So did the weekend away happen? I hope it did. Marky Mark and I were down riding High Street yesterday and it was stunning. Great weather and dusty trails. Gutted that I wasn’t able to get down for the whole weekend. Brilliant day out.

After a magic spin on the crosser last night out to Wheelcraft, I’m keen to get out again tonight. However, Lennox on a warm night with midges isn’t really floating my boat so I was thinking of heading up the Whangie or the Knockie Buckle. The weather is looking stunning as are trail conditions. Any takers? Planning on taking the camera as I’m hoping the views will be even better than the ones we were treated to a couple of weeks ago when we were last up the Whangie.

Sanny

“Ben Lawers on Sunday?” I texted Ross. Knowing his love for the area, I knew the thought of some hikey bike munro bashing would not be a hard sell. With blue skies before us, we left Glasgow just after 7.30 in the morning reaching Killin before 9 where we bumped into Shearer at the coffee shop. Cue one unplanned stop for bacon rolls as our guide for the ride, Alex aka Captain Mainwaring was running late for our scheduled start point at the Lawers Inn.

A quick pre ride faff and we were soon spinning back along the road towards the Lawers Visitor Centre Car Park. To our right was the hulking lump that is the Ben Lawers Massif and our target for the day, Beinn Ghlass and Ben Lawers. The two and a half mile road climb was despatched with relative ease – the gradually easing gradient making for a pleasant climb up through the trees and out onto the open moor. Reaching where the visitor centre should have been, I was surprised to see that it had been demolished since I was last up. With nary a snack van to be found, hopes of a mid ride coffee break were dashed. Unperturbed, we started on the off road climb proper. Winding its way across the moor, the trail was an absolute delight to ride. I’d been expecting a push and carry from the start – instead, we enjoyed a mostly rideable trail alternating between exposed rocks and hard packed dirt all the way up to the split. Passing by a fair number of walkers including one particularly cheery Scandinavian woman who probably thought we were stalking her judging by the number of times we kept passing each other, everyone we encountered seemed in good humour and enjoying a glorious day on the hills.

Regrouping at the path split, the Captain whipped up the excitement factor. Pointing to a ribbon of trail snaking down from the Bealach, talk of a 5km continuous descent came to the fore. Suitably psyched, bikes were shouldered for the carry up to the summit of Meall Ghlass, a great test for my new Shimano walking boots. Not one for letting common sense and experience interfere with a bad decision, I’d chosen this ride as their first outing – blisters and sore feet be damned! Thankfully, the boots proved to be a great fit and seemed to find grip over the loose, rocky trail all the way up to the summit. Progress was remarkably quick – the steep gradient making for rapid height gain though Ross was suffering from post Yoga sore legs for much of it. To be fair though, he plugged away without complaint and got to the top just as quickly as the rest of us. Probably the bad chat and Amy Winehouse jokes spurred him on! Though not one for today, on the way up we all took turns at spotting lines down some of the steeper more technical sections. Step downs and stone pitching made for what would certainly be some full on mountain riding and worthy of a return trip.

Cresting the summit, bikes were dropped and rations broken out – the bacon and black pudding roll I’d bought at the café being a mighty fine reward for the effort thus far. Pictures were taken and the view in all its technicolour HD glory taken in. From beyond Ben Nevis to the north west to the Pentlands and Tinto Hill to the south and East, we were in big sky country and were feeling mighty smug at having picked the perfect day to go up with the bikes. Of course, we were only one summit down meaning we had a descent and climb to follow. The descent drops perhaps only 100 vertical metres but feels like much longer. Flow is an oft used expression but this had it by the bucket load. We weren’t going too fast though we did have one walker caution us to be careful – which was nice! At the bealach, the final summit push started up the main track. Lines were committed to memory. “That looks doable” was the phrase of the day. Stopping to chat to a fellow walker, he jovially commented that there was no road at the top. In my best Dr Emmett Brown voice, I couldn’t help but reply “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!” His wry smile denoted a fellow fan of Back to the Future! As with Beinn Ghlass, progress to the summit cairn was quick and relatively pain free though the gusting wind at the top meant we took shelter in the lea of the hill for the inevitable food stop. “Twix eh? Don’t mind if I do!” It’s not often that Scotland comes up trumps weather wise but the views were sensational as we kicked back against the rocky summit outcrop and watched the passing scene.

This being a ride and not a walk, we could only put off the beckoning calls of the descent for so long. After stopping for a walker to take a pic of Ross and I at the summit with our bikes (though only after he assured us that the pics weren’t for some special interest website), we headed down the descent. “You go first!” encouraged Shearer, obviously valuing my presence in the manner of a crash test dummy. Cheers for that, fella! The descent was definitely on the technical side of steep and technical. Poorly placed water bars in a couple of places and the occasional strong gust of wind briefly impeded progress but the slow speed trialsy descent (with fork locked out to stop it from diving) made for an absolute belter of a passage down. For a rider of 55 who has only been riding for a few years and who protests of his lack of technical skills, the Captain seemed to be in his element. Reaching the bealach crash free, we were all grinning like ejits! “That’s better than Ben Lomond!” I exclaimed. We had barely even started the descent proper yet we were already taking cheesy grins to Commonwealth standard. As good as that was, what followed was even better – a thin ribbon of footpath skirted round the side of Beinn Ghlass – hard packed with the occasional rock step, it reminded me of a trail high above Verbier on the way to Pierre Avoir. Damn, this trail had flow by the bucket load. Even a stop for Shearer’s exploding tubeless tyre – trust me, the sight of a man pumping up a frothing tube is one that scars your for life, did nothing to interrupt what is surely one of the finest singletrack descents around.

The smug grins were at Olympic levels by the time we got back to the car park. “Is that in your top ten rides?” asked the Captain. Before I had time to reflect, Ross butted in with a “that was brilliant!” Given that he had done the ride twice before, we ribbed him for having kept it to himself just how good it was. As it was only early afternoon and with the sun in awesome day mode, we decided to extend the ride by dropping down the road descent for a short road bash back towards the Lawers Inn where we could turn off for another big climb. Stopping at a gate by the road side, Ross was hesitant about the climb. “I think I might just head back but you guys should continue”, he said. After a little gentle persuasion and some shockingly unscrupulous threats “ Ross, what will I call the ride report? How about Ross’s Shame as the title?”, he ignored his sore legs and joined us for the 1300 feet of land rover track climb to the
water culvert track high above us. The sun was blazing down on us with Shearer finding it particularly hot though for me, after two weeks of riding in Mallorca in temperatures up to 47, 25 degrees felt really pretty pleasant in comparison. Cresting the top of the climb, the culvert track gently followed the contour of the hill round into the valley below An Stuc. Spotting three walkers off trail, Ross did his good biker thing and checked that they weren’t lost. A true gent. Rejoining us, we donned pads for the final descent of the day. A glorious grassy descent that follows the course of the Lawers Burn. As a descent, it was almost a match for the first big descent of the day – again, though not technical, it had that tangible feeling of flow that all the best trails have and seemed to go on for ages. Popping out at the road side beside the antler shop, a two minute spin saw us back at the cars. We’d been out for 7 hours. We’d climbed and descended nearly 6000 feet. Was it an epic? Well, nobody lost an eye so not quite but it was a fantastic and memorable day out. However, the Lawers Inn tipped it into epic status – the quality and portions size of the post ride food we had were tremendous. Shearer’s veggie bake was the size of his head while Ross couldn’t finish his meal much to our amusement, prompting the obligatory piss taking that follows such things. You know you’ve hit pay dirt when Ross leaves a pile of chips on his plate and the barmaid tells you that they have to use an even bigger plate when the sell steak! Happy days! All told, it was a great day out. The Captain had shown us some great riding and a terrific post ride pub. As Shearer would put it, “Legend!”

I’ve roughly marked out the route, from Kenny Wilson’s book, here.  Weather looks to be excellent.  Meet at Blair Atholl, I’d suggest that we’re ready to ride by 1030.  So far looks like Elizabeth + friend, Grant, and me.  Any other takers?

Hi all,

My road bike has been feeling left out this year and especially during the last few days of the Tour de France.

I don’t have the time to attend an away/epic ride on Sunday (I would love too), so does anyone fancy a 30-50 mile ride starting early. I need to be back for 2pm, so a 10am start? I’m up for route suggestions too, I was gonna do the Crow, Carron Valley & Tak probably in reverse this time.

Thanks

Barry