The Burma Road 23rd July 2010
We set off from Dalraddy and went up the Burma Road, tea in Carbridge and back along the Spey way. Ice cream in boat of Garten. Simply the best route ever.
Up the track from Alvie House 20th July 2010
Another attempt to find a circular route from up the hill and back again. We set off early as we were on a bit of a deadline…I had to be in Inverness bt 7pm to meet some wedding clients so had to get back in time to brush up. We headed straight up to the locked gate that we reached the other day and by good team work managed to get the bikes over the gate. despite my bad back. We continued up the track and came across a wonderful bothy – see pictures, later up the track we met two walkers who had stayed at another bothy near the spot where the elusive track should be found. the man said there was a track…his woman seamed less sure. At the top of a steep hill we pondered…was there a track..roger doubted we could ride back up the track ……it was very loose and steep. We went for it and headed down to the rickety bridge. We had lunch but could only see a faint track through the grass….it soon disappeared, we retraced our steps and went over the bridge then forded two streams but much searching and a push up hill did not lead to any track. reluctantly we headed back the way we came. roger pushing his bike up the loose track. and back to the Alvie house track. luckily the gate was open for the return. it had been raining hard and roger had a bit of a fall and hurt his elbow. we arrived back in time to get spruced up before my meetings.
A long day ………it wet….. 19th July 2010
It was dry when we set off but not for long. We attempted this route last year but Roger had a major mechanical failure with his chain, and so it was abandoned. We followed the spey way from Aviemore stopping to look at houses and Bungalows and a steam train in the station which then left and passed us. By the time we got to Boat of Garten it was pouring , we took shelter in a beer tent left over from the steam rally the day before …had a sandwich and coffee as no tea shop could be found. A debate to continue or not . We decided to bat on regardless. I was pretty wet anyway. We continued through Abernethy forest to Nethy Bridge…no tea room and on passed the spot of the bike in a gorse bush incident last year and on through the forest to Glenmore Tea and a scone before continuing round Loch Morlich and on with weary legs to Loch Elieen and beyond to find a bridge over the Spey but none was to be found so back to the car.
Total distance 60.47 km
Time 4 hours 36 minutes
Average speed 13.12 km/hour
Max speed 36.21 km/hour
The search for a good route up the Hill 17th July 2010
Today we set of from the caravan to find a follow a track up the hill. we left the Dalraddy and headed toward Kincraig along the road. We soon noticed a track on the left through the trees it went parallel to the road crossed over the quarry access road and carried on till it eventually came back to the road. We turned up a track passed Alvie school and then over the A9. The track soon became blocked by gates….we went through many with our bikes upended! one we had to lift the bikes over. the tracks became indistinct and grassy and steep with many gates!!!eventually we picked up a proper track that lead over a bridge and up towards the hill. We saw a Merlin and another bird of pray that we were not sure what it was. Eventually the road was blocked by a gate that could not be got through without lifting our bikes over. It had taken a lot longer to get there than we thought and we headed back via te tracks passed Alvie house and through the woods and we found a entrance to the top end of the caravan park by the chalets. A good trip. Nice for it not to be raining.
The hunt for the river crossing 16th July 2010
We set off from Dalraddy to see if we could ride to Aviemore without going on the main road. We took the track next to the entrance to the caravan site. It was a metalled road that lead right round the Hill with the /Duke of Gordon’s monument and back to the road. We couldn’t find a bridge over the river but we did go over a bridge over a stream that had a wooden trap to see what animals had gone over we think a mink trap it as part of a water vole conservation project. I had swapped my saddle for the one off my old bike and it was a mistake as it was sooo un-comfy. We returned to the caravan and swapped saddles back. We then went up the other way to spey bridge and Kincraig and back along the Badenoch and Strathsey way. We had two amazing sightings of Birds of prey first we saw a male hen harrier hovering for ages then later on we saw a osprey dive into the river Spey and then sit on some logs for ages eating something.
Roger looking at a male Hen Harrier
Road bike trip from Burton
We set off from Burton and headed to Yealand Warton Carnforth Nether Kellet Halton gresingham and Docker.
Clapham and Austwick 26th June 2010
First proper ride out with our new mountain bikes, would we get up the hill and through the tunnels without stopping????
We set off from the lay-by at Buck Haw Brow and set off up Brunton Road and then headed up the bridal way to Meldings Barn. We had been along this bridle way before but it had become very very over grown with nettles…time to be brave get your legs as high as you can and keep going! luckily it was down hill. We came to a ford and Roger …no guts no glory headed straight through and got his feet wet. nice bridal ways followed as we made our way only the Pennine way cycle route….definitely one for the future although we would need new touring bikes. Then along Thwaite Lane and down through the tunnels to Clapham and time for a bit of something at our usual cafe. scone with jam and a bacon buttie.
Back on the bikes again and the challenge of the tunnels and loose stones. the bikes did very very well and i got up with just one stop and roger would have done better but his saddle was too far back and his front wheel kept lifting up. One wonderful moment when a little shrew ran across the path in from of us. We went along Long lane, liking the bikes more and more as we went. We turned back on our selves and headed to Crummack and Wharfe down Wood Lane and hale Lane to Feizor and an Ice cream from the new tea room. Then back on our bikes and with by now quite weary legs over Feizor Thwaite and back to the car.
Cairngorm Mountain 29th march 2010
we had a Brilliant day on the hill, all the lifts were open although the bottom runs were a bit patchy. the rest of the mountain was wonderful, lovely snow…no ice at all. We stayed mostly on the Aonoch and west wall area. We skied down the Aonoch bowl from the M2 and the west wall. Later on in the afternoon we went down the White Lady. All in all an excellent day. My heel survived pretty well.
Bow Fell Buttress Langdale 8th March 2010
A good way to spend international Women’s day.
There have been hard frosts at night for the last week really but the day time temperatures have been getting up to 10 C. The sun is certainly getting a but more strength in it. We parked at the little lay bye at the back of the camp site and headed down Oxendale and up the Band. We left to go round the Climbers Traverse. The snow was quite varied it was quite sugary in the sun and crisp and frozen where it was in the shade. We soon found that we needed our crampons so we were quite hopeful that the gullies on the buttress would be in good condition. We saw quite a lot of old avalanche debris.
South gully looked to have very large cornices and as the top was in the sun we were weary of going up it. We thought that North Gully would be a more interesting prospect. The snow was quite soft and sugary at first. We headed up the gully. There was a small interesting pitch at the beginning and again towards the top. When we thought about it after we realised that the buttress faces north East and therefore gets the morning sun which explained why it was softer that other places that have been totally in the shade.
It was excellent anyway we then went up to the top of Bow Fell Buttress and then went over Crinkle Crags past great Knott and down to Oxendale. My heel was playing up quite a bit but is ok now.
Bow Fell from the valley floor. Bow Fell Buttress is on the right
Bow Fell Buttress and Bow Fell
Pike of Blisco from the Band
Bow Fell from the Band
Langdale Pikes from the Band
Pike of Blisco with Coniston Old Man behind
Avalanche Debris
Bow Fell Butress, North Gully on the right and South Gully on the left
Looking up North Gully
Looking down North Gully
Top of Bow Fell Buttress
Bow Fell Links
Cairngorm Mountain 2nd March 2010
Today was really great in the end but at first there were not many tows open only the Fiacaill ridge poma and the Car part T bar. the Digging had stopped on the funicular as they were going to blast the snow above the Coronation wall. We stopped to watch and nothing happened…..I think that we were expecting a massive avalanche but it was a bit of a damp squid. As we were watching someone didn’t feet the pomma back in and it put the tow out of action for a while. Luckily they opened the Corrie Cas T bar so we could play on that. the queues were quite large so we went over to the day lodge poma. there were not queues and we had a brilliant time going up and down there for a while. late on tin the day they opened up the M1 poa and so we got up to the top. the ptarmigan building was almost completely covered in snow. We went down the track side and the M1 and then the M2 absolutely brilliant.
Roger had cold feet despite having his heated insoles! they ran out of power before the end of the day. I was pleased that my heal injury coped with two days skiing.
Waiting for the Explosion and Avalanche
Still waiting to film the avalanche
The view from M2
Roger on the M2 with the Ptarmigan behind
Roger on the M2
Mountain Days and Photo Nights 