Those of you who do mountain biking may remember a magazine called Mountain Bike Rider (MBR). Each month they used to publish an “epic” bike route which, as the name suggests, was long and challenging and often in a remote location. This weekend we ended up doing an epic ride from which we and exhausted but thoroughly enjoyed it.
Every month the North East “fat bike” club meet for a social ride. Although we live a long way from most of the members, we enjoy being out in a group riding on our fat bikes. (Note “Fat” refers to the tyre size and not the size of the rider!). This month the ride was 45km long and in a remote part of the Cairngorm National Park, starting at Corgarff Castle near Cock Bridge.
As the start point was 2.5 hrs from home we decided to drive up on Saturday and spend the night at Braemar so we’d be close by on Sunday morning. As we packed the van up in pouring rain we decided to test the waterproof rear door cover we had purchased to keep the rain out in exactly this situation. Good thing we were in high spirits as the test wasn’t so successful and we ended up getting quite wet but at least we have a plan now of how to amend the design and make it better. A blog of that adaptation to come soon….
We do love Braemar as it is such a beautiful town and surrounding area. We got a few hours break in the rain and managed to do a short walk to the top of a local hill overlooking the town. The autumn views did not disappoint. And on the way back through town Illya did a bit of shopping and updated his winter jacket to make sure he was all prepared – the mountain ash trees are laden with red berries this year which is supposedly a sign of a harsh winter ahead.
On Sunday we met the bike club and 11 of us did the epic ride. Gorgeous views, great chat and very tired legs from all the hills. But it has inspired us to do more adventures like this.
Wee Van Tour 