Ride - Scotland, Linn of Dee, Forest of Mar, Lairig Ghru, Glen Dee
The uncertainty of what the day will bring is one of the great challenges, and indeed attractions, of new fatbike rides. I spend a reasonable amount of time looking at maps of my destination (I like maps) and at Ridewith GPS and I pay attention to contour lines to prepare myself for hard climbs or long climbs. What I don’t get from either resource is a description of the state of the tracks. Are thay rocky, rooty, boggy or otherwise un-rideable? With those sources, I just have to turn up on the day and give it a shot. Mind you, if I’d bothered to look up Linn of Dee on Trailforks.com, I’d have found this:
Linn of Dee is a poorly rated 16 km less popular black singletrack trail located near Braemar. This mountain bike primary trail and has a hard overall physical rating with a 268 m black diamond climb. On average it takes 3 hours56 minutes to complete this trail.
Ah well, next time I’ll try to be better prepared.
Where
I parked the car at the Linn of Dee NTS car park and rode from there up through the wood and over to the wooden bridge that crosses the Lui Water. From there it’s an easy gravel ride up Glen Lui and then over another bridge at Derry Lodge and NW through Gleann Laoigh Bheag. I decided to take the Luibeg footbridge rather than the shortcut through the ford and that’s where the fun began. The approach to the bridge, much of the trail towards Corrour Bothy, and leading away from the bothy is un-rideable bog or rocks and occasionally both. That’s why a ride that I thought might take three hours tops took more than four.
The first sights of Glen Geusachan and especially the Lairig Ghru coming around the side of Carn a’ Mhaim are pretty spectacular and worth the haul.
There are no steep climbs or long slow climbs on this loop but its technical nature makes it one of the most gruelling I’ve done in a long time.
Gallery
Gear and Nutrition
It was a cold start that warranted long pants and three upper layers but not so cold that I needed full gloves. I shed the top layer after a couple of miles and settled into a comfortable, warming pace.
Cold air saps batteries in things like smart phones and headlights so the trick is to keep them out of the cold as much as possible. In winter, I carry my phone under my top next to skin for body heat.
Calories are becoming an issue for me again now that I’m combining weight training with longer rides. I’m going to start using Ucan superstarch before every session of an hour or more.