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 :)