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Part 2 is Devil's Point and over to Braeriach the next day
So, weather window identified and had just done Carn a Mhaim a couple of days beforehand - useful reccy trip for Linn of Dee and checking our landrover tracks/trails.
I had a conference call at 8am so got out of Edinburgh and parked up at Kinross services to get that done and grab a half decent overpriced Costa, worth the effort though as missed Edinburgh rush hour and got to Perth 9.20am or so thereby missing whatever Perth calls rush hour. Game Fair had finished on Sunday so no traffic at Old Scone and off we headed. Easy drive up except rained the whole way when forecase for Cairngorms was pretty much dry. Not the first time have driven that road expecting better weather.
Braemar camp site was the plan for overnight accomodation so checked in there on way past.
We'd decided that this would be the shorter of our two days as more bike and less ascent so grabbed some rolls etc at Coop and headed to Linn of Dee. Dog was pretty happy at this stage and only worry was that Morna had a cyclo cross bike with thin tyres (more of that in Part 2). The other walk reports are bang on as is Steven Fallon (although doing only 38km seems a stretch even if going as crow flies). Great tracks, easy cycling, couple of rivers to ford but nothing tricky in current conditions/water height. 12.5km gets you to Geldie Lodge (ruin) and makes a nice spot for a snack and a break including telling your legs it's time to change gear. And to dump bikes.
The path is right next to the ruin and is fast walking right across to a burn after 4km - at that point it's decision time to head to the low side of a spur, middle or straight on up. There is a path up the spur (which we found after taking the middle option). As ever going from fast path to heather and climb is a bit of a challenge to muscle memory but off we went, no danger, bit of bog hopping the onto the spur and up, which is 7km from Geldie Lodge by our route, 3.5hrs pretty much bang on including the tiffin break at Geldie Lodge. 19.5km total at this point.
The weather had been pretty dry on the bike ride and was now dry, however, mist and clag up top until we headed over to An S.
Bit of down to another bog section, we aimed for a patch between two large hags and then beat up towards the right hand side of some scree where we picked up another path. Not tough going and topped An S in an hour from Carn F, just under 4km.
Way out again decision time, we had seen a track from Geldie Lodge but that was going to be a helluva detour so we headed towards another spur and bashed down from there. Not too boggy coming out I must say, bit of a relief. Took us just over an hour to get back to Geldie Lodge and get the bikes, just over 4km from An S summit.
Nothing to report about bike ride apart from a wonderful chat with an Estate Manager who told us that the springs coming from Carn F spawn all three of the Dee, Spey and indeed Tay rivers !
