Braemar Epic

Wonderful to be with great friends again for the first time this year as “covid lockdown” eases. Both safely staying in our camping vans in the beautiful town of Braemar.

Sharon had found a mountain bike route in a magazine which looked a reasonable length and took in a mixture of terrain. We are clearly out of practice or we’d have remembered that routes in MBR magazine can often be “epic” adventures and the route map should be carefully reviewed for obstacles (river crossings) and large climbs (how close are those contour lines ?!?).

The first half of the ride was up the gorgeous Glen Callater valley. After a quick look at Loch Callater sparking in the sunshine, we headed up Beach Buidhe which first required crossing the burn. The burn was wide, full and fast flowing with no bridge. Socks and shoes off, a refreshing walk over and much laughing (someone left the rucksack on the wrong side!), and we were over. Back on the bikes we cycled up towards a load of people shooting grouse. Sharon had her bright jacket on to make sure we were clearly visible. The single track down the other side back to the A93 was stunning although very technical riding with a severe drop off to one side.

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And that was only the first half! We had a lunch snack along Clunie Water and then started the second climb up to the mast on Morrone of Morven. There were several points on this climb where we almost turned back as it was so steep we had to push the bikes most of the way up. But luckily (or unluckily) each of us had these moments at different times so we managed to convince each other to keep going. Many walkers coming down the other way stared in amazement. The views at the top and the cycle down made it worth it though and Illya and Paul had the biggest grins on their faces all the way down.

32k, 1038m of climbing, 6 hours (including stops)