Excellent Alder and Bheoil and how not to cycle in.

[mrssanta]

We've had various ideas for tackling these Munros over the years, including multi-day mega epic round trips from Corrour, but in the end have climbed most of the surrounding Munros in other expeditions leaving the six around Culra still with red balloons.
So in the end, we cycled in from Dalwhinnie as "normal" people do.

looking promising. Midge nets were the fashion statement needed for this cycle in

At least, that was the plan. We drove up from Yorkshire on Monday, parking up at the garage at Dalwhinnie where £3 a day seems entirely reasonable to me.
Rudolph's bike is of some considerable vintage, let's just say it is older than our adult children, and used to belong to his dad. We brought the usual important stuff such as a pump, and a puncture repair outfit, but unfortunately all this was pretty useless.
We have a friend who likes to link old hymns to occupations or hobbies; according to him, the Wesley hymn "And Can It Be" is the one for cyclists. This is because of the line "my chains fell off"! Not quite sure that he was talking about cycle chains, but it did give me a bit of an earworm for the rest of the trip.
Rudolph was having a bit of difficulty with his gears slipping, and then about 5km into the cycle in, his chain broke and fell off, and it was apparent that his rear derailleur was past its best, with a bit missing and all at a funny angle. We used the emergency string that I always carry to tie the derailleur out of the way so it would not hit the wheel, and stashed the chain carefully on a rock by the side of the road to pick up later. We had all our gear in panniers and had brought the big tent, and not brought the big rucksacks, so really there was no choice but to push the bike up the hills and freewheel down them. Under these circumstances we were happy that the track was undulating rather than flat, and I was happy that I could cycle nice and slowly, which suited me fine, but it took us the best part of three hours to reach Culra. We took the path across the moor rather than by the shore of Loch Pattack, which I found difficult to cycle even with a fully functioning bike, as it was quite rutted. However, for walking it is a really excellent path. At the point where you leave this path to cross the bridge to Culra Bothy we found a nice flat bit of grass right by the river on the outside of the bend, where we pitched our tent, ate our tea inside for avoidance of midges, and went to sleep.
There was smoke coming out of the chimney of Culra Bothy, and a couple of tents outside. The bothy is closed due to exposed asbestos, but is unlocked for "emergency use only". Note to the reader, we did not go in the bothy. There is NO safe dose of asbestos, and it causes at least three nasty and fatal conditions none of which I particularly want (asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma). Also we're antisocial.
The forecast for this week was for changeable weather with cloud and rain, and variable amounts of wind. It was a very still, warm night and I was careful not to drink too much as I did not want to have to go out of the tent and expose my nether regions to the plentiful midges! The day dawned still and cloudy, still with very active midges, so we ate our breakfast in the tent; Rudolph being less susceptible went out to make the tea and coffee with the aid of Smidge and a net.
We took the recommended WH route up the Long Leachas which was really enjoyable, interesting but nothing tricky. As we ascended the cloud came in and out but the day was generally improving. It was warm and there was practically no wind.

the bottom of Long Leachas where we are heading, expecting to be in clag all day.

the little cairn at the point where you leave the stalkers path to head for Long Leachas

we've just crossed the burn at this point, keep going to avoid midges, but you can see that the cloud base is lifting. Short Leachas on the left

ooh look Lancet Edge

plenty of blaeberries to nibble on if I need a breather

cowberry - not quite ripe, and not very nice even when ripe, I'll leave this one for the locals

looking back the way we came and the northern end of Beinn Bheoil where we will come down later

probably the narrowest bit of the Long Leachas, but really not scary

Looking down the Long Leachas from the top, towards Loch Pattack

and here we are on the plateau. Looking towards the Bealach Dubh where you can see the stalkers path that we will take tomorrow - but that's another story

At the top of the Long Leachas the path disappears but there is no difficulty with route finding and we reached the summit where we stopped for our first lunch. It's not often that you find midges on a summit but there was the odd one!

And here's Rudolph on the summit cairn, with the trig point and shelter behind. we had lunch at the trig point so nobody can complain.

And here is me on the top, behind in the foreground on the left is the remains of the Ordnance Survey hut, in the distance Lancet Edge and Carn Dearg

From the summit we headed downhill as the cloud came down a bit. There is a wee cairn at the point where you need to leave the ridge and head down to the bealach. We took a bearing but it was not long before we came out of the cloud and could see where we were going. The ground here is steep, rough and wet. Did I tell you there was no wind? It was hot and muggy and there were MIDGES! Don't tell Rudolph, but I left the smidge in the tent, and the smidge on my face was about wearing off by now.

attempt at arty shot of dew coloured grass on the way down the steep slope. Can't stop long though, midges are out.

deer on the horizon

Anyway, when we reached the bealach, there was a bit more of a breeze which was very welcome. There's also a path again, from the bealach up to Sron Coire na h-Iolare. We missed this summit out, being rather lazy, and it was a pleasant walk to the summit of Beinn Bheoil, where we stopped for second lunch/afternoon tea.

this cairn marks the top of the path up the side of Sron Coire na h-Iolaire

Ridge over to Beinn Bheoil, looking rather lovely

Corrievarkie Lodge across Loch Ericht

Garbh Choire of Ben Alder. There's a wee tiny snow patch high up on that cliff

Rudolph on the summit, view towards Dalwhinnie

and me. Ben Alder behind

I think this pic is looking east to the Drumochter hills with mist rising off Loch Ericht

There were no midges here and it was a fine afternoon, much better than the forecast. We had second lunch. Rudolph discovered 4G on the summit and looked up the forecast for tomorrow. Oh dear, it told us there would be low cloud on the mountains around Ben Alder with wind and rain. Well, we're here now, you win some you lose some, we aren't changing our plans for a bit of weather!
We aimed a little to the east of the WH route off Beinn Bheoil as we wanted to pick up water for the overnight camp and we had seen a nice burn on the map just a little bit uphill of where the stalkers path turns downhill. This done, it was a grand walk back to the tent with a breeze appearing to blow away the midges.

slightly hazy pic of the short and long Leachas and Lancet Edge behind, and another wee snow patch in the corrie

shiny slabs on the prow of Sron Bealach Bheithe

Cloudberry

We got back to the tent and enjoyed the evening sunshine while opening up the tent to try and blow out all the midges that had sneaked in the night before. It was partially successful until suddenly the wind dropped and within a millisecond the wee beasties were out again!

it's a lovely evening at the tent

note the level of the river - for future reference tomorrow!

Begone, Midges!

Panic ensued to get back inside the tent, fortunately tea was nearly ready, and a happy hour was then spent murdering midges one by one by waiting till they landed on the fabric of the tent and squashing them with my thumb. And then we got an early night, and slept for 11 hours! Ready for the next adventure

[rockhopper]

Good going - it's quite a trek even with a bike in good shape. Ever since I first had a broken chain, I tend to carry a chain tool to remove the faulty link like this and one or two "missing links" like this to repair the chain - cheers

[mrssanta]

Good going - it's quite a trek even with a bike in good shape. Ever since I first had a broken chain, I tend to carry a chain tool to remove the faulty link like this and one or two "missing links" like this to repair the chain - cheers

Ah yes we do have one of those somewhere but even if we could have cobbled the chain back together, the derailleur was completely kn***ered.
Fortunately the story has a satisfactory end, the old bike is beyond repair (no spares) but when we went to the bike shop we got a second hand bike at a very reasonable price so will be able to do a few more cycle ins.
The old bike will go to an old bike hospital place in Aberdeen where it can be mix and matched with bits of other old bikes and be reincarnated.

[gld73]

Useful report thanks, I'm hoping to do these hills soon, but I keep deciding ones where I don't need to cycle in and/or camp in wet weather are more appealing

[Alteknacker]

Glad to see you got to these in the end - I remember that you'd planned to do them in 2017, but had a problem with your leg that prevented it.

Reading your report brought back many fond memories indeed of my round in that year.

Including many walkers' favourite evening passtime, which you also enjoyed ...

BTW... what's the smiley mug done wrong to be relegated to one picture of her secured to your sac...???

[dogplodder]

Enjoyed reading that. This trip must have preceded the locking of the railway crossing at Dalwhinnie which is making life a bit difficult for cyclists just now.

[Rudolph]

Enjoyed reading that. This trip must have preceded the locking of the railway crossing at Dalwhinnie which is making life a bit difficult for cyclists just now.

Thank you - it was good fun (almost) the whole way round.

We didn't go near the newly locked gate but parked at the filling station which left an easy cycle under the bridge and a short leg north to meet the 'old' path.

[mrssanta]

Useful report thanks, I'm hoping to do these hills soon, but I keep deciding ones where I don't need to cycle in and/or camp in wet weather are more appealing

I suspect this is why we have not done it till now!

Glad to see you got to these in the end - I remember that you'd planned to do them in 2017, but had a problem with your leg that prevented it.

Reading your report brought back many fond memories indeed of my round in that year.

Including many walkers' favourite evening passtime, which you also enjoyed ...

squashing midges.jpg

BTW... what's the smiley mug done wrong to be relegated to one picture of her secured to your sac...???

You've got a good memory!!
Sorry about the lack of smiley mug photos, to my shame, I forgot to take a picture of them, but put that correct for my next report (just)

[gammy leg walker]

Still have this pair to climb hopefully before the winter sets in, I'll probably walk in and out over two days, not a great fan of the bike. You are getting very close to the end now, hopefully we do eventually meet up at some point

[mrssanta]

Still have this pair to climb hopefully before the winter sets in, I'll probably walk in and out over two days, not a great fan of the bike. You are getting very close to the end now, hopefully we do eventually meet up at some point

one day surely!!