Stats
Date: 06/06/09
Pedaling time: ?
Distance: ?
Max speed: ?
Total ascent: ?
Total descent: ?
Puncture count: 0
Bike shop: Bothy Bikes at Rothiemurchus
Cafe: To start/finish head to Rothiemurchus' Ord Ban
Riders: SC, DH and RI Driving from Glasgow
Distance: 140 miles
Travel time: 3 hours 15 mins
Directions: Multimap
Links
The handy and well-stocked Bothy Bikes.
The Rothiemurchus site.
Route There's no official route guide available so you'll have to make do with the GPS map.
Review To be updated soon.
Summary Highlight: A nice mixture of terrain particularly the double track Lowlight: A lot of forrest road Summary: A nice if not too taxing or exciting day out. Ride Rating: 6
Stats Date: 06/06/09 Pedaling time: 4hr 47min Distance: 37.5km Max speed: 46.5km/h Total ascent: 925m Total descent: 943m Puncture count: 0 Bike shop: Bothy Bikes at Rothiemurchus Cafe: To start/finish head to Rothiemurchus' Ord Ban and for a mid-way break try Glenmore Forest Park Visitor Centre. Riders: SC, DH, RI and AS
Driving from Glasgow Distance: 140 miles Travel time: 3 hours 15 mins Directions: Multimap
Route
A geotagged map of the day is available, along with a handy detailed map to print and take with you, although you should note that it covers the entire ride of multiple routes. The official trail map from from the Forestry Commission is iffy to say the least but here it is if you want it.
The routes were done in the following order:
Upper Red
Lower Red
Upper Red
Orange
Review
A great trail centre with short but multiple loops that can be done. The Black route wasn't done but this was mainly becuase too much fun was being had on the Upper Red route. The beauty of this place is that the amount of time going up seems so little in comparison to the length of the tracks coming down.
Starting off with the Upper Red involves climbing up the main forest road and then taking the single track for about 1,500m to the highest point in the forrest for a quick breather and some nice photo opportunities of the fantastic views. Once back on the bike, its time to slap a smile on to your face for the entirity of the 3km descent of open and fast trail, with optional drop-offs and rick gardens, that eventually winds back into the forest and spits you out again about a third of the way up the main forest road. Quite brilliant!
The Lower Red is fast and flowing with a variety of terrain including rockgarden and a long twisting baordwork through the forest. If you want to test your bottle on this run then Air's Rock should do the trick. It can be done as part of the run or accessed from the main forest road as you go up to the Black/Red routes. This big chunk of granite is a bit shorter than the Slab at Dalbeattie but a bit steeper, and once you've comitted there is no going back.
After doing the Upper Red again, the day finished off with a quick blast down the Orange Route. Aimed at freeriders it's got berms, tabletops and gaps jumps a-plenty. Not a lot of air being taken by our little party but plenty of opportunity if you've got the l33t skillz. And you'll need them, as we came across someone sparkled out at the bottom of the trail waiting for a ride in the local ambulance.
Summary
Highlight: Minimal up yet somehow maximum down.
Lowlight: The majority bottling out of Air's Rock
Summary: A brilliant, short, snappy, multiple-routes-in-a-day ride
Ride Rating: 9
Stats
Date: 05/06/09
Pedaling time: 2hr 36min
Distance: 23.6km
Max speed: 34.5km/h
Total ascent: 969m
Total descent: 958m
Puncture count: 0 (but breaking a chain made up for it)
Bike shop: BaseCamp MTB are on site at the start/end of the trails
Cafe: BaseCamp Cafe is right next door to the bike shop
Riders: DH, RI and AS
Driving from Glasgow
Distance: 121 miles
Travel time: 2 hours 47 mins
Directions: Multimap
The first week of June saw some beautiful sunny weather giving us a taste of the summer ahead. Needless to say, that all changed for The Rusty Chain's weekend away in the Cairngorms. Pitching a tent is so much fun when its chucking it down.
Anyway the plan went like this:
Friday - Laggan Wolftrax
Saturday - Cross country from Rothiemurchus
We stayed at the Rothiemurchus campsite which has nice pitches among the pines, great showers and is only 5 minutes in a cab from the nighlife of Aviemore. Despite the rain for a good chunk of our stay we actually managed to miss most of it when on the bikes which was a real bonus.
The rides have been added as separate posts (Laggan Wolftrax, Loch Morlich and TBC) but a weekend to do a couple of days cycling in the area is thoroughly recommended, even if Aviemore on a Saturday night has come over all Blackpool with annoying stag parties.
Route
Not too sure how this was ridden, because in a break with tradition it was... on road.
Review
Highlight: Car-free tarmac road for about 12miles on the north shore of the loch
Lowlight: The Duke's Pass climb
Summary: Excellent all rounder for the road toad
Ride Rating: 7/10
Stats
Date: 01/06/09
Pedaling time: 3hr-ish
Distance: 28.9miles
Max speed: ?
Total ascent: 4891ft
Total descent: 4902ft
Puncture count: 0
Riders: DH
Bike shop: ?
Cafe: ?
Driving from Glasgow
Distance: 30 miles
Travel time: 45 mins
Directions: ?
The routes were done in the following order:
The Lower Red is fast and flowing with a variety of terrain including rockgarden and a long twisting baordwork through the forest. If you want to test your bottle on this run then Air's Rock should do the trick. It can be done as part of the run or accessed from the main forest road as you go up to the Black/Red routes. This big chunk of granite is a bit shorter than the Slab at Dalbeattie but a bit steeper, and once you've comitted there is no going back.
Posts
