just after leaving the bothy

Heading up the valley

Some sweet big mountain single track

We were then at the first Bealach looking at a nice long descent ahead of us. Some awesome cross country riding was had, a mix of up and down, but all fully rideable (with the exception of a few stream crossings).

About half way along, I managed to put a hole in my tyre - another expensive day out!

 

My successful tyre boot. Made out of inner tube and gaffa tape

This lasted for about 8km, until Ben Alder Cottage (rumour has it this bothy is haunted? - I didn't go inside) then the grueling 2km hike-a-bike begins.

The hike-a-bike was pretty horrendous actually, especially as our shoulders were killing from lugging all our kit into the bothy earlier in the day. The path wasn't very well defined at all - infact we are both really surprised its even shown on a 1:50,000 map as paths like that normally aren't. Thats if you call it a path. It was a mix of bog, boulder field and heather. 

The guidebook told us that it was 'an hour of hard work', but it actually took us 2 hours. Pretty hard going! 

Here we go!

Happy faces at the top

Was it worth it? Well I think 'possibly one of the best descents in the country' may be a bit of an exageration, but it was good fun. We couldn't ride along side the loch as it was super boggy...it would go after a long dry spell though which would probably add to the quality of the descent.

All in all it was an amazing ride in good weather and the struggle to carry the bikes was worth it. We got back to the bothy about 9.30pm, so the circuit from bothy to bothy took us around 5 hours 30 minutes. We fuelled up on the overly priced Mountain House dehydrated chicken tikka, which was rather minging and tasteless, but good enough when you're starving.

Bothy life

Here is a video of most of the biking action:

Ben Alder Bike Circuit, 5.7.13 from GetOutAdventures on Vimeo.

The Aonach Beag Four 

On day two after not much sleep thanks to the snorey man next to us in the bothy, we headed up the four munros on the Aonach Beag ridge. 

Ben Alder in the morning sun

This began by walking along the same valley we cycled yesterday, but then contouring round the southern slopes of Sron Ruadh and up onto the ridge between Aonach Beag and Beinn Eibhinn. From the bealach the entire ascent was pathless and hard going on the knees and ankles! 

Plane crash remains

 We came across the plane crash remains (above). Apparently been there since 1942. More info: here.

Keith enjoying the view from Bealach Dubh

Single track from yesterday - scarring on the hill (left in photo)

View from Aonach Beag summit

We continued along the ridge towards Carn Dearg (the fourth munro) before descending down yet another pathless slope to the bothy. 

Carn Dearg in the distance

Keith and some cool looking chasms in the background

Final summit cairn (Carn Dearg)

Hill fog closing in

Culra bothy and lodge

We got back to the bothy at 5pm, packed up our stuff and cycled back out to the car. The cycle out only took 50minutes (there's less up on the way back). 

An awesome two days in the mountains :)