This tour is one Rick and I did before, on a sunny, warm day last summer (the picture proves it...). Kenny, SLAC Cycle Club chairman, had walked the most easterly munro in Scotland a few weeks back and wondered if it was do-able with a bike. We told him it was and, together with fellow biker Alan, off we went to do it again. As it is a long time ago, I take the liberty of copying Kenny's report of the day from the SLAC bike club forum. Photos courtesy of Mr. Morton....
"Saturday was an epic day out. We (Alan, Andrea, Rick and myself) met in the car park at Tarfside at 8.30 (yes Ewan, we were in a car park in the Cairngorms by 08.30.....I know you think meeting at the Pentlands by 10.00 is an early start!!), and after the usual faffing about, were under way by 9.15. The route took us straight on to a rough Landrover track, undulating for the first miles or so, through a startled looking herd of cows, and then uphill. And uphill. And uphill. And then uphill a bit more. Yes, it was a long way, however we managed to ride around 98% of it, with just a steep, loose section near the top making us push.
By the time we were on the flattish section at the top the weather had closed in completely, with visibility down to less than 100 yards. It's here that the track splits with the Fungle Road going one way and the Firmounth Road the other. We took the Firmounth Road, which rapidly became no more than a rough, narrow track. After a couple of checks of the GPS (and how useful did that bit of equipment prove to be in those conditions), we found the track that would take us down into Glen Tanar. It was about now the real fun started. It's not a hugely steep descent, but does have enough rocks, ruts, bogs, puddles, streams, drops, scree and everything else to keep your mind totally focussed. It was about halfway down here we had our only big crash of the day when Rick nosedived over the bars and surfaced with blood coming out his forehead.
After some medical attention we were off again, with a short, slightly uphill section followed by another long descent, this one a good bit faster on wider tracks, down into Glen Tanar, and a well earned lunch by a pretty little bridge over the river.
Sandwiches scoffed, we were off again up a fairly smooth track which lead to the foot of Mount Keen. After a slightly awkward river crossing it was time to get out an assortment of slings and hooks and attach the bikes to our rucksacks for the walk up the hill, the track at this point being unrideable.
It would have been a hard enough walk normally, but in miserable weather, with tired legs and with 30 lbs of mountain bike attached to our already laden rucksacks, it became a major undertaking.
After about an hour of hiking we finally hit the point where the track divides and we were able to re-mount. What a relief it was too; suddenly our rucksacks felt so light! It was while we were unhooking the bikes we met three hikers coming up the hill. I think four folk with mountain bikes was just about the last thing they expected to see up there, if the looks on their faces was anything to go by!.
The track (the Mounth Road) at this point is a narrow singletrack which contours round the summit, before meeting up with the path coming down from the top for the big descent. The next few miles flew by as we zipped down the track to the cottage by the Queen's Well. Other than loose rocks and some big drainage ditches, there's nothing to stop you really flying down this hill, and by the time we got to the cottage the sore legs from the hiking were well and truly forgotten and replaced with huge grins, helped with the very welcome nip of whisky Rick produced to celebrate surving what was a very tough day out.
From the cottage we had another mile or so of track, plus a few miles along the road back to Tarfside and the cars. As far as luxury goes, Champagne, caviar and the rest are nothing compared to the feel of clean, dry socks at the end of a long day on the hills!!
Big thanks to the other three for a classic day's mountain biking, and to those of you not there, you missed a great day out............although there are a number of other tracks up there that I'm sure we'll be back to explore."
Well, one thing Kenny missed is, that Rick actually produced a medal for each of us together with the whisky, and boy, did we deserve one!
No comments:
Post a Comment