Fast forward quite a few years and Claire and I have arrived in Braemar for the start of our summer holiday; with bikes. I have brought Andruil the mountain bike and Claire had brought her hybrid. After a quick ride yesterday we elected to switch the hybrid and hire Claire a mountain bike - from the same shop. Here all similarities ended; a lovely Trek was procured and tested and we were ready to go.
Claire has not done a lot of biking recently - however we had a reasonable pace along the 8 miles of the walk in; until we hit the ford. The ford is over the Geldie Burn - I remember it being bloody cold in October; luckily it was a fair bit warmer. I got suckered into trying a bit of a fancy way to cross; which still landed us with wet feet. From there we cycled a little bit further into the hills - one more pure singletrack this time. The path was constructed but much narrower than the path I remembered. From a point where we left the bikes, it was time to go on foot.
Carn Ealar from the walk in |
The first part of the walk was nice and pleasant; gaining height gently as we followed the path and then dropping down to the burn that flows from the col between the peaks. Carn Ealar was the first peak we aimed for; a quite stiff climb on what was becoming a warm day. Oddly there is no real path; the peak can be climbed from several directions, so we picked a line up, interspersed with a lunch stop along the way.
An Sgarsoch from Carn Ealar |
Sgor Gaoith from An Sgarsoch |