tube in the front , few blasts from the mountain morph and we were off - allbe it at a higher pressure than intended.
Heading for the hills on the deeside way - a reasonable warm up for a friday night
into to ballater , had a fish and chips from the phoenix as the rain threatened.
Pushed on up the glen to loch muick where i met a few bemused campers on the shores confused by the sight of a cyclist at 11pm at night heading into the glen and not out.....
The road to queenies (thats the strava name)
had glas allt shiel to my self - although with some damp paint on the walls so i took the middle of the sleeping platform well away from the walls - although i still managed to get some on my MAdison roadrace jacket - what detergent for getting gloss paint out of light weight waterproofs without ruining them :S Was good to see the bothy in good shape with new windows and a composting toilet - its been over 10 years since i last looked in with Dundee uni.
from there i came out the bothy and went up the allt sheil path directly behind it - there is / was an easier path onto lochnagar - i have ridden down it but either its a different path or it was erroded heavily but i was short of time so pushed on anyway.
its a 3 hour shove/ride/shove/ride. Had a few walkers looking at me like i was mental being up there on a bike.
from there i took over to loch callater and down the epic singletrack - highly worth the push no doubt about it . - not any photos from there i was having too much fun !
Headed into braemar for a late breakfast at the bothy. ok food but at 13 quid for soup sandwich and a coffee i was a bit aggrieved - but hungry. - pop over to taste around the corner for better pricing and equally as good food.
from there i headed up the road to linn of dee and cut through to white bridge and glen tilt.
Good dry singletrack through here on saturday - i wouldnt bet my last dollar on it being ridable today - or for the rest of the month after the rain we have had the last couple of days. - Took the fealar lodge lightening strikes up to the top and then came down gleann fearnach to the road at bridgeend before finishing up over the moors.
Arrived in a nick of time for the ceilidh i was attending.
Late start on sunday due to a late finish on saturday night and i drove with the wife up to aviemore. We rode up to the rocks on the larig ghru just for the descent , met a teacher from california at the fork back to glenmore - unfortuantly after all the good weather we had his week in scotland consisted largely of rain :(
was nice to be riding an unladen bike for a change.
After a late lunch Jayne headed off back home with the car i headed off towards the Gaick.
- other than the axle casing snaping i cant think of a job that would be made easier by stripping your front axle off in a ditch up a glen. - speaking as someone whos rebuilt a land rover ninety from the ground up including all internals of the axles.
It was a stunning night up on the Gaick. I made it back to phone signal on the south side above calvine just in time to let dan know where to meet me the next day and then bedded down just above the treeline to stay out of the midges.
- my camera went flat there , dan has the rest of the photos - will update when i get them off him.
- in the glorious 22 degree sun i had my bed roll out drying off from the morning. 
