Day 3 - Braemar to Kingussie

Day 3 dawned wet and windy, back to traditional Scottish weather then. It continued raining through our standard 6 Weetabix breakfast. We eventually ran out of excuses and capacity for tea, donned our jackets and set off down the road. Today was going to be the longest day, and most exposed too, cutting through the middle of the Cairngorms. Thankfully Paul had ordered a 40mph tail wind.

We had a bit of a road warmup out of town up Glen Dee before crossing the white bridge and heading through the grounds of posh Mar Lodge.

Mar Lodge front drive

We picked up a puddley double track into Glen Lui then joined the main track to Derry Lodge. The west side of the Derry Burn was a hoot of a downhill when we passed through in the opposite direction 3 years ago, so we decided to try the east side, which turned out to be a lovely well maintained path through the pines. We passed a few damp folk mending the drainage and carried on into Glen Derry proper. The path got a bit muddy for a while then more rocky as it started to climb to the Lairig an Laoigh. The massive helping hand from the wind made the climb easier than it should be, occasionally rideable with a bit of pushing through wet snow patches.

Across to Glen Lui

At the Lairig the full force of the wind was whipping the horizontal rain into the back of my bare legs so I decided to push on until I could find a boulder to hide behind. There were lots of boulders but none were fit for cowering behind. On a good day with a lighter bag and a holster of spare rear mech hangers bits of the path would have been almost rideable. I ended up trudging onwards for 2 and a half kms of largely level semi-submerged path, heading for the shelter at the Fords of Avon. The fords were not too deep but the snow melt made them chilly.

Fording Avon

The refuge has got a new interior, a sort of subterranean shed. I was glad of the respite from the weather and set to putting on some extra layers and dry gloves. The others turned up and we did lunch, hummus again.

Shed of the year 2013

The next section climbs the flanks of Bynack More, so we'd be even more exposed. Hoods were put up and grimaces fixed, then we ventured out into the elements again. There was some more pushing along the waterlogged path above the lochans, then we were able to ride a bit of downhill before a peaty climb and a descent to Coire Odhar. Alex had taken his boots off at the fords in an attempt to keep them dry, but they were full now. The path is an eroded rocky strip through the peat, no wonder considering the amount of water flowing down it. Apparently it's quite rideable when dry.

It rains

Another stiff climb took us to nearly 800m, and the junction with the tourist track up the Munro. Then the rain stopped and the sun came out! The descent down to Strath Nethy was well maintained and a lesson in water bar hopping, the tail wind meant picking up speed after negotiating each drainage ditch or bar wasn't a problem.

Off Bynack More

We slumped down in the heather by the side of the track at Ryvoan pass to dry out a bit. The sunny day plan was to go over Meall a Bhuachaille but we decided to give it a miss given the ordeal of the past few hours. Instead we had a pleasant cruise through to Glenmore Lodge, around Loch Morlich and up the stiff climb to Rothiemurchus Lodge. The bottom section of the Lairig Ghru is amazing singletrack, but to get there you have to trudge through unrideable rock studded peat for a km. The doubts set in, can it be really worth it? It is. I got too excited and managed to miscalculate a root near the top, forcing me to abandon bike, it bounced a bit but me and it were unscathed. 

After the twisty fun through the trees ran out we had more pleasant riding over to Loch an Eilein and the tasty and remarkably dry path to Inshriach Forest and the Moor of Feshie. We took another fun path through the trees that we'd happened upon a few winters ago, then a short road section to Feshiebridge. 

After the bridge we took the tracks and paths by the river to Ballintean, then more road and fire road to Corarnstilbeg. By now we were feeling the miles and were looking forward to a cup of tea. But first there was a short lift into the forest and a fire road descent to Drumguish, where we found a cheeky wee path down to the road. We trundled past Ruthven and into Kingussie.

The night's accommodation was in the attic at the Laird's Bothy. While we washing our bikes in the garden we were lucky enough to have cups of tea made for us by some young ladies. They were having a night of civilisation in the middle of a hardcore west to east coast to coast, they were staying in bothies some nights so were carrying a lot more luggage than us. We had a pre tea of cake and pizza forced on us by a chap from Ayr who was working at the local sewerage plant, then some good warm showers. Main tea was a well deserved massive pile of mash, sausages, beans and doughnuts oozing with cream. But no beer.

51 miles, 3800ft