Heading up to Aviemore soon, looking to get a bigish ride in – maybe around 5 hours. Anyone got any suggestions or even better GPS tracks, for a one day epic? Bearing in mind the time of year and soggy ground conditions, might be best to avoid fording streams etc. The next day will be spent blasting round Laggan trails before heading back down south.

give us a e-mail the week before you come and I’ll see what the weather/snow/rain/sun/wind is up to. I’ll recommend some adventures.

Andy
AndyATbackcountrybikingDOTcoDOTuk
ta

Burma Road to River Dulnain, down to Carrbridge and back on NCN 7 is a fairly laid-back affair, with a stop at the Cafe in Carrbridge for soup & cake?

http://scotroutes.com/Routes/MTB/Burma%20Road.gpx

Aviemore – Glen Feshie – Geldie Burn – Glen Tilt – Blair Atholl – train back to Aviemore.

Or do the train bit first and reverse it. Might be a tad over 5 hours mind you. Actually, quite taddish. It’s a brilliant ride though.

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m thinking Glen Feshie / Carn Ban Mor might be a good one.

Glen Feshie / Carn Ban Mor is probably a good starter but it’s quite a bit less than 5 hours if you do it as most people seem to – as a circuit from Achlean. Combining it with lower wooded stuff towards Insh and Loch an Eilein would give you loads of lower options to extend the ride and bail out if the conditions aren’t suitable higher up (which is quite possible). No GPS I’m afraid though, it’s all in my head (but not difficult to find plenty of options if you follow your nose).

Something like this?

Carn Ban More Route by GavinBelton, on Flickr

CBM might be a no-no if there’s any snow.

Not too far off, but there’s also some good stuff beyond Baileguish if you don’t want to do the middle bit as an out and back.

You could start at Glenmore, ride and hike onto Mealle a Buchaille, tech descent to Ryvoan, out past Forest Lodge to Loch Garten, ride the trails there, back over An Slugan and pop into the trails of Badaguish to finish. Nice loop for 5 – 6 hours.

Or if the weather is glorious, ride up the main track onto Cairngorm, head along above the northern corries and return via the waterbar descent to the main ski car park or keep heading down to Glenmore if you start from there. The off road descent is ace. Not technical but great fun. If the weather is gash, I wouldn’t recommend the Cairngorm option but on a good day, it’s ace!

Or play round Rothiemurchus then do an out and back on the Lairig Ghru.

All good!

Or up the Burma road then at the top return via the singletrack descent through Alvie Estate. You could then do a ride and push up onto Craigellachie – which is lovely!

Cheers

Sanny

Not sure but I think its Bothy Bikes that are in Aviemore and are supposed to be very helpful. Pretty sure someone will confirm/deny this!

N.b. bothy bikse are about move…..!!!! to the other end of town Rothie murchus are kicking them out. The estate reckon…………….. well who knows……………. what they reckon.

New location is the north end of town near the level crossing

Andy

Cheers for that Andy, I haven’t been in there for a wee while but was going to pop up for a nosey this weekend with the wee lad.

N.b. bothy bikse are about move…..!!!! to the other end of town Rothie murchus are kicking them out. The estate reckon…………….. well who knows……………. what they reckon.

Is that true? Bothy Bikes is a great shop. Sounds like the Hub all over again.

4-5 hour rides in the area… I would be peiceing epic bits of stuff together – I’m mostly about the interesting techy stuff so I’d want to get as much of that in as I can and limiting the fireroad drags.

As mentioned above by Sanny – the Burma road has some interesting singletrack off it. Smooth climb up to the cairn before the saddle and descend to Ballinluig on a not that clearly defined path… with some good sized drops and boggy bits to catch you out. A few ways to do the next bit but you want to get along to Alt Chriochaid and up to the phone masts at Creag a’ Mhuilinn (we tend to go across the heather and through the woods – no path). Techy landy climb up to the masts (what kind of 4×4 can get up here?). Once at the masts go round the back and pick up the path down to Alvie – there is a 10ft deer fence to climb. This takes you to the old Alvie DH track and is great fun – it gets rockier towards the bottom! At the bottom head to Alvie Lodge and cross the A9 to pick up the Speybank spingletrack to Kincraig (which is lovely). Cross the Spey at Kincraig and go through the Sculpture park at Inshriach forest through to Feshie bridge. Then fireroad through to pick up the bothy bikes descent to Loch an Eilein. From here add other Rothiemurchas loops if you have the legs or head for home.
Very difficult to give better descriptions as it’s a jumble of local knowledge stuff linked together but hopefully clear enough to follow. Plenty of easy bail-outs to the road if running short of time or energy.

Interesting to hear more about Bothy Bikes… love that shop.

Didn’t know about Bothy Bikes. I use them a lot – best bike shop I have ever used bar none.

Carn Ban Mor but taking in the two Munros is just about 5 hours including a couple of stops and pretty much sums up everything good about Scottish MTBing (if the weather is good). Good climb, fabulous views, nice rocky descent without being too stupid.

Route description

View from Sgorr Gaoith

Loch Einich from Sgurr Gaoith by CaptainMainwaring1, on Flickr

Where were you all when I was asking the question two weeks ago?
I still managed four days of cracking ride though. 😀

Messiah

Nice route there, fella. The Alvie DH is nice especially the bottom section through the slab rockfest.

I’m thinking an Aberfeldy or Blair Atholl munro bash on Sunday if you are interested? Mail me off forum if you are. 2 or 4 munros on the cards and doable with the limited light we now have. Weather looks ace!

Captain

Great picture!

Captainmainwaring – in that route description it states “Although CBM is 1052m it is not a Munro ” – why is that? Does it need to be pointy or something?

rthomas17 – CBM is only a “top” of Sgor Gaoithe, which IS a Munro.

While there are no hard and fast rules outlining what is a Top and what is a Summit, it’s has much to do with character and the amount of drop between the two.

PS – if you go to CBM, carry on to Sgor Gaoithe for a much better viewpoint.

2010-10-09 13.41.47 by druidh_dubh, on Flickr

2010-10-09 13.20.26 by druidh_dubh, on Flickr

Thanks Druidh,

Think I will try and bag the two munros up there on my way round.

Has anyone evey done all the munros on a bike? Think there are some difficult ones on Skye that need to climbed, so I guess not?

Pointless. Why carry a bike over some of those hills?

However, do a search on STW as there was a thread a couple of weeks back with lots of ideas about bikeable Munros.

Has anyone evey done all the munros on a bike

Pointless. Why carry a bike over some of those hills?

Exactly. IMO they are only worth doing if you can ride to within 100m or so of the summit, and that the descent is at least 90% rideable.

I wouldn’t do it myself. Maybe Danny McAskill could consider it for his next video?