Going up glen tilt (I didn't have my camera with me due to the rush but I've got photos of all of this route so no real need - this dates from august last year!) I like this climb as it's techy enough to be interesting without it being to hard. Just a couple of burn crossings over rocky steps requiring a hop on, hop off.
Bynack lodge (From my april HTR training ride)
As I headed east the weather did cheer up a bit however the main mass of hills to the left seemed to be holding the cloud. From Linn of Deealong to Linn of Quoich and then up the track along glen Quoich until it crosses the main river. After this a right turn takes you up through woodland and then a nice bit of single track not marked on any maps takes you up to the head of Quoich water. This joins one of the main paths up to Ben Avon from Invercauld via glen an t-sluggan ( a fab descent apparently - another day....) after a couple of K you turn right up a vague path which climbs fairly steeply up to just over 700m. Thereafter follows a great techy, rocky descent down into Glen Gairn. I first did this last year as a day ride from Ballater and its a fab route.
Looking down Glen Gairn
I was also down here back in April in an absolute deluge. The crossings of two side burns out of Ben Avon were horrendous due to the snow melt - knee dep fast flowing and freezing..... This day the sun was shining and the burns were a trickle and crossable with dry feet. A few k more of easier riding takes you across the worlds rickitiest bridge and onto the main track over from Invercauld that the Cairngorms loop ultra race follows. Down this for a couple of K then turn left down by loch builg. Again I did this back in 2011 in horrible weather but today it was warm and dry. The heavy cloud was persisting over the hills so I passed the turning to go up Glen Avon heading for brighter skies beyond Tomintoul. I got to the shop at 6.20 just before it shut and loaded up an bananas, butteries and crisps - this ride was sort of a training ride for next years HTR (yeah whatever) to see if I could try and right what went wrong with me back in May. A good nosh seemed to help as I felt good after leaving Tomintoul and I'd been maintaining a similar pace to my first day on the HTR with no complaints from the legs as yet....
On the trail over to Dorback from tomintoul. someone had left a Cream egg on the sign, possible indicating the route ahead?
I stomped up the climb over to Dorback lodge with the sun making a brief reappearance and a feeling of being able to keep riding for as long as it was daylight. Crossing the Dorback burn was easy and the climb up to the Egg path (sic) didn't give my legs any grief.
Path though the ravine below eag mhor aka the egg path!
By this time I'd decided to give the Bynack to Fords of Avon and Glen derry single track a miss and just head down to Aviemore via Ryvoan and then see how far I could get down towards Glen Tromie before it got dark (I'd neglected to bring lights with me...) I didn't muck around too much from Glen more - I just whizzed round Loch Morlich and then followed the cycleway down to the town and the Happy Haggis chippy just before it closed - smoked sausage and chips and a much needed coffee. It was now 9.45 and dusk was well on the way despite it being midsummer, all thanks to heavy overcast. Aware of my lack of lights I screamed down the insh road and up the Tromie Track / road with the light fading fast. I'd hoped to get up past the Gaick lodge to a nice area I knew for a camp but in the end I spied a dry and level spot by the river a few K short of this and figured it wasn't worth going any further in the near dark. I got the tent up in record time thanks to horrific midgies (thank god for smidge) and crashed out straight away - I'd been riding for 11 hours and done 156k, just short of the magic 100 miles. I woke up early - 4am - ate the rest of my food washed down with a couple of mugs of tea then cruised down through the Gaik, ignoring the sense of deja vu as I 'd been down here the previous sunday on the fat bike. I saw the prints of Bud and Nate quite clearly in a couple of bits of dried mud! Got back to the car at 8am with the sun shining. All in all 125 miles in 20 hours with my aged body feeling pretty good for it. I think I might give the cairngorms loop a crack next month....
Phil
