Cairngorms loop 2020

[fatbikephil]

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!

[fatbikephil]

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.

[fatbikephil]

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

[fatbikephil]

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.

[Dakkar]

Phi, thank you for the write up of that epic journey, aspecially the last 60 k, Chapeau that man.

Lots of info, I'm contemplating an attempt on Jubilee weekend, I'll e checking the wind first though.

Well done Sir, for your writing and your ride.

[Dakkar]

Phi, thank you for the write up of that epic journey, especially the last 60 k, Chapeau that man.

Lots of info, I'm contemplating an attempt on Jubilee weekend, I'll e checking the wind first though.

Well done Sir, for your writing and your ride.

[fatbikephil]

Thanks Dakkar, I've answered your chippy and bivvy question on the other post!

[Dakkar]

Phil,
Wonderful to meet you while out on the outer loop on Saturday. You were right about Glen Tilt, I agree with the comments you made, it felt sadistic to put it there at the end of the ride rather than it being a sting in the tail. And then after the physical and mental exertion of hike a bike up a near vertical cliff and risking life or loss of bike or both negotiating the ravine crossings with very little room for error mixed in with exhaustion, its the ride that just keeps on giving. Oh and that's not the end of course there are the two more impressive climbs to the end. Needles to say I didn't finish at tea time as you optimistically suggested but maybe you were trying to offer a psychological boost but it was 2250 when I got to Blair Athol station clock - still light - just

During those last two climbs Lee Craigie's words came to mind from her journal, Joining the dots, "what are you practicing now?" I had to remind myself that I was in one the most stunning places on earth, nearing the summit, surrounded by blue shaded mountains as the sun was setting in the west. I had chosen to be here, It could be worse. It got me to the end.

Getting to the end, hit home just how impressive your time was, when you completed in such awful weather and on a single speed. Not to mention those with the FKT's.

For me the Cairngorms Loop was type 2 Fun. It feels better looking at it now retrospectively. During the ride north on the inner loop I met two riders on Gravel bikes who said they were riding at the limits of their bikes capabilities or probably beyond their limits. I feel that was me, I was riding beyond my skills level, I had to push my bike a long way on various stretchers of the route. At one point going down Glen Tilit before the Hike a bike out I reached a spur where there was just inches to negotiate getting past it, no mean feat with a loaded mountain bike and two long days already sapping at my energy levels. Fortunately two riders who were just riding the outer loop came down and one of the riders very kindly helped me with my bike to get across the spur. This now meant I hadn't been self-sufficient all the way round, so my time wouldn't count but it didn't matter without his help I don't think I would have got across.

The scenery throughout the whole route is wonderful, and will always want to draw me back, the weather couldn't have been better, hardly any midges and for those wanting a challenge, this route is an epic challenge but I just didn't enjoy it. There was too much having to get off the bike because the route was unrideable, either because of the bogs, the mud, the nadgery paths, or the steepness, the landslips, with only millimetres to negotiate a route past, not just Glen Tilt but Glen Feshie - possibly risking serious injury.

But if it was easy, why bother? Good luck to anybody else who rides this spectacular route, for anybody who completes it, it's a very big accomplishment; in my opinion.

[fatbikephil]

Good effort Steve, nice to meet you too - it was bikepacker central out there - I passed 6 more folk and two other boners!
I guess I did it all in chunks long before I tried to string it all together in one go and that took two attempts. Knowing whats coming makes a huge difference. That said the last two climbs have always seemed at least twice as long as their actuality! So you've done very well to do the whole shebang first go, particularly if your not used to the 'Scottish Vernacular Trail types' i.e rock or bog fests...

I know exactly the scramble of a burn crossing you refer to. For a change I tried the lower line but it's not any easier. I think that's what did for my boots I can't actually remember doing it on the CL2020....