Scottish C2C Days 1 & 2

On the Saturday of the 11th September (was it really that long ago) we were picked up from my parents house, yes really, door to door service! It helps that my parents live between Glasgow and Edinburgh about five minutes off the M8. The guys had already picked up Mac and Lori in Glasgow, an American couple with an amusing amount of luggage as they were coming over for more than just the week of riding.

A goodly amount of packing tetris with bags and bikes went on before we got in the van...(duct tape was employed) Due to the fact that we were heading off for a week of riding in Scotland where the weather could be doing anything and everything neither Jez or I could be accused of travelling light either with two very stuffed dead body bags.

Off to the centre of Edinburgh to pick up Mickey and Joy, another American couple who actually had perfected the art of travelling light, thankfully as the van was totally rammed. A long and tedious drive up to Aberdeen followed..as did the rain but then the sun came out as we neared the Granite City, thankfully as Aberdeen looks utterly miserable when it's overcast, all those grey buildings.

We parked up at the beach there then ensued a goodly amount of faff whilst bikes were built etc, then we set off for an easy 20 mile spin out towards Banchory. All that time faffing and this was the only photo I took around the auspicious start (totally crap I know)!



We had to ride through the city, mostly quiet roads and cycle paths but we did have to negotiate one very busy, narrow and congested road where I decided to get a puncture after not even one mile of riding. I had to pick the bit of road where there wasn't even a proper verge to move to, I had to carry the bike hanging onto a railing for a bit whilst inching along a kerb.

Wasn't long before we were out on some easy cycle paths and a nice 20 miles to Banchory were done. We arrived at the first B & B of the trip to find our bags had already been taken up to the rooms, yay! This was particularly welcome on some of the less easy days. A couple of beers and some great food rounded off a good day.


From Banchory the next destination was Braemar, via the Royal Lochnagar distillery. Unfortunately the Balmoral estate was closed to the public so there was a bit more road work than ideal. Normally this would be fast but day 2 was the first day of "the raging headwind from hell" 44 miles of it and it didn't seem to let up for the rest of the week. I know it's a risk when travelling west but jeez, one day without it would have been nice, at least the sun was still shining. It meant the day was suprisingly hard work. It's never, ever fun or fair having to pedal downhill to keep moving. The only picture I took all day but I really can't remember if it was before or after the distillery:



The distillery tour was very interesting, after the evil b*st*rd hill to get up to it, there was no real view of Lochanagar itself which was a bit disappointing but the whisky was actually ok, it's very light on peat so that's probably why I liked it. I'm glad it was pretty much downhill to Braemar from there as I had the usual problem of the alcohol going straight to my legs and turning them into wet noodles if I have any whilst riding. They did come back to me which is just at well as we were taking turns riding into the wind...downhill. By the time we rolled into Braemar I had a headache from the cold wind.

The hotel was large and overrun by elderly coach parties, as was Braemar in general. The food here was very cheap but probably the worst of the whole week though portions were generous and the showers were good and hot (always important). The entertainment was a little "old" for us and we escaped out of the dining room to the hotel bar when a weeble shaped man started playing guitar and singing.

We did think we were going to be crushed to death in a slow, white haired stampede though as codgers appeared from every direction and made their way there, particularly the ladies, of which there were lots, as always with the retired generation.

Two warm up days in, some proper offroad bog, heather and river crossings up next.

The Cairngorms

I've been back from the Cairngorms for almost a week now, a bit of a sniffle and post holiday blahs this week and it all seems a world away now.

I could write loads about the experience but I won't, it was just utterly fantastic. The snow was simply amazing. We had a pretty painless drive up on the Sunday, avoiding the worst section of the A9 it would seem by coming up from the Edinburgh side. Managed to drive past the turn off for Glenmore Lodge as the sign was totally obscured by snow. Heading up the ski road was entertaining, the road hadn't been ploughed, it had had to have a snow blower to cut through it. There is a four metre high wall of snow near the Coire Cas car park.

Days 1 -4 had pretty much no wind, which is quite frankly rare in the Cairngorms. We also had lots of sunshine and blue skies, again rare. I just hope I haven't had my lifetime's quota of good Scottish winter weather in one week. Soft snow meant slow moving progress particularly being the shortest member of the group, with the shortest stride. It wasn't always easy following others footsteps and as I took a lot of photos I spent a lot of time as the tail end Charlie.

On the Tuesday we were accompanied for the day by cameraman from the Adventure Show, they are doing a piece on people beginning to venture out into the Scottish hills in winter. It was quite odd doing stuff and then having a camera watching or being asked questions. Its only shown in Scotland and probably won't be out til the autumn so I'll have forgotten all about it by then. I will no doubt look and sound like a complete plank!

Ice axe arrest practice was hilarious, crampons and ice axes were seriously confidence inspiring though there wasn't always a massive need for them due to the soft snow. Snow shelter digging was interesting but quite frankly I think I'd rather bust a gut to get off the hill. A snow hole on the other hand might be fun for a night. Avalanche awareness was a hot topic for obvious reasons, lots of attention to the forecasts, looking for wind scoured slopes etc, learning new words for snow....loaded:

Sastrugi, my favourite word for snow:

A good walk around the Northern Corries on the Wednesday with visibility for miles in every direction, not sure if I'll see it like that ever again:

Lots more photos on Flickr if you want to trawl through them.

Just to redress the balance the normal weather closed in on Friday. We wanted some experience of trying to navigate in white out conditions and we got it. Snow shoes and following the pistes up made for fast progress up to Cairn Gorm summit. Sheltering in the Ptarmigan ski station for some food and layer rearrange it was then up to the summit, walking on bearings in pairs using dark patches in the snow to sight off - it was the only detail and using hand signals to correct the lead (voice signals drowned out by the wind). The view from Cairn Gorm summit, the little grey "sighting" patches visible at the bottom:

From the summit over to another feature on a bearing taken and measured by me (gulp) but it worked. I was the lead of our pair, we managed to stay on bearing and I managed to keep counting paces. I found it was a good way of blocking out thinking about the conditions. I had my only real "I'm not liking this" moment across here as everytime I had to turn back to check I was still on bearing I got a load of icy snow driven into my eyeballs, not pleasant.

Still, we found the little tor we were looking for, walking round it I got blown off my feet three times due to the combination of 40mph winds, soft, deep snow and snow shoes. Hiding behind the tor on quite frankly, dodgy windslab (just as well it was flat) I managed to get my ski goggles on and what a difference. Eyes protected, hood up, in my own bright yellow bubble it made a huge difference to things.

We set off back to the Ptarmigan with more bearing walking and pace counting and I was by then really enjoying the challenge. The only slight annoyance was having to carry my walking poles to use the compass and they kept icing to my gloves and making whatever hand was holding them freezing. The compass base plate was ice, all toggles etc were covered in rime ice, jacket hoods etc. It was a good reminder of exactly how serious things can get up there.

Packing....

Heading up to my folks tomorrow then onto Glenmore Lodge on Sunday to do 5 days of winter hillwalking skills (or how not to get swept away in an avalanche!). Already had mum on the phone with the "are you sure it's a good idea" conversation (after the Glencoe avalanche). I'm not sure my assurances of being with some of the finest mountain instructors around reassured her...

Currently in the process of assembling every single hat, pair of gloves/mitts, buff, socks, baselayer, waterproof, down/merino garment etc I own.......maybe we should just pack all our clothes and take them with us.

Finger crossed the Highlands have finally been reopened by the time we have to drive up there on Sunday afternoon, can snow us in if it likes after that, I won't care then but don't want to have to spend a night in the car on the A9 on the way up.

A (very) snowy walk in the Pentlands

We drove up to Scotland on Monday 28th on a glorious sunny day and the start of a serious thaw of the snow in Lostock Hall. , the temperature gauge in the car read -7C at a particularly exposed part of the M74 and that was in the sunshine! It had climbed back up to a balmy 0C by the time we hit Glasgow though dropped down to -4 as we got into West Lothian which was totally white, not seen anything like it since I was a kid. My parents road was tricky.

We got out for a short walk in the Pentlands on the 29th, they aren't particularly high and there are no cliffs to walk off so they felt like an easy choice. The plan was to park up at Flotterstone and walk to Allermuir and Caerketton on the Edinburgh side. We weren't really banking on so much snow. The intial climb up to the firing range was nice shallow powdery snow, two fell runners passed us heading up.

A bit of a bitter wind and driving snow made things a little unpleasant, it stopped but the cloud remained.

The further up we went the, deeper the snow got. It was quite drifty, so some fairly deep patches. Then we passed the fell runners heading back down, they had turned back, we soon found out why!

We battled to the the bottom of the last pull up to Allermuir, spoke briefly to a skier who was making better progress than us then decided to turn back. It had taken quite a while to get there, would take jut as long to get back and neither of us were prepared for anything more than a bimble. We could also see people coming down sinking and generally struggling in the deep snow. We needed snowshoes!

My lower legs were starting to get very cold too. We seemed to find even deeper snow on the way back, at one point Jez disappeared up to the top of his legs and had to crawl out, the same drift was up to my waist and had me crawling on knees and elbows commando style for a good ten metres before I found some shallower snow to stand up in (then fell over again on the next step).

It really was stunning and fun.

A few days away...

We headed up to Scotland for a few days last week. Didn't do too much really, a bit of a bimble in the Pentlands which was fun, I definitely need to try to get some running in on them. The clag was down as it usually is when we are on top of any hill in Scotland. By the time we were walking back along the valley floor towards the car the cloud had lifted clear of the tops. By the time we came out of the Flotterstone Inn after some food it was blue sky and sunshine, typical.



I also managed to scare myself silly on the Aerial Assault course at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, only 10 minutes away from my folks. A video here, I was made to go first and my face was apparently just as much of a picture. I have to confess to having a raging hangover which really, really didn't help and also meant I didn't actually get any climbing in! However, I was getting vertigo just watching people climb, those walls are huge!



I would recommend it but not with a hangover, swinging around does nothing to settle the stomach.

Glentress Red

I headed up to Scotland for a family/friends visit last Thursday. I took my On One (as Titus not rebuilt) and my road bike on the chance that I could get some time riding. I knew my best chance was to get to GT on Thursday on the way up though.


I calculated that if I was away by 4pm, 3 hours to get there and get riding by 7:15 I should have enough time for a couple of hours with the extra Scottish daylight. I didn't leave work until 4:40, d'oh. As it was such a nice evening I still headed over there seemingly forgetting its still a long way from Moffat over to Peebles once off the M74.

I think I started riding at about 7:45, oops needed not to faff then did precisely that all the way up to Spooky Wood! Partly I had lowered my saddle quite a bit to see it it made any difference to my left piriformis (for it is that that was causing the problems in Switzerland) but that just made for hard work pedalling and seemed to aggravate it more? It ended up back up to a more normal height for the climb.

I had my Shuffle with me but was quite frankly dawdling and feeling a little drained, I almost came to a standstill on one of the switchbacks I was so dozy, I was also singing at one point though I don't think any one heard me. There were still quite a few people out and about in there. A bit of a foodstop at the top of the Spooky Wood climb, such a nice evening. Along to Spooky Wood and had great fun on the berms and I only got badly buckaroo'd on one tabletop (I can't/won't jump).

It was a little gloomy in the trees as I worked my way down. I decided against the Pie Run shortcut as I'd done that last time. The tree cover seems to get more dense towards the bottom and I ended up putting my saddle down a bit because I couldn't make out trail detail very well in the rapidly fading light and it gave me a chance to throw my weight back when I hit something.

The very last section before the car park was very black, sometimes I really couldn't see anything and just had to hope as I fell into dips and bounced off roots. It was still excellent fun if a little silly.

As I rolled back into the car park the light had seriously faded and the moon was up properly. I hurried to pack the car up as I had about a 35-40 minute drive to get to my folks. I finally rocked up there at 10:30 pm to a worried mother (sorry mum).

As it turned out I didn't get the chance to get out for any more riding so I was so pleased I had made the effort to go.

The Weekend...

...didn't quite go as I planned it. I spent most of it sleeping it would seem and not much else. I had originally hoped to ride at Glentress on the way up on Friday but hitting the wall on Thursday's run meant I was too hungry and tired on Friday morning to contemplate it.

I thought about trying to get out for a spin on the roadie but the front tyre had a puncture when I checked it on Friday morning - it was flat on Thursday but I pumped it up in case the valve hadn't been tightened up properly. I CBA'd breaking my thumbs trying to change it on Friday morning so it stayed in the garage.

I was finishing packing up the car around lunchtime on Friday and I decided to put the radio on for a bit only to hear the traffic news and they had just kindly shut the M6 in both directions between 32 and 33 - Oh FFS! Just what I needed.

As there is no real alternative to the M6 between Preston and Lancaster I thought I might as well head off and see what progress I could make (not much). It was announced southbound had reopened as the air ambulance had taken off but 2 lanes northbound would be shut til at least 4 pm apparently and there was also another accident on the northbound carriageway to add to melee.

I decided to head across to Kirkham then pick up the A6 near Garstang, which would likely be rammed but I was going to be queueing wherever I went and I figured it wasn't going to get any better as the afternoon wore on.

Driving through the centre of Lostock Hall I suddenly heard this horrendous grinding and banging noise. I thought I had run over something and pulled over asap, got out the car and discovered the back box of my exhaust was being dragged along the ground - oh FFS! I couldn't believe it! Bloody Car. I was kind of in the way so I drove it, grinding and all into the car park in the town centre.

Two young lads sat in Corsa stared at me as I drove past and wandered over and asked if "I realised my exhaust was hanging off" I answered I did indeed know, which was why i was in the car park. They offered to look at it for me (don't think they can do much), which they did, then got a screwdriver out of their car and detached the dangling exhaust from my car. What a couple of stars.

I was at least able to drive it home now without a shower of sparks following me, having travelled all of about half a mile from home. I then had a bit of a dilemma, take Jez's Audi or stay here. I was a bit wary of taking the Audi, its his new toy, I'm not having a good day with machines and it averages 20 miles to the bloody gallon! I decide to take it, I need to get used to driving it anyway.

After a bit of faff swapping stuff over, it may be an estate but it is smaller than my Mondeo land barge, I set off again into the worsening traffic. Suffice to say it took me the best part of two hours to get to 33, at least it was sunny.

A boring and completeley fuel inefficient drive up to Scotland I'm getting the hang of the car, apart from the extra gear and very occasionally enjoying the stupid acceleration on it (though not watching fuel consumption plummet like a stone, 5 mpg !). Most of the time I drove like a pensioner. The tank was half full setting off and I had to refuel before I got to Carlisle.

Friday night was spent catching up with friends to the early hours of Saturday morning then a few hours sleep and more catching up. I then was feeling very tired so decided t go back to my folks for a bit of a lie down before tea. It was just getting dark as I was dozing off, I opened my eyes and it was light again. A "bit of a lie down" turned into about 12 hours of unconsciousness. What a great sleep it was too.

I managed to sleep like a log on Sunday night too. I came straight back down on the Monday to get on with sorting my stupid car out, trying to drive sensibly but I still had to fill the bloody thing up again today.

Thursday 11th Sept: Glentress Red

We had a quick blast round the GT Red on the way home on Thursday to break the journey up. We worked out we hadn't ridden here since September 2006 and wondered what they had changed.

My legs were still quite shot from Monday's walk, my quads were utterly destroyed by it. Setting off up the new climb they had put in my legs felt like they'd been injected with lactic acid from the start, ow, ow, ow. This new climb was more enjoyable than the old and they'd put some obstacles in so it was now a typical 7 stanes "technical" climb: tarmac smooth with the odd obstacle then.

I rode all the switch backs very well on the up (and down) and really enjoyed the climb even though I couldn't push as hard as I really wanted. We flew down Spooky Wood then continued on down. Some of the older sections of this trail have really bedded down/eroded which has made them a lot less predictable, I liked that. We took the the Pie Run section and managed to get caught out by a back wheel spin on a root, as did Jez and a million other people judging by how clean and polished the root was.

Then it seemed quickly over as we were on the Falla Brae section, which has always been one of my favourites, a nice a fast drop to the car park and a huge slice of carrot cake.

A quick blast but GT is definitely a place I prefer coming to with a group of friends, its a bit samey otherwise, unless your into launching yourself off things which I am not. I actually think I prefer C-y-B as there is more technical interest without big jumps and woodwork constructions. GT "flows" better apparently but then I often find flow a euphemism for "boring".

Monday 8th Sept: Ben Vane Walk

We fancied doing a walk in Scotland and I decided on Ben Vane in the Arrochar Alps, a Munro but only just. We had already walked Ben Lomond, The Cobbler and Ben Narnain in the same area and enjoyed them.

We set off around 9.30 from my folks house to miss the rush hour through Glasgow but still had to contend with some numpty driving down the side of Loch Lomond. It was very grey when we parked up at Inveruglas. I had decided to wear my big boots as they would keep more bog out. We had a long walk in on some access track for the hydro power station before we got to the hill.

My boots felt like they weighed a ton as did my bag as I had a full set of waterproofs in them as well as the usual stuff. It was easy walking for a while and we gained some height on this road. My hip was niggling a little bit but after a while I forgot about it.

Looking at the map of the area the contrast between it and a map of the Lake District was quite stark. There were lots of close together contours on this map and very little else by way of track markings. A map of the Lakes would be a spider web of footpaths and bridleways (though not enough of the latter) and it would be easy to see where to head. We could see tracks leading off in various directions but they were not necessarily marked on the map. You can pretty much walk or ride where you like in Scotland just don't expect anyone to tell you where the paths are.

There was a path marked up the hill and we eventually found it, though I think it has now been abandoned as a main ascent choice. We headed upwards through some long marsh grass, following some occasionally flattened grass patches and old rotting planks which had served as bridges over the stream in the past. We headed for a plateau and as we crossed it we suddenly found ourselves on a well tramped path, well relatively and bloody hell it was steep!

Everytime I walk in Scotland I seem to forget how hard it is, I always blank out the fact that the ascents I've done so far have been without fail unrelenting and steep and absolutely leg destroying on the descent. We looked up at the track then started heading up, into the rain. The cloud was now firmly ensconsed higher up and we realised our chances of a view were nil. It was too warm to consider putitng waterproofs on so we just got wet and kept climbing..and climbing.

We met some people coming down who told us there was some interesting scrambling moves at the top, they weren't kidding! I had noticed on the map there were at least two false summits and we topped out on one without too much difficulty, you could see then next lump hiding in the mist so we carried on and things got a little more interesting.

A few, very technical moves on wet rock made me wonder about coming back down...my stiff boots were protecting my feet well from the rock but I found the complete lack of feel and stiffness a little annoying. We topped out on the second "lump" and wondered if we were at the top, I didn't think so but the cloud was so thick at this point we couldn't see anything. We carried on and another large lump loomed out of the cloud. Upwards again to even more tricky wet scrambling.

We finally topped out onto the summit plateau and saw...absolutely nothing, I could just about make out Jez and the cairn at the other side:

After all that walking a typical Scottish view, ah well. We decided to head down and descend all the tricky scrambling before having some food. I found the descent surprisingly easy and it didn't take us long to get back on to the "path". We had some food and soup and continued down the descent. We dropped out of the cloud and had a nice view across Loch Lomond and could also see Loch Arkle and Loch Katrine behind. The tops were still covered in cloud and remained that way even when we were down.

We reached the plateau again and decided to look around for a more defined path and we found it, it dropped down to the road we walked up but closer to the car. Its the kind of path you would have to know was there as it wasn't that obvious across the top of the plateau and when we'd reached the road it was quite hard to spot even though we had just descended it.

A nice easy walk back to the car and a stop in the poshed up Inverbeg Inn for a post walk pint and chips to let the traffic die down a bit through Glasgow.