Day 1 - Montrose to Ballater

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny, definitely a good omen. We did breakfast then drove the vans to a street with some parking spots near the golf club. Eric didn't fancy riding back across the country with us, the lure of his boat in the Med was too great, so we bade him farewell and he took the train back across the country to retrieve his van. 

We had a good faff session trying to work out what kit could be left behind or shared. Were three pairs of gloves and overtrousers necessary? I certainly didn't leave room for 7 maps. Our bags were all straining at the zips and not feeling very light by the time we'd finished, time for some more air pressure in the rear shock. Faffing over we headed to the beach for the obligatory dipping of the wheels and coating of our freshly oiled drive chains in sand, then it was off to the mountains!

Montrose

The east coast of Scotland is very green and pleasant, and seems a long way from the mountains, in fact we had a good 20 mile road ride until we hit the off road. This was quite enjoyable, steady cruising along quiet roads in the sunshine. There were some minor undulations through broccoli growing country before we joined the road up Glen Esk, where the fields gave way to a gradual uphill through the rolling heathery foothills of the Cairngorms. There were bigger hills in the background, including the day's Munro, Mount Keen.

Glen Esk

At the end of the road we took to the good estate tracks for a few miles up Glen Mark, stopping by the Queen's Well for a sunny lunch. The monument there commemorates the time that Queen Victoria parked her horse there for a comfort break.

Glen Mark

After lunch the proper climb started, the land rover track reared up into the heavens and looked impossibly steep. However the wind was behind us and it proved to be an almost sensible gradient, this meant there were no excuses for a rest and it was all rideable, if a little loose in places. The path to the top of Mount Keen split off from the Mounth Road (Mount Keen bypass) about two thirds of the way up, this had recently been resurfaced in smooth firm grit and allowed us to keep on crawling our way up until we hit some rock bands very near the summit. It was quite breezy on top but very warm in shelter, I'd nearly got through 2 litres of water already.

Mount Keen

The path down the north face of the hill hadn't had the same path building attention as our climb. It was a wide avenue of peat studded with big round rocks, fairly steep at the top and flanked with heather on the lower stretch where it rejoined the Mounth Road. Technical descending with extra weight in the bag took a bit of getting used to, even more so for Paul as his rear brake had lost its bite (this is the third time he'd broken his brake on the first day of a multi day trip). We were soon down in Glen Tanar and back on estate tracks.

Descending Mount Keen

The planned dashed black line route up Lach na Gualainn was covered in heather so we took the tracks up Cairn Nairvie. From Black Moss we picked up a wet quad trod that eventually turned into a fun twisting descent to Ballaterach along an overgrown land rover track. I saw my first deer of the week along here and we all had great fun lifting our bikes over a gigantic deer gate at the bottom.

Cairn Nairvie

After the track ended at a farm it was a few miles of road to Ballater, we sent Paul racing ahead to find a bike shop or garage to fix his brake before closing time. The bike shop was open and he managed to persuade them to bleed his brake straight away rather than their initial offer of in 3 weeks time. It turned out the hose attachment had got knocked on the journey up and was slowly weeping fluid. Meanwhile it was ice cream time (although we could only find mr whippy ice cream substitute so I had a Magnum).

River Dee at Ballater

Saturday night was at the rather posh Habitat hostel, not cheap but very well equipped and clean. Recovery food was generous portions of sausage pasta, then a beer in town.

47 miles, 4700ft