Day 2 - Ballater to Braemar

It's only 17 miles up the A93 from Ballater to Braemar, however that's too easy for Paul. Instead the plan was to scale Lochnagar (our second Munro), then do a bonus hill before dropping in to Braemar. The morning started with 6 Weetabix each then a pleasant road ride up to Glen Muick. We followed some fast estate tracks up the glen to the bottom of the Lochnagar path opposite the Spittal.

Glen Muick

The path starts with a loose stony doubletrack up to Clais Rathadan, this was rideable with a dab or two where it got rocky. When the track reached the top of the hill we cut off on the bouldery footpath onto Lochangar, the original track continues and drops down towards the Queen's back garden at Balmoral.

Clais Rathadan

It was easier to carry the bike over the boulders than push, I was chasing some walkers so forged on up to the col between the main hill and Meikle Pap. After this the path steepens and the rocks grow, I continued plodding with numb arms, wanting to get it over and done with. Eventually the pain subsided as I crested the east summit.

Climbing

Everybody else had stopped for a snack so I had quite a wait at the top, but despite the overcast and patches of snow lying around it was quite warm and still, with some great views across to the moody cliffs above the loch.

Lochnagar

After regrouping we dropped a little then began an easier climb to the west summit. We dumped the bikes and scurried up the rocky outcrop that is the summit proper and enjoyed the panorama for a while.

Lochnagar summit view towards Meikle Pap

From the summit the path drops a bit then stays high, skirting Carn a' Choire Bhoideach, then it drops down to some streams before climbing round the side of Carn an t Sagairt Mor. The gritty peat and occasional rocks gave some relatively easy riding, with a few old snow patches to spice things up a little. The lower ground near the streams was a bit wet due to the fresh snow melt but it dried up again as we climbed out of the dip. It was high time for lunch (or second lunch for 75% of the party), so we sat, ate two varieties of hummus and admired the view for a while.

Snow on Carn a' Choire Bhoideach

After lunch there was a slightly rocky traverse and then the path headed downwards, very steep and rough. After a while a maintained singletrack path appeared, this had easy smooth bits, interspersed with moments of fear on pitched staircases, bedrock and some severe drainage gulleys. Great fun.

Downhill

The path levelled out for another traverse with some tricky features then dropped down to Loch Callater.

Loch Callater

We had a rest at the bottom while I fixed the week's only puncture (damn those drainage ditches), then it was off down the glen on the landrover track. The track up to the transmitters on Morrone, our bonus hill, had been visible for some time, it hadn't looked so bad when we were above it but we were very much below it now and it looked like a mega climb. The start of the climb was almost opposite where our track hit the road in Glen Clunie, but instead of crossing the river by a footbridge we did about 5km of road up the glen then back on the other side of the river. The climb was long but not so steep, and we had a handy tail wind for the final section. 

Morven summit

The views from the transmitters were impressive, you could see just about every peak in the Cairngorms and right down Glen Dee, Quoick and Derry. The massif still had a good coat of snow and tomorrow's journey through the heart of it looked daunting.

Loch Callater from Morven

Mar Lodge and Deeside from Morven

Once regrouped it was downhill to Braemar, it seems the people of Braemar like to walk up their local hill 20 abreast as the first half of the path was a wide avenue of jagged white rocks down the heathery slope. We juddered down this for a while, then onto an entertaining built path with some tricky outcrops. This took us into the suburbs of town, another good descent dispatched.

We stayed in the bunkhouse at Braemar Lodge, which is fairly basic but good enough for us and the Munro baggers we were sharing it with. We had a stroll in the evening and even found a source of real ale.

30 miles, 5500ft