Some interesting points.
As I understand it, The Bridge of Dee next to the Invercauld Bridge is a private bridge on estate land. I have always seen it with the full height gate across the end of it locked. Will have to hope that an alternative arrives for the main road bridge at that point.
Failing this, the route by the Linn of Quoich off Bealach Dearg has always been the more natural off-road route to the Linn of Dee anyway. Even if the bridge at the Linn of Quoich is not repaired for cars, I remember it being easily cross-able carrying a bike - certainly not in the same league of difficulty as the Geldie or the Avon.
By-passing Braemar shouldn't be a problem: on a 24h schedule you go through Tomintoul at approx 0200 and Braemar 0500 so both useless as supply points anyway; a more moderate schedule still allows one to take in the bountiful provisions offered by Tomintoul even in Braemar was avoided for reasons of the Invercauld Bridge still not being repaired.
If, the Linn of Quoich option does end up being the actual route, then it perhaps makes more sense to descend from Bealag Dearg direct to Altdourie, rather than due south to Invercauld House?
Just thoughts ...

You all realise part of the fun of these routes is the adventure aspect and the suffering right? Not just bypassing things because they've got hard/wet/scary.

FWIW, I'll wait to see what Steve says and go with that. If it's no change, it won't bother me. Cross or turn back, it's always the riders call.

If for whatever reason the road bridge between Invercauld and Braemar is not open, the passing by Quoich becomes a necessity, not an option. A lot can change in 4 months and hopefully the original route can be ridden.

I wouldnt stress it too much just yet personally. As said above there's always fun to be had out there and whilst it would / will hopefully be great to ride the proper route as devised (not that I'm in yet) there's always something to ride.

Back in, oh maybe 2013 four or five of us showed up ready to race, but the race was cancelled last minute (day before) due to the weather / river / snow conditions.

The 4 of us set out, bottled the inner loop after the cafe (what do you know, Steve was right ) and cracked on to tomintoul on a mish mash of the route and other nice looking trails.

Had some beers, some whiskey from the whiskey castle. Bivied further round and then two of us toured the rest of the outer, plus some detours just because. The others pressed on with the outer I think and got an earlier bath.

As mentioned. Its down to the ride on the day to make the correct descisions

GregMay wrote:You all realise part of the fun of these routes is the adventure aspect and the suffering right? Not just bypassing things because they've got hard/wet/scary.

FWIW, I'll wait to see what Steve says and go with that. If it's no change, it won't bother me. Cross or turn back, it's always the riders call.

I wasn't sure where the closed bridge on the A83 was and when I checked on the map saw that there was an old bridge next to it so wondered if that could be used. I think something will be in place in four months' time though even if it's just pedestrian/cycle access, the waters will have to recede to let the engineers check things out first.

The small burns aren't really a long term problem, they rise and fall rapidly, so although changes as seen in the photos above look dramatic the risks of crossing them are no different to normal and you are just as likely to get across without getting your feet wet as needing a detour. The one unknown at the moment is the upper Feshie, until someone checks it out we won't know. There'll be some way through, it might just be a bit more "interesting", the river might have deposited a nice new bank, there's over four months until the ride so plenty of time.

Invercauld bridge will be open next week along with a temp bypass of the knackered section of the A93. No worries. Just need one of the Aviemore gang to head up the Feshie and report back!

I'll be doing so at some point, though there's no guarantee it'll be the same in a few months time

i was going to check out the section before Tomintoul too. There's a couple of river crossings before and after the Big Egg and then Burn of Brown.

I'll post any updates with "Spoiler" in the title so as not to ruin the adventure for some.

I may head up on Wed or Thursday, unless the forecasted snow arrives and the weather is good for a backcountry ski trip! As Colin, I shall mark with spoiler alert if I do get that way.

Spoiler!!

I won't comment on the contents but if you wish to check the latest reports ...

Just seen this posted on STW: http://cairngorms.co.uk/wp-content/uplo ... Impact.pdf and from there https://cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/

Interesting in that stuff that survived Hurrican Bertha in '14 got trashed and stuff that Bertha trashed didn't (if you see what I mean!) Its a bugger about the Glen Quoich bridge and the west side track as this will make getting onto the great path up out of Quoich to link with the ace glen gairn path quite difficult. Probably have to go up Glen an t Sluggan now.

Since they built the new path from Ruigh etchacan down by the feshie its been clobbered a few times by floods! Oh well looking at the weather its all about to be frozen solid....

Just over a month to go - quite looking forward to this!

Planning to take the new Tour Divide bike round to get a nice run out on it , sure it may batter me a bit more, but who cares :)

How's everyones prep going?

Doing the Braunton 150 next weekend plus I've got all Easter week off work so will use that to get some miles in.

GregMay wrote:Just over a month to go - quite looking forward to this!

Planning to take the new Tour Divide bike round to get a nice run out on it , sure it may batter me a bit more, but who cares :)

How's everyones prep going?

I've done close to no training for it, I really haven't had much time at all. I'm going to ride home from work next week though which should help.

AlasdairMc wrote:

GregMay wrote:Just over a month to go - quite looking forward to this!

Planning to take the new Tour Divide bike round to get a nice run out on it , sure it may batter me a bit more, but who cares :)

How's everyones prep going?

I've done close to no training for it, I really haven't had much time at all. I'm going to ride home from work next week though which should help.

You'll be reet, you know the course at least :)

GregMay wrote: You'll be reet, you know the course at least :)

This is true, I do know how good and how bad it is...

If the current weather keeps going the place will be a desert by May! 17C in Braemar today according to the BBC weather reports. Personally I'd like cold (well cool) and dry.

14C on Cairngorm at lunchtime when we were skiing today. At the moment it's a case of getting up there early, dealing with the results of the overnights frosts, then fitting in a few slides until the snowpack warms up too much.

The low level tracks through Feshie/Rothiemurchus are almost dry already.

AlasdairMc wrote:

GregMay wrote:Just over a month to go - quite looking forward to this!

Planning to take the new Tour Divide bike round to get a nice run out on it , sure it may batter me a bit more, but who cares :)

How's everyones prep going?

I've done close to no training for it, I really haven't had much time at all. I'm going to ride home from work next week though which should help.

What from London? Or are you Edinburgh based next week?

Justchris wrote:

AlasdairMc wrote: I've done close to no training for it, I really haven't had much time at all. I'm going to ride home from work next week though which should help.

What from London? Or are you Edinburgh based next week?

Yeah, London. I figure the roads may be slightly quieter so it's the best weekend to do it

Got the opportunity to do some training on the John Muir Way on Sunday. There's a nice section of undulating sandy single track - at times as easy as cycling through mud. It's only about 10m from the road and every one of the dozen or so roadies who went past on the tarmac looked at me as if I was a nutter

Howard wrote:Got the opportunity to do some training on the John Muir Way on Sunday. There's a nice section of undulating sandy single track - at times as easy as cycling through mud. It's only about 10m from the road and every one of the dozen or so roadies who went past on the tarmac looked at me as if I was a nutter

I was looking at the John Muir Way yesterday when I should have been working, I had actually never come across it before. I was wondering if the bits that are cycling alternatives were too easy and just do the 'walking' bits, or stick to them.

Thanks

Chris

im finally getting round to training (propery) , but soo bussy moving house and stuff this is gonna be the most horendus 3 days of my life ! cant waite

Allt Garbhlach crossing in Feshie has been "slightly" remodelled over the winter



If you've been through here over the past couple of years you might recall that the steps opposite came right down to river level, there was a wee (2m) shonky bridge and then steps back up again. There's now a 3-4m drop from the steps to the riverbed. It's still possible to scramble down/up but the embankments are very crumbly.


Don't bother looking for the old crossing slightly upstream either. It's been similarly affected


Also - just north of Allt Garbhlach the track has been dangerously undercut by the River Feshie and you'll need to detour a few metre east for safety. It's obvious in daylight but could catch folk out of they're making an evening/night journey. I put a wee "wall" of boulders across it today in the hope it might alert some folk. I don't know how long they'll stay there

While I remember...

aer those doing the Cairngorm Loop following the new path in Feshie (from just south of the Allt Garbhlach to Achlean Farm) or the line originally laid down and shown in Daves UK Bikepacking Mapping?

ScotRoutes wrote:While I remember...

aer those doing the Cairngorm Loop following the new path in Feshie (from just south of the Allt Garbhlach to Achlean Farm) or the line originally laid down and shown in Daves UK Bikepacking Mapping?

Route is as per GPX: http://cairngormsloop.net/map.html