Hello all,
need some tips regarding this loop we are going to ride this saturday.
Is this the best way to do this ? Are there some hidden singletracks along Lui and Derry rivers? We would like to stay off firetracks as much as possible. We might stay there overnight and do somemore on sunday.
Any tips ? How is Lairi ghru singletrack along River Dee?
rode into corrour about a month back via derry lodge and back via white bridge
rockier than a rocky thing quite enjoyable if you enjoy tech trails. If your riding a twitchy XC bike and not big rubber you may struggle both up and down.
Riding our from corrour to white bridge was a bit of a mare for the first 5 or so k its on off on off to cross bogs and washed out water crossings. then if you cross the river at the time you start to see a singletrack on the otherside of the water the trail becomes much more ridable than if you stay on hte left.
how ever the water was thigh deep on me and im 6ft 3.
Clockwise would be best as the descent from Macdui to the Hutchy hut is great. Either way I wouldn't bother going over Carn a Mhaim and whatever you do will involve a massive carry onto Macdui.
Spin why not push up to Carn a Mhaim ? Is Sron Riach better way to get tto top of Macdui ?
Probably better going up Gleann Laoigh Beag to Macdui.
You won't be pushing much of that as the ground is so rough. You'll need to carry. I think there is more of a path on Sron Riach. There isn't much of a path up the Tailor's burn and it is very rocky.
ok thanks. Ive done several munros over the years , just Ben Macdui not yet.
Are there some hidden singletracks along Lui and Derry rivers?
I doubt that very much.
It's probably easier to do Macdui from the North via the path from the ski centre car park down to Hutchy hut and back via the Lairig an Laoigh. Sanny wrote an article about this route a while back. It's a classic big day with a superb descent and quite a bit of hike a bike.
A top tip is to do it over two days, Linn of Dee to Glen Feshie (via Car Ban Mhor) then spend a night in Aviemore. Next morning over Cairngorm and Macdui, down Glen Derry and back to the car. About 90 miles all in, it's a great ride.
That sounds a great plan Luke, I'll be getting the maps out later. Cheers.
I've done Macdui by both the Sron Riach and by Carn a Mhaim. The latter has 200m more ascent, the long ridge descent is not wholly ridable but well worth it non the less. If you pick out the line up Macduibh from the ridge you can avoid most of the boulders fields by trending up rightwards rather than straight up. I think that descending from Macduibh and before Loch Etchachan turning S over Derry Cairngorm, descending to Derry Lodge is the best way to do it. The standard route gets funnelled into ruts after the loch and the lower section has been rebuilt in unfriendly fashion; the descent down Glen Derry to the lodge is also harder work than it needs to be.
I personally would not ride across the Cairngorm plateau as it is designated SSSI; basically they don't even want walkers up there. There are huge big tracks over it so other opinions are clearly valid too.