I finally managed to do something I’ve been hoping to do for a long time – get up to Aviemore to sample some of the much-acclaimed natural riding on offer! I got the train from Glasgow a 7.06 on Monday to get up there nice and early, stay the night in the Aviemore Bunkhouse then back again after 7pm on Tuesday so I could fit in 2 days of riding.
Rothiemurchus & Glen Feshie
34.36 miles
8.4 mph average
For day one I followed a route from What Mountain Bike, much the same as this route here. It started off with some really great riding around Loch an Eiliein. At least, it would be great if the weather was a bit dryer. It was raining and there were wet slidey roots everywhere!
Roots. Bloody roots.
Even while walking the rootiest parts of the Singletrack or taking the main walkway instead the views were fantastic so the the ride was off to a brilliant start.
Loch an Eilein
Swinging round to Loch Gahmna brought more tasty singletrack. This time it was narrow, lined with heather, and had no real roots with just enough rocks to provide the fun. It was very very muddy in sections though.
Loch Gamhna
After Loch Gamhna the route follows another wider and rockier trail past Inshriach Bothy and then onto forest roads leading to Feshie Bridge. From Feshie Bridge the route then follows a road for about 5 miles, followed by 1km of trail (with a burn crossing) and then a bridge across River Feshie to… more tarmac! There’s a mix of tarmac and uninteresting walkway back to Feshiebridge, making the second half of this ride quite pointless! As good as the short section of trail was, it wasn’t worth almost 10 miles of road to ride it!
Instead of following the magazine route along the road back from Feshie Bridge I decided to retrace my steps and ride the same great trails in the opposite direction to finish the day on a high.
Loch Morlich & Badaguish
32.39 miles
Also staying in the hostel that night was another biker riding solo, so the two of us went out together on Tuesday. I found a map of some trails near Badaguish Outdoor Centre somewhere on the internet so we planned to head in that direction. Firstly I showed him the loops around Loch an Eilein and Loch Gamhna then we followed the path network through Rothiemurchus towards Loch Morlich, crossing the often mentioned Cairngorm Club Footbridge in the process. This was actually a great fun section considering they were fairly well surfaced paths. There was a few good streams to ford too (there were bridges across all of them but we took the fun route.)
By Loch Morlich I was nackered, mostly from the long day before, so I was glad we stopped at the cafe for coffee & cake. We (okay, I, the fashion victim without any mudguards) was very muddy so intended to sit outside but the woman kindly let us sit inside with binbags to keep the chairs clean!
The cafe was the perfect place for a rest as the hill up to Badaguish started just across the road. Eventually, after climbing a long way, we reached the start of the trails. And I have to say they were fantastic! It’s a series of small sections that lead out and back to the main forest road, some of which weren’t much different to the local trails at at Carbeth but the natural forest was much nicer and the trails didn’t seem to be very muddy at all. We rode the whole loop twice, including one section 4 times. The end of one section had some rocky steps that I wasn’t quite brave enough to attempt but the rest of the trails seemed to be just my perfect level.
I don’t think there’s much left to be said apart from some photos, but I’d definitely go back here. Hopefully before the year is done!
One of the highlights on the highest section – the loop we rode 4 times.
The section I couldn’t ride looks so easy in photo!
It was that big snakey root that made it a bit sketchy
Even the forest road looked good
