Delavine-Corgarff

Glorious september day so decided to return to my spiritual home- Corgarff- and also a return to the ‘true faith’ so took the mountain bike by the old military road and went to the top of Carn Leac Saighdeir which features a trig point and some slabby rocks. On the direct descent towards Delachuper went over the handlebars but the heather made for a soft landing. I recall doing exactly the same thing about twenty years ago so my technique hasn’t improved in the interim.Had a cup of tea with Jenny at the Bothy then back home.

A fine Autumn morning and just time for one more training ride before we go.  Set off round the Dinnet, South Deeside road, Ballater, Gairnsheil, Strathdon circuit.   Stopped in Ballater to play with the camera on the Blackberry, and top up  with a black pudding roll:

 
Distance  :  42.6miles
Time:  2hr 50min (on the move)       
Av speed (on the move): 14.6mph

The classic complete circuit of the Cairngorms by mountainbike has been high on my wish list for years. This magnificent route takes in (if one starts at Corgarff) The headwaters of the Don, Glen Gairn, the Bealach Dearg, Braemar, Glen Tilt, Blair Athol, the Gaick, Glen Tromie, Feshiebridge, Inshriach and Rothimurchus Forests, Ryvoan Pass and Abernethy Forest, Doorback, Tomitoul and Glen A’an. The 170 or so miles of track passes through some of the remotest parts of the UK and only at night does one slip out of the hills to a nearby road and accommodation. Technically not too difficult although sections above the Tilt gorge pursuade most to walk a little. The route neatly divides up into 4 or 5 days. I stayed in B&Bs in order to get a decent shower/bath and a good nights kip. The route has become a bit of a Holy Grail for exploratory/touring mountainbikers. Doing it alone is not recommended, although that’s exactly what I did, and planning equipment is a fine line between weight and necessity. Unfixable bike failures mean potentially monster walk outs. Passing through this endless, ruckled, granite and heather landscape was probably the best mountain bike days I’ve ever had.

Oh, yes…there’s no tea shops.

The Suie Hill……

                          ………..

                               …………Well that’s the brakes well and truely tested!

Back on the KK Bling. Joined forces with Richard for a 50 mile circuit on local roads – Glenbuchat – Bellabeg – Glacks – Cushnie – Lumphanan – Dess – Aboyne – South Deeside – Dinnet – Birk Hill – Heughead – Deochry  and the Eigerwand Killerpighill back to the house.  Stopped at the Deeside Activity Centre for lattes and succulent fruit scones.

Attended another weekend Drascombe sailing rally. This time at Kielder Water, Northumberland. Stayed over to try out some of the local mountainbike trails. The 29 mile lake circuit is easy, excellent and very varied. Caught several heavy showers along the way, however there are several spots to shelter including inside an interesting sculpture, or two. Called into, yet another excellent café at Kielder Castle for the obligatory large quantities of beautifully presented carbohydrates. Unfortunately the waterbag in my rucksack sprang a slow leak and by the time I’d finished the last doughnut there was a large spreading, damp, dark stain across the carpet. Naturally my first concerns were for the serving staff – (they’ll think I’ve peed myself). After a flustered apology and barely believable explanation, I left a guilty tip and skidaddled.

Attended a weekend Drascombe sailing rally at St Mary’s Loch over the weekend and decided to stop off at nearby Glentress (one of the 7 Stanes MTB centres) with Richard for a bit of a blast on mountainbikes. Excellent afternoon, and more importantly, a very good café. Pleased to see that being at a creaky age didn’t make us the worst riders there. Beginning to think that road biking round the Grampian hills might be improving our climbing ability.

Isobel and I head off for a short break, cycling gently round the flowering bulb fields of Noord Holland. Timing is everything – the fields only flower for a very few days around the end of April/beginning of May after which the flowers are cut. Strange as it may seem, the value is in the bulbs and not the flowers. Tulips, late narcissi and gladioli abound, as does a complete lack of hills.

Given up on delayed job, head out again on the Sunday training ride, this time with John Wright (piston legs). Had a great and super fast ride round the greater c-roads circuit of upper Donside. Nearly 38 miles and 3500 ft of accumulated ascents. Heart rate seems to be dropping as is my weight. Would have been even faster had I not hit a stone going downhill at full pelt on a scrappy bit of tarmac above Milltown of Kildrummy. The puncture was instant and fortunately the bike stayed on the road just long enough to stop. New tube on and whoosh! Observed while rising up to the Glacks that John’s ‘granny ring’ spinning was considerably faster than mine, making uphill hauling a bit easier for him. Turns out he has a 11-28 toothed rear cassette compared with my 12-25. Not a lot you might think, but we old gits need all the help we can get. Discuss with Richard, who has the same KK slippery eel bike as mine. Both agree to upgrade and swear to spend no more money after this….

Making full use of job delays I head out again on the KK Bling (sounds a bit like BB King?) to do the Ballater circuit again. This time clockwise with slight route differences adding up to 46 miles and a similar 4000 ft of accumulated ascents. Nearly nonstop, even forewent tea and stickies at Ballater (foolishly I would say). The rise up to the summit of the Coile from Bridge of Gairn includes one of the steepest hills in the area (excepting the Eigerwand b*****d of a hill to my house), which succumbed with a bit of standing in the peddles; an activity which is becoming increasingly more easy. Stops were limited to replacing a flipped chain and a short, off-bike, sore bum respite.

Heading back North, I dropped in on my daughter in Dumfries. Had a great evening catching up on the latest news. The following morning, muzzy from too much red wine the night before, I headed out to Dalbeattie Forest, one of the 7 Stanes mountainbike centres, to try the well know ‘Hardrock’ red route. Being early, no one else was there. Normally the ride shouldn’t have been a problem but, with senses somewhat impared, I became increasingly more timid and lacking in commitment. This eventually resulted in a fall off a rocky section of track due to stupidly hesitating and not unclipping the pedals. A near tumble down a steep bank, with bike still attached, was prevented by the kindly intervention of a passing tree. Body and confidence bruised, I sneaked off onto the much easier blue route back to the carpark and hoped to slip away away before younger, sportier, braver people turned up.

Flying visit to North Wales to catch up with family. Had a great day out with my sister and neice on mountainbikes circumnavigating around Llyns Brenig and Alwen. Beautiful weather and so much warmer than the Cairngorms.

Alone again on the super KK racing machine. Headed up the Glen to cross high over the Coille to Bridge of Gairn and onto Ballater, returning by the Birkhill from Logie Coldstone. Two sizeable hills. 44 miles and over 4000 ft of ascent (sounds better than metres); this is the first time I’ve completed this circuit and so overcome a mental hurdle, although I believe John and Jim have done this circuit several times without undue fuss. Hauling over the Coile from Corgarff involved a bit of standing on the pedals. Getting a wee bit quicker but still hard! Downhill was great (of course) and so was the lentil soup, crusty wholemeal, Pellegrino lemonade followed by a pot of tea, scone and jam in the Station Restaurant in Ballater. The return along the Old Deeside Railway cycle path was OK, despite feeling a bit harsh on a racing bike. Consumed a sachet of sports gel before climbing up the Birkhill. The metallic taste and gloopy texture can only be described as scientific. Not having my specs with me, I wondered if I had just inadvertently swallowed muscle rub. Not going to try another one, not even to propel me up last stupidly steep hill home, (have I mentioned this before?). Still alive at 11 that night so guess I havn’t poisoned myself.

Having a break from road biking and have made up with my sadly rejected Rocky Mountain ETSX.  Head out west into the wilds from Cock Bridge with Jack Gillespie, Richard Burn and Chris Tauber (with his interesting mongrel bike). Weather cool and clear, ideal for hard working ascents. Plenty of snow still on top of Ben A’an and Beinn a’Bhuird. A recent examination of Google Earth showed an improvement in satellite images of West Aberdeenshire and now it’s possible to see tracks, which do not always appear on OS maps. Using this new information we head for Inchrory, down the A’an and over a high linking track which drops steeply into the upper reaches of Glen Loin. The loose plan was to visit the very remote rock formations of ‘The Castle’ which tower over the upstream end of the Ailnack Gorge. The descent off the, difficult to pronounce, Cnap Chaochan Aitinn was very steep and loose. Going too slowly with brakes full on usually results in a fall, which I managed to excute while trying to avoid Richard’s abandoned bike at the bottom of the hill. Failing to unclip from the pedals I capsized, with bike still securely attached, into Richard’s back wheel. Body and both bikes survived. We walked the last bit to the Ailnack through boggy ground and clambered down into the top of the gorge for a sheltered lunch stop.

Apart for a brief stop for a puncture, a glorious fast run down Glen Loin and Glen A’an lead back to Corgarff and completion of a yet another great route. For touring and exploratory mountainbiking in the UK, the Cairngorms can’t be beaten.

Heading west towards the A'an

Jack, Chris and the Interesting Bike

Lunch beside the Ailnack

Ben A'an from Glen Loin

Deflated - we took a rest.

On my own and trying to extend the mileage.  Manage to complete 38 miles in 2:40 hrs taking in Glenbuchat – Nochty – Culfork – Waterside – Heughead – Boultenstone – Mill of Culfork – Kinclune – Upper Minmore – Glacks – Towie and home.  According to ‘Memory Map’ the accumulated ascents add up to 1131 metres (3710 ft), which seems extraordinarily large. I discuss with Richard who has suspected for some time now that there’s a problem with how Memory Map computes heights. I think he may be right, however I choose to forget this and revel in the apparent fact that I can ascend faster than Lance Armstrong on the Alpe d’Huez.  However the 1:4 pig of hill up to my house still reduces me to a quivering wreck and is surely twice as high than the 60 metres shown on the ordnance survey map. I consider moving again.

The start of my long and happy credit card association with on-line bicycle equipment shops.

In his presentation to we would be LEJOGgers, Steve had been quite emphatic about the benefits of wearing padded cycling bib-shorts. These strange shiny garments remind me a bit of Edwardian mens bathing costumes, the only handlebars in evidence in those old sepia photographs being moustaches. Safe in the knowledge that I’m not the only one wearing this lycra stuff, I try on my latest purchases. Standing in front of the bedroom mirror, I hear from behind barely suppressed snorts of what I like to think is support from Isobel.

This ride had better be worth it…

Out yet again on the fast shiny one. Extending the c-class roads loop to include Glenbuchat Lodge – The Nochty – Bellabeg – Culfork – Waterside – Glenbuchat Castle and home. Getting the hang of riding in this strange doubled up position. The gears are getting slowly easier on the hills. However Belnacraig, Mordor like, still overhangs the end of every ride. Getting to the top without stopping remains a near death experience.

Went for a ride around the local lanes as far as the Glacks above Muir of Fowlis with Chris Tauber.

Chris hasn’t joined the Lonach Highwaymen as, quite sensibly, he’s concentrating on sea kayaking and ski touring the famous Haute Route (not simultaneously of course). However Chris has a famous and highly unusual bicycle – an aged, much abused Coventry Eagle transformed by the addition of cow horn handlebars, unidentifiable suspension forks and slightly fat tyres – which he inappropriately uses offroad. Unlike the rest of us mere mortals Chris has not been swayed by the siren calls of mountain biking advertising and carries out audacious (some would say mad) trips on this mongrel machine. Long multiday journeys into the Cairngorms, frequently ignoring the lack of recognisable tracks leave the rest of us struggling to keep up. Wading through knee high heather, carrying a heavy steel framed bike complete with loaded panniers, trying to link sketchy bits of track, is Chris’s speciality. Chris graphically demonstrated the unsuitability of touring wheels for rough stuff by banana-ing one on the fearsome black run at Pitfichie (although I think he said it was due to the trees being too close together to get his monster handlebars through).

Chris demonstrating self steering capabilities somewhere on the upper Gairn

Took an evening ride up to the bottom of the fearsome Lecht and back. Fine evening and met Richard coming the otherway (who also has a Kuota Kharma – not quite the same as mine though, but I’ll refrain from detailing the minute differences here for fear of being accused of obsessive anorakdom… again). After a bit of mutual KK appreciation we went our separate ways. Sitting at the bottom of the Lecht, the hill appeared weirdly steep - strange how cycling affects one’s eyesight. Leave this for another day.

There’s no such myopia on Belanacraig hill in Glenbuchat. It’s a pig of a hill at the end of every ride from home. Any ideas of wheeling smoothly up the drive as Mr Cool of Cycling to a welcome home cup of tea, evaporate in a steam of heavy sweat, bulging eyeballs and palpitations….I sometimes wonder about taking up golf.

Took the new shiny road bike for a spin around the local lanes. Light as a feather, it appears to slip easily along whether I pedal or not. Not so on uphills where the gearing, alien to a dyed in the wool mountainbiker, is distinctly lacking in low range spinability. Nearly did myself a mischief trying to pile on the energy up the very steep hill back to the house and had to stop half way. Subsequently discovered how difficult it is to walk in road racing shoes with sticky-out cleats – think duck with bunions. I have some learning to do.

After all the waiting, what can I say…took possesion of pure Bling on wheels! A Kuota Kharma; Italian made, perfomance bike of the year 2007. Lighter than a fairy cake, with wheels the thickness of ice skate blades and with a coefficient of friction to match…this baby really rolls! Kuotas can be seen right up the front of the Tour de France. My former love, a Rocky Mountain ETSX, is but a lumpen punctured tractor in comparison, (I fear I may pay for this one day) .

Even Isobel, who is normally impervious to all matters bicycle, was impressed. I stopped short of asking her to put on gloves before touching this shining wonder of carbon fibre engineering.

The road bikes are ordered! Can barely wait to get my hands on the shiny carbon rocket machine…….but as everybody knows, mountainbiking is the only true faith and path to happiness and so Richard and I decided on a short afternoon jaunt around the Glen Muick – Girnock circuit (see Richard’s diary for nice pictures and statistics, I see he’s thoughtfully left out mph showing just how slow we really are). Had to put on a bit of a wiggle at the end to get to the Station Restaurant before closing so that we could complete our post ride carbo loading. Richard’s a bit disappointed that black pudding rolls finish at lunch time.

This is one of the easier of the great mountainbike circuits around Ballater of which one can find details from ever helpful Liz, Richard and James at Cyclehighlands.

Joined forces with Richard and Jack to try the strange activity of ‘Road Biking’ . The lack of bumps, mud and continually falling over was a new experience and not without attractions. Trying to cycle up to the top of the Coille (Corgarff to Bridge of Gairn) without bursting legs, lungs and heart made me wonder if other cyclist see weird spots before their eyes. Jack cycling on a Galaxy touring bike made it look easy. Richard and I on mountainbikes with leaden, frictionful tyres found the hill only marginally more difficult than running up hill with diving boots on. There’s a lesson in this….

Lands End to John O’ Groats is a long, long way away..so went mountainbiking with Richard on Deeside. One of the most enjoyable allround and varied bits of mountainbiking in the area starts from Dinnet and follows land rover and singletracks around Loch Kinord and takes a high track above the Burn O’Vat to the old Cambus O’ May quarries (lots of O’s) before descending to the Tullich Churchyard. If you haven’t already done it, Try It!

Hungry bikers followed the Old Deeside Railway line (now a cycle path) to Ballater for all important tea and stickies before heading back to Dinnet.

My first day off for a while, and a fine Autumn morning.  Set off early for Braemar, as it is pretty close to  25miles, and I felt like I ought to go for a 50mile trip. 

Total distance  :  52.5miles
Time:  3hr 59min (on the move)       
Av speed (on the move): 13.2mph

Checked out total ascent, due to my suspicion that memory map gives a huge over-estimate.  Here are results from GPS, the route in bikehike.co.uk and the route in memory map. Memory map over-estimates by almost 600m!:

GPS                           1143m
Bikehike.co.uk        1176m
Memory map          1740m

Looks like the figures for total ascent from Memory map are complete tosh, pretty bad for software that costs over £100 for full OS coverage of UK!

Another weekend working, but biked in both days. Another 78miles, taking my total since 6th March to 1963miles. Finally got a proper profile off the GPS from Alford to Strathdon- 295m of ascent!:

A sudden chest infection and heavy cold messed up training this week, along with too much work.  Went in to work on Sunday on the bike. Took the Blackberry to test out the track logging some more-see below. Click on the yellow spots to be impressed with my speed!

In to Alford along the Glacks, 18 miles, Av 15.1mph
Back along Glack, Upper Towie, Heugh-Head, 17.3 miles Av 11.3mph (wind and hills)

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Dropped off a vehicle in Dunecht and cycled back in bad weather via Glenbuchat-approx 40 miles.Pleased to see the waterproofs worked pretty well.

Round by Cabrach with Paul-my third. The weather was great as were the pancakes in Tomintoul.We had the Blackberry tracker and were spotted doing zero miles an hour in Briggies!!

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