I set off on Saturday lunchtime from FeshieBridge to do the inner loop of the Cairngorm Loop Route.



59 miles and about 15 hours of cycling later I came rolling back into the car park at Feshiebridge.

This trip was really challenging for me due to;
(a) the distance covered - the most I have done on a mountain bike
(b) the technicality of some of the single track being far above my skills to ride it. I knew the big climb up over the track with the irrigation ditches would be a get-off-and-push from reading blogs etc but I did not expect the next 10 - 12km of single track to be so rough and technical, resulting in me pushing most of the way. Still I did get some nice views :)


(c) the trip covered a lot of firsts for me - first time bivying, first time setting up my tarp and first time using my GPS device to name a few. So considering all this it went pretty well.




I have learned a few things from this trip including more practice on singletrack and getting a midge net. However over all I was happy with most of my gear choices and set up - only a couple of tweaks needed to keep me happy.

Think you need to make the images max of 700 pixels wide if you want them to "fit" 8-)

"technicality of some of the single track being far above my skills to ride it"

I've been riding for years and I'm ok though not a skills god and I found there to be alot of pushing on the section I did, especially with a loaded bike.

Bivvying in tree cover is asking for midges

Looks good, that push over Bynack is a real bu**er, great on the way down mind :D
Where did you bivi in the end?
I went over Mon/Tues, 28-29 degrees both days and no cover/shade once in the middle!!!!
Red is not the word
Glad you enjoyed the local riding, don't hesitate to drop a line if you want more info or some company on a ride.
Gari

Hi Gari,

I ended up at Derry Lodge for the night. It was not my planned stop but the timing just worked out that way.

It was pretty hot on the Sat / Sunday too, especially the Sunday morning, so we probably had matching sun burn :)

Not only did I miss your email before I set off (damn android gmail app no longer seems to notify me of new mail) but I also missed the turn off on the path to come down into the busy area at the east end of the loch and ended up going straight onto the main road and doubling back a little.

Tbh, it was probably best that I didnt stop as I had underestimated the time it would take me on each day!

I hope to get out in the next couple of weeks for a short run to bivi on the bank of the tay across the water from Dundee - just a short trip - but after that I hope to get back up towards Aviemore or Pitlochry soon.