That we did on Friday & Saturday..
Started the Ben Alder ride from the railway tunnel in Dalwhinnie & headed off down the side of Loch Ericht & away from the promising blue sky that was appearing from behind us, It looked a bit grey ahead.

Soon we came to Ben Alder Lodge which just appeared from behind the trees as if by….I was going to say ‘magic’ but more like ‘built over about the last ten years by a Swiss Zillionaire’. Anyway it was a bit impressive. Apparently he comes in by helicopter which parks up in the hillside somewhere. Onward & alongward we go, skirting around the back of the Lodge & on to Culra bothy,

where we had a wee break from proceedings after which the singletrack climb up Bealach Dubh begins. Bit of snow on the col,

Followed by the sweet track & lots of descent to Ben Alder Cottage & what Ton described as ‘a bastard of a climb’. Never has a truer word been spoken,

It’s ‘only’ 3km but on the soggy bouldery ground along with It’s gradient, it is truly a pig of a hike. Unless your’e a skinny racing snake, aged about 27 like the two lads who ran past me, bikes on shoulders, going like flip! I’m saying 27, I didn’t see them for long enough to make an educated guess! (if you two are reading this, I’m old enough to be your Dad & ‘plump’ enough to be called ‘fatty’ Ha!
By the time we got to the col, I was bolloxed. However, the moody view back to the south end of the loch lifted my spirits,

& we headed off down into the Bealach Beith with me performing an almost perfect ‘spontanious frontal arial dismount’ about halfway down. No harm done though, just soggy hands & a wet bum. Luckily.
The track (or lack of it) was a pain to ride. On & off the bike & very sapping of what was left in my old legs but I knew (had read about) the drop back down to Culra bothy should be some compensation. Trouble was, my timing was a bit out of sync & I wasn’t hopping the drain gullies like I should have been, probably due to fatigue, & as you would expect, managed to burp the rear tyre a bit too much resulting in a repair which took a while. Steve had got a fair way ahead when he realised he was on his own. He waited a while then headed back up the hill, thinking ‘the silly old duffer’s come off, is lying in the heather with an Orange 5 wrapped around his neck & a broken arm/leg/collarbone/whatever’, but no! there was me pumping away like a madman (your’e a perv if your’e thinking what I think your’e thinking).
Well after we passed Culra & waved at a ‘bothier’ with his hound it was plain sailing, i took no more photo’s on this ride as we’d already covered the ground. The old legs came back into use as usual & we had the odd race, for want of a better word along the forest track along Loch Ericht & back to the car. 34 miles & 4hrs 40 odd of riding time.
All in all, a grand day out (Grommitt)

Saturday. Parked up opposite the gatehouse at Kinloch Laggan & headed off towards Loch Pattack following the river Pattack most of the way,

& skirting around the South of the wee loch then heading West on a double track which soon turned to singletrack that was sooo nice we missed the turn off for the climb up to Loch a Bhealaich…blahdy blah & only found out when we stopped to talk to a walker who was coming towards us. He pointed us in the right direction,
but Isn’t it strange, you get in singletrack mode & forget to check where you are/need to be! Recipe for disaster?
The climb up to that loch I’ve just mentioned was a bit of hikey bikey but once at the col,

the view & the thought of the reward made it all worthwhile. & it was, the descent being (for me) the best of the 2 rides. The steady track past Lochan Na Earba
with the late afternoon sun behind us & 2 Black Throated Divers, err diving, was perfect. We gaped at the Ardverikie Lodge house as we met the tarmac road & buzzed back to the car with photo on the beach,

27 miles (don’t ask why right!) 4hrs 04 mins riding time.
Hope i didn’t waffle too much. 😕

Excellent. A couple of good “proper” days out.

glad you enjoyed the Ericht route mate. 8)

from the bottom of lachan earba, the path that climbs up to the little loch and descends to loch pattack is awesome too, the view from the crags at the top is stunning.

http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm

Think the way we did it yesterday was probly best Ton. T’other way round would’ve been a ball ache cos it was very soggy on our way up it, whereas the descent was firm & quick. I was oohing & aahing at the views though!

Can’t remember how to post pics from Flickr but that one is from Ben Alder, having a mess about halfway up the ballache of a climb.

Cheers C, howdidyadothat?

Meh, being paid to wander around there after DofE groups this June – maybe I need to take my bike 8)

Open photo from your link.
Right click – choose Medium 500 or Medium 640
Right click again – copy URl
Paste it with IMG tags.

Long winded.

For my photos, I hit the Share dropdown, then “Grab the Code”. Make sure it’s BBCode and then copy and paste the funny looking text from the box (no IMG tags required).

<img src=”http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6116/6868229944_262cf7d886.jpg&#8221; width=”500″ height=”375″ alt=”Newtonmore 2012 047″>

Well that was crap.

You need the BBCode, not the HTML

Newtonmore 2012 047 by jimmyg352, on Flickr

The bit in ” ”

That looks fantastic. That’s one to do some day

not sure if that would be my cup of tea. (eg boggy soggy hike a bike, you dont get that in a trail centre.)
but it looks ace views etc and was fun to read.

Tyre problem!! Think i defo stick to tubes.
can just imagine steve cursing you as he stomped back up the hill ;o)

Sounds and looks like a great place to ride(/hike).

It’s a great loop. The weather was a bit more challenging last year when Louis Spence rode it.

Decision point at the col… the forecast was for showers so we chose to continue… the shower lasted all day 🙄

Great photos and write up. Some one did a great post on this over here as well – http://www.trailscotland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=210&hilit=ardverikie

not sure if that would be my cup of tea. (eg boggy soggy hike a bike, you dont get that in a trail centre.)
Well your’e right in that respect but you don’t get any feeling of remote wilderness/achievement at a trail centre either! Like cranking the GPS up just to be certain. I understand trail centres though, I’ve done some at GT & Dalby a few times but it’s ‘easy’ riding innit? You park up, jump on the bike & follow the signs. No doubt I’ll do some more, but, for me, I’ll take the middle of nowhere every time. 😈

The hikey bikey bits would probly a load better in September after a nice dry summer. 🙄

the forecast was for showers so we chose to continue

Schoolboy error… 😉

Thinking of doing Ardverikie this weekend, did you guys do the descent to the end of the loch as described in Phil McKanes book or the Kenny Wilson option which goes in a more northerly direction and joins the loch further along.