Ride - Scotland, Forest of Mar
Where
This is my fifth trip to a remnant of the ancient pinewoods of Scotland and my last of the four in Deeside. This is one of my favorites because of the journey. The track is straight forward with a bit of a climb in places, lots of water and a bit of wildlife. I saw many red squirrel and what looked like a black grouse (hope that’s it’s name.
There are three parts to the Mar section of the old forest, namely Glen Luibeg, Glen Derry and Glen Quoich. I parked at the Lin of Dee car park , rode east on the tarmac road and took the sharp LH turn up toward the Doir Bhraghdad and from there into Glen Luibeg, then back down and up into Glen Derry. The track into Glen Luibeg was straight forward but the track in Glen Derry was a peaty, mushy nightmare. I made it about half way up, sliping, sinking and losing traction everywhere before I decided that discretion in the face of the deteriorating weather was the better part of valour.
I didn’t make it into Glen Quoich time before the rain set i. I’ll go back and maybe head up into Glen Dee towards the Lairig Ghru for an over-nighter.
The Ancient Pinewoods of Scotland is the go-to text for finding out about these old woods. In it the authors state that there “was a substantial felling in the 18th century, with logs taken to a sawmill built near the Linn of Dee and the timber then floated down the river to Aberdeen. Further fellings took place during the two World Wars. Much of the pine woodland in Glenn Derry and Glen Quoich grew up after these fellings. Subsequently, heavy grazing from deer and sheep would have prevented natural regeneration, leaving the evenly aged trees of about 200 years old that we see today. There are some older trees in Glen Derry which escaped the fellings and are estimated to have started life in the 1450s…”
Gallery
Gear and Nutrition
There’s a little to be said about SurPug’s gears, my clothing and my nutrition.
First the gears. I cycled up and down with essentially 2x5 gearing. The top four gears on the cassete are unusable because the deraileur just jumps all the time. The main issue is that I have access to the granny gear for the climbs and I have that. Next season I’m switching to a 1x11 setup.
Clothing worked well. The biggest issue was the really (really) wet conditions on boggy tracks. My shoes were soaked, flooded actually, but my feet were saved by good waterproof socks. Otherwise I used long trousers and a single baselayer under an outer Goretex shell.
For nutrition, I went with the following:
Breakfast - fratatta and coffee
Electrolyte drink
Immediately before ride - Ucan Performance Energy starch
During ride - Ucan hydrate and leftover starch
During ride - Ucan anytime energy bar
After ride - Ucan hydrate in the car park followed by full breakfast at Braemar cafe
I may repeat this nutritional regime..I did survive