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Hi,
Myself and a couple of mates are looking at a one-night biking trip in the hills (it'd be a Fri pm-Sat pm). We'll be using hammocks preferably, or a tarp to bivvy under if we know there'll be no trees where we plan on stopping for the night. We'd like to include at least one munro (or at least a decent sized hill, a corbett would do) and some great views & descents, I was just wondering if anyone has any route suggestions? The more of the route that's rideable the better. Not too fussed about aiming for bothies, we'll just hope for good weather!
Based in Dundee, so a <2hour car journey would be good to maximise riding time.
Any ideas?
Cheers!
Do the classic Tyndrum to Loch Etive and then Taynuilt to get the train back? You could extend by starting at Crianlarich, camping on shores of Etive is in lots of trees IIRC>
Keen to do a circular route to avoid needing a train or anything, but will bear it in mind, cheers!
Mt Keen or Lochnagar loops (or both combined into a big loop) staying amongst the trees on Deeside somewhere? Or into the Cairngorms proper from Linn of Dee or the Quoich? Not so meany hammock spots around those munros though. Maybe a bit too close for you- perhaps you'll have done those too many times and looking for something more exotic...
Tour de Cairngorms: Start at Linn of Dee, ride west to Feshie, overnight in Rothiemurchus, say near the wooden bothy at the south side of the Inschriach section. Day two begins with the bothy trail to Loch an Eilean, then ride past Glenmore (cafe) to Ryvoan, south on the Lairig an Laoigh, Derry Lodge and finish back at the Linn.
Getting in a (reasonably sensible) big summit while carrying bivvy gear is ambitious, but certainly not impossible, especially around Angus or Deeside.
The sense of travelling and achievement in the route above is wonderful and it includes some properly interesting singletrack over two long days out.
Alternatively, get out your maps of the Angus glens and try to create a route there...
One easier example might be Tarfside, Fungle, camp in the forest, return in a leisurely fashion up Tannar and home via Mt Keen. That's a good day ride but could make a very chilled out overnighter. Just don't set fire to the forest..
Bear in mind that the presence of trees could favour the Midge. Out in the open with a good breeze could be preferable.
camping on shores of Etive is in lots of trees
We camped there last summer. The midges were some of the worst I have ever encountered. Avoid.
A few weeks back we did a one-night circular trip (with Ben Macdui as the centre of the circle) from the Linn of Dee; it was absolutely brilliant, cracking weather all the time and we bivvied on the shores of Loch an Eilein. That worked out as just less than 60miles I think (will need to dig out the Strava records), so something of that magnitude would be ideal. There's plenty of other hills in the area that we avoided so I'm open to any other suggestions round there, certainly not seen/done everything there 🙂
At work so can't check OS maps, but was wondering if there could be potential in parking at Glen Doll Ranger centre, doing Jock's Road towards Braemar, then coming back towards Lochnagar for the night, then towards Loch Muick in the morning, then back to Glen Doll?
Jock's road northbound is hard enough work with just a bike, taking bivvy gear as well will just be a ball ache. If you have a strong desire to be up in that area, I'd suggest camping at the bridge at Bachnagairn then get an early start to go over Broad Cairn, then Bannoch, Tollmount, Tom Buidhe, Mayar and back down the Kilbo path into Clova. Alternatively, make it a bit bigger and stop down at Callater as your overnight stop before climbing Tuirc for the opener to your day two, then head for Claise, TB, Finalty, Mayar etc.
You'll maybe notice that I'm only suggesting low level bivvy sites. Planning to camp at high level is risky, as you may be tempted to go anyway when the conditions are less than favourable. Navigation in these hills is far from easy. By going high, you may get an awesome sunrise ride and morning experience. You may also experience the worst that the mountains can throw at you, so proceed with great caution while planning.
Thanks, I'll have a look at both those routes when I whip the maps out.
Fair shout about exposure, we've been out a fair few times now and are aware of the risks; we always have a plan B overnight spot just in case we get typical Scottish weather 😆
As I said, the first option is hammocking, so we'll probably end up fairly low level anyway to find enough trees for the three of us.