Carn a' Mhaim and Sron Riach...

Some of you will have seen the photos of the floods that hit the Cairngorms last month - with the bridge over at Derry Lodge washed away and the Luibeg ford now impassable....this is from a slightly different time of year!!

For our next excursion of the summer trip Claire and I elected to go onto the main part of the plateau. I had done Carn a' Mhaim one winters day (which really brought home the advantage of bikes on the ride in from Lin o' Dee), but the supposedly narrow ridge to Beinn MacDui was something I'd never done. Also, the 'top' of Sron Riach was one that I needed to add to my collection - Claire of course does NOT tick Munro's (or so she tells all and sundry)-  and the walk made an excellent circuit. It also enabled us to get a close up of Coire Sputean Dearg, an idea we had for this trip was to do some rock-climbing in the big cores - the heat put paid to that.

Derry Cairngorm from the shoulder of Carn a'Mhaim

The morning was another scorcher as we tootled the bikes in from Lin of Dee. Claire was on the hired trek (the last time she would use it) and I was on Andruil. The midges were out in the car-park but one big advantage of cycling is that one gets rid of them - as we did. We went beyond Derry Lodge as we'd been told you can cycle quite a way along the Luibeg path. You can, although it's not easy and full-marks to Claire for her determination and no little skill on this section. A couple of short, steep loose climbs and descents were you have to trust the bike. All pretty easy for me as I have years of mtb experience, Claire doesn't and she rode this very well. A lone tree is a convenient marker to leave the bikes, so we did. Once changed we sweated away on the walk. The path to the Luibeg burn is pretty flat, and it was still reasonably early in the morning - but it was still sweltering. This is one of the few days I can remember that even Claire said was hot - coming from her that is quite something indeed. There is a bridge over the Luibeg burn (which has survived the floods), however it's an extra km walk to get to and there is also a ford. Today - you wouldn't have even noticed. The heatwave of the past weeks meant you could simply splash across anywhere you wanted to. Once across the other side the path begins to climb across the shoulder of Cairn a' Mhaim. This peak is part of the MacDui massif, yet is a separate mountain in it's own right - separated by a drop of nearly 1800'.

Braeriach from near the summit

The path divides at this point - as the main path swings around into the Lairig Ghru and onwards to Coluymbridge and Aviemore. A smaller path, which we took, branches up the hill. It was slow but steady going - however the path seemed to be a lot better than I remember it from my winter ascent of several years ago. It was already hot (for me at least) and that necessitated a couple of stops on the way. The summit of the Carn was reached - with lovely views into the steep defile of the Lairig Ghru....awaiting us was the ridge.....

to be continued.......