Cairngorms loop 2020

[htrider]

My usual ramble...
https://philsbikepacking.blogspot.com/2 ... water.html
Others feel free to post up their tales on this thread.

[ChrisS]

Great write-up, enjoyed that!

[stevewaters]

Thanks Phil - I will read this a few times to help process my own experience !

[JoseMcTavish]

Yep, really enjoyed that - captured the despair of the Fealar Lodge section perfectly. At least you were quick enough to do it in daylight!

[slarge]

Nice write up Phil, I felt your mood swings!! I have this one penciled in for next year and this write up will be a good source of info.

[99percentchimp]

Thanks for the write up Phil - enjoyed that and felt your pain with the headwinds and the last section past Fealar - bleak!

[Borderer]

Great write-up Phil. I was disappointed that your spot didn't seem to be working and I couldn't follow your ride. Hope you have recovered now. It takes longer as you get older I find!

[JimmyG]

Excellent write-up Phil. Clearly a tough outing and all the more impressive for being on a singlespeed!

[htrider]

Great write-up Phil. I was disappointed that your spot didn't seem to be working and I couldn't follow your ride. Hope you have recovered now. It takes longer as you get older I find!

Yeah I failed to update my device on my spotwalla account - they helpfully emailed me at 9.30pm on Saturday to tell me this

Just had a look on my spot mapping page - I was nearly 2 hours quicker on day one than on my 2014 ride but an hour and a half slower on the second day..... My overall time improvement is just down to stopping a lot less.
Cheers all

[robbie]

Well done Phil.
Good to bump into you.
That must be a resident badger as that's the only one I've ever seen in pretty much the exact spot when I done the loop in 2017.

[whitestone]

Nice one Phil. Was surprised to keep bumping into you after you left us for dead on the climb away from the A9!

Here's my Strava activity for my failed attempt - https://www.strava.com/activities/4063918989/ Compared to 2017 I was an hour and 20mins up by the Linn of Dee but somehow lost all that time gained by Aviemore. My bivy stop was almost exactly 4hrs, I had about 75mins of stopping to eat and then get supplies in Braemar so on top of that I had about two hours of faffing/ dealing with stones in shoes, etc.

[Borderer]

Well done Phil.
Good to bump into you.
That must be a resident badger as that's the only one I've ever seen in pretty much the exact spot when I done the loop in 2017.

Apparently the setts use the same paths for generations, consequently some routes have been in use for as much as 100 years.

[htrider]

Nice one Phil. Was surprised to keep bumping into you after you left us for dead on the climb away from the A9!

Thats 'cos I wasn't prepared to spin like a crazed hamster in a wheel on the flats and descents

[Richpips]

I enjoyed that. Thanks Phil.

[whitestone]

Here's my tale - http://bobwightman.blogspot.com/2020/09 ... -does.html

No shots after the Fords as I didn't take any until Aviemore at which point I discovered I'd only 7% charge left on my phone so decided to turn the phone off in case I really needed it.

[RIP]

After reading the fourth paragraph, I'm now going to be picturing you as Basil for a while:

[u02sgb]

Enjoyed that thanks Bob.

It was me with the Tarp lofted high, to be honest I was too tired to figure anything out properly at that point and just tied it to various branches on the tree. The wind loosened it up overnight. Kept the rain off enough for a few hours sleep though. Took me quite a while to get going and my head wasn't really in it for most of the day. I'm not used to Riding with so little sleep.

Stu

[htrider]

Good one Bob. I keep thinking of the rapidness of the change from breezy and blustery by Loch builg to Gale force in glen Gairn, I can't say I've ever experienced such a rapid change in so short a distance. Very weird.

[whitestone]

Sean, Cath and I were discussing if Ben Anderson also had a rucksack - he seemed very lightly laden otherwise.

[Escape Goat]

My usual ramble...
https://philsbikepacking.blogspot.com/2 ... water.html
Others feel free to post up their tales on this thread.

Epic. Absolutely epic. Great write up, thanks for sharing.