Chalamain gap family cycle. Good or bad?

Park at the hairpin just below cairngorm ski centre, up the lovely path, through the pebble filled gap, down to the laraig ghru path then back to loch morlich.

Reckon the kids will be up for that. What could possibly go wrong….

The wife likes a bit of exercise too.

No

The gap is effectively a boulder field.

And the track to it is punctuated with big **** off water bars designed specifically to deter cyclists.

Much nicer cycling to be had nearby.

Much nicer cycling to be had nearby

But where. We’ve done some absolute shite this week, like round the loch morlich forest . Fire road hell. We need proper mountains. 😀

Did it last month, as “friend” thought it would be easy option in the area. Never again. Climb up and descent down a nightmare with big water bars.

Boulder field itself has holes that will swallow your children.

Burma road? Badaguish (sshhh) Ryvoan over to Nethy Bridge?

Chalamain gap family cycle

through the pebble filled gap

LOL, good luck with that. Take plenty photies.

There are boulders the size of VW Beetles (is that still an ISO standard?) They are best avoided by climbing the small hill to your right as you approach. The descent to the Lairig Ghru is pretty full on with decent drops and gaps, then a very, very steep pitched section. There’s then a km or so of broken on- off-riding before the “nice” bit of the LG. TBF this is best approached via Rothiemurchus Lodge or just go up the track from the Loch an Eilean/Loch Morlich path.

Loch Eanaich makes a good out-and-back route. Take the “high” road on the way there for the views and the old “low” road on the way back. Look out for the corner of certain doom on the way back. A few folk have been hospitalised on account of missing that.

The Chalamain gap is a fun walk/run/scramble. No point in dragging a bike along.

The Chalamain gap is a fun walk/run/scramble. No point in dragging a bike along.

Au contraire

P1030775 by Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr

Definitely not Chalamain Gap with bikes, whatever you do – you’d be carrying them over big boulders and the injury risk would be quite high.  There’s plenty of nice riding around Aviemore – around Loch an Eilean and Loch Gamhna is a nice, short-ish route.  Do a web search for routes around Feshie way.  For a longer route (I’ve not been there), the Burma Road seems to have some fans. I’m sure Scotroutes will fill in lots of gaps.

I have done it by bike in the snow. It was retrospectively enjoyable, but I wouldn’t take kids, even without the snow.

Check out this thread on aviemore trails here, my pics of Burma rd and Glen Einich half way down,

Out and back up Bynack More would give you the big mountain feel.

Wow, that was good, but utterly exhausting

LOL, good luck with that. Take plenty photies.

Righto 🙂

The kids were totally on form and really went for it.  I was very pleasantly surprised by the route in general and we had an awesome mountain day.  Proper stuff that was worth driving 7 hours for.  Not just endless trail centre jumps.

Anyway…

As per Scotroutes’ photo, the first bit after the reindeer centre is excellent.  Really good biking.

And the track to it is punctuated with big **** off water bars designed specifically to deter cyclists.

At which point the 10 year old asked how he was supposed to do water bars.  I gave him brief details and off he went.  It was unbelievable; he zoomed on ahead and we three were left in his wake.  I hopped a few and lifted over the biggest ones.  When we eventually caught up with him he proudly proclaimed that he had jumped 25 in a row without single dab.  Nutter.

aaaaargh, why is the forum so damned impossible to use.

&(&^(^(*&^*&^($

TBC when I have another 3 hours spare to work out how to post another 5 pictures.

Yay! Glad you persevered. Can’t wait to see the other photos.

Some lovely twisty pitched bits just before the gap. Then it gets steeper

The Oik continued his quest to clean as much as possible

with varying levels of success.

then off and pushing

then it just got silly:

The gap is effectively a boulder field.

There are boulders the size of VW Beetles

that’ll be this bit:

perhaps there were pebbles under the boulders.  Maybe.  The kids ran about like mad things hiding, climbing and taking videos of random wind swept stuff.

I went back and forth endlessly carting bikes.

I ended up doing the Gap iteslf 5 times. Initially I tried to carry two bikes at once, but the wind was way too strong and as whotsisname above said there was serious risk of breaking something. Whodathoughtit, strong winds on the Cairngorm plateau eh.

The kids ran about like mad things hiding, climbing and taking videos of random wind swept stuff.

😂😎👍

eventually the boulders ended and we got some lovely singletrack:

Q

The descent to the Lairig Ghru is pretty full on with decent drops and gaps,

where unusually the biggun cleaned it and the little’un bailed

Maybe he was still sore from his wipeout at The Lecht

then a very, very steep pitched section.

I bottled the top bit of this. It was proper steep.
Did the bottom bit though. Loving the new bike:

There’s then a km or so of broken on- off-riding

That’ll be this bit. This is one of those occasions where the trail sanitisation is a very good thing for mountain bikers (this is the old bit)

Then the lovely descent down to the forest. I didn’t take many photos on this as we were too busy riding it and searching out the good drops.

Brilliant day out, but knackering.    We did some good biking that week, eg Wolftraxx and Golspie, but we also did some really dross like Glenlivet and stuff from the maps from Bothy Bikes.

This ride made the drive from Manchester worthwhile.  Proper adventure.

I’d definitely do it again, but perhaps once the bigun and his mum have mastered water bars (we got 3 punctures).  And I’d tak’ the high road above the gap as recommended by Scotroutes.

cheers

Well done those kids! The joys of not realising the consequences of your potential mistakes.

Still doesn’t tempt me to ever do it again.

Lovely. Helps that it was a nice day and the trails are dry too but looks like fun was had by all.

As for trail sanitisation, the bit immediately after the CG was a boggy mess until a few years ago. I’d say it’s much more bike-friendly now!