Reveal the Path is a film about adventure biking, inspiration and discovery, starting off in Scotland and traversing the globe (via public transport!)

During the afternoon Andy let a short ride out from Bothy Bikes – the trails were pretty icy at first but things improved as height was gained. A few folk turned up with a different idea of what sort of ride we were doing!

I wanted to have a sense of journeying to and from the event (as well as wanting to drink lots of beer) so rode out to Glenmore Lodge (great venue!) from the shop. It was fun riding along the Old Logging Way trying to guess which tyre tracks might belong to fellow film goers. As it turned out it was only the Nates from Gavin’s Salsa…

The first film shown was The Logan Traverse, a 370 mile Alaskan ski/packrafting trip which didn’t quite go to plan. Using packrafts as pulks is a great idea – must try it sometime!

Next up was the main feature – I enjoyed the Scotland section, interesting to see us from another perspective, although it’s a shame they didn’t choose a better route. It was cool when they met up with Iona on her Fargo – lots of cheering for that bit!

Lastly we had the Lost Coast video which is part of what inspired Andy and Rob from Backcountry Biking to get into bikerafting.

Once the films were over everyone headed up to the bar for the gigantic raffle. Star prize was a signed print from Salsa Cycles which was kindly donated by Pat from Ison distribution alsong with some other Salsa and Surly goodies. Thank you Pat! We also had some Reveal the Path and Ride the Divide DVDs and lots of stickers. Yay, stickers!

Backcountry Biking had a bikerafting demo set up – which drew a fair amount of interest. Hopefully some of those who enjoyed the film will come and try out their excellent courses or expeditions.

Check out their website for details of some of the wonderful trips they arrange.

After a fair few beers, it was time to go. Dawyd and I headed back via the Cairngorm Club Bridge, Loch an Eilein and Inshriach Bothy. Sublime riding on the frozen trails with a head full of adventurous possibilities!

5th December: Snow!! Lovely cold, clear night. High Burnside. Two fat bikes, two fixed gear singlespeeds. Freak show!

Bikes waiting patiently for their riders

I was pretty excited about the first properly snowy ride of the season, but not as much as recent Surly Pugsley purchasers Keith and Stevie. This was their time!
My Salsa was kitted out with ice spiker tyres and a fixed cog on the rear – a choice I was possibly going to regret!

The climb on the forest road going up High Burnside was mostly sheet ice, ideal for the spiky tyres – it really is incredible what you can ride on, feels like riding slick rock! The others had to stay at the side of the trail where the snow hadn’t been compacted – no problem for the fat bikes, but Dawyd struggled a bit on his Karate Monkey with semi-slicks.

Nice Hat

Once the trail levelled out we encountered deeper snow, and the fat bikes were way ahead, as you’d expect though my setup worked fine as long as I stayed in the fat tyre tracks. The snow was lovely, dry and powdery – actually pretty grippy, and there was no real advantage here for my ice tyres.

Stevie Drops In

Keith gets first tracks

Dropping in to the first descent was fun, but I reached the limit of my fixed gear riding ability on the steep stuff. Dawyd’s semi slicks let him happily skid down the snow-covered trail, but my tyres were far too grippy so I had to keep pedalling over everything.
The ‘Tunnel of Wasps’ traverse was riding incredibly well in the snow and felt super fast and flowy. I know a few people don’t like that trail, but I think it’s fun, and a great challenge to ride it without dabbing.

It’s been great riding with Keith and Stevie on their Pugsleys over the past while and seeing how they cope with a variety of trails. On this ride they were obviously in their element, riding stuff that just wouldn’t be doable on a normal mtb.
They’ve found the fat bikes to be real all rounders, providing massive grip in loose/soggy conditions, superb floatation over chunky terrain and fun handling in all conditions. In fact since they got their Pugs, there’s been a Niclolai and an Orange 5 languishing in storage!

Keith keeps asking me why I don’t have a fat bike yet, and the answer is spelt K-R-A-M-P-U-S, but that’s another story…

August 29th – the plan was to do the Burma Road circuit, but the weather turned stormy so we enjoyed some ‘brown pow’ on High Burnside and went for a curry afterwards. Here’s Fraser on his splendid trail:

September 5th – possibly my favorite ever low-level loop. Lochans-Creag Dubh-Green Dream-Badan Dubh. Singletrack heaven.

September 12th – a long one from Aviemore to Inshriach Clifftop trails, returning via Jack Drake’s Bothy. Trails in wonderful condition thanks to a good drying wind!

September 19th – big turn out at Kingussie. Perhaps not the best ride to take lots of Wednesday night newbies, but we had a plan and we stuck to it. Trails were a bit wet so we had to push some parts that would normally be good to ride. The final descent was great fun and there’s always a warm post-ride welcome in the Silverfjord bar.

I missed the next two rides from Aviemore and Carrbridge but was back on the bike in time for a ride up into Coire an Sneachda on October 10th making the most of a beautiful starry night. Not that you can tell from my terrible photos…

The next week we visited High Burnside once again (our default ride – just behind the shop and full of wonderful trails) then on the 24th we journeyed to Grantown-on-Spey for a tour of the town’s excellent singletrack courtesy of local Wolfpax riders and Basecamp Bikes. We incorporated the Anagach Woods skills loop into the ride – it’s such a fantastic resource for the area.

The last day of October was incredibly wet, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the trails so muddy… We started from Feshiebridge and did the classic loop from there to the Badan Dubh. Unfortunately one of the descents we’d planned to do, Dom’s Demise, has met its own demise thanks to most of the trees that lined the way being clear felled. The harvesting operations extend from the main climb almost to the trig point and over to the top of the Green Dream.

November’s first ride was another local ride, the on the 14th we met at Inshriach Nursery car park for a great wee Clifftop Trails/Cake or Death loop – tracks back to perfect condition with a seasonal covering of pine needles.

Having heard that Bill at the Glenmore Shop has converted part of the store to a bar (the Pine Marten Bar) it seemed rude not to pay a visit, so we arranged to meet there on the 21st. We rode the Badaguish circuit, followed by a loop around the back of Loch Morlich – trails once again in great condition for the time of year. The pub was great too, thanks Bill!

This Summer, Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland (DMBinS) launched their excellent new Do The Ride Thing guide and online game. It’s a fun (and educational) look at some of mountain bikers’ access rights and responsibilities.

In Scotland we’re lucky to have some of the least restrictive land access in the world. Imagine needing a permit to go into the backcountry or being forbidden to ride on certain paths, whether they’re suitable for bikes or not…

In Aviemore we’re also extremely lucky to be surrounded by some really amazing trails in a beautiful area with a rich and varied natural (and human!) history.
When customers ask about trails, we like to suggest something that will give them good value (route advice is free, riding time is precious!) for the day’s ride.

There are some wonderful routes like the Burma Road or Ryvoan Pass which are rewarding landrover track rides, with great scenery and simple navigation – both ‘must do’ routes for any rider visiting the area.
What a lot of people are after though, is singletrack – flowy, rocky, techy techy gnar gnar, big stupid grin stuff…

Here’s where suggesting a route becomes a little bit trickier; we’ve got to consider obvious things like what condition the trail is in and is it appropriate for the rider (skill level, attitude towards riding) but also we need to know if there is any forestry work going on, is there any potential threat to wildlife and how might other trail users (walkers, bikers) feel about ‘their’ previously quiet trail being used. So much to think about!

Our plan was to ride from Glenmore to Cairngorm via the Allt Mor path. Our route would take us to Coire-an-t’Sneachda, a wonderfully wild-feeling coire, especially popular with climbers in Winter.
The whole route (apart from one very short boggy bit in Sneachda) is on hard packed rocky trails. It’s really challenging stuff: you need to be fit to enjoy the climb and have good bike handling skills to make the most of the descent (there are a lot of drainage ditches) It was never designed with riders in mind, in fact the Allt Mor path has features which were actually built to discourage mountain bikers (the “No Mountain Bikes” signs were taken down after the current access legislatation came into being)
I think it’s a circuit that’s appropriate for bikers to ride, but it’s definately one I’d only recommend after making sure the rider(s) would safely enjoy it.

Anyhow, it turned out to be blowing a force ten hoolie, so we decided to do a lower, less exposed route, which for various reasons is not one I should tell anyone about, not even you. Sorry.

The original plan was for a Cairngorm adventure or maybe the Burma Road singletrack if there was a good turnout. Well, there was an amazing turnout – lot’s of new faces too so we decided to go for a spin around the High Burnside woods instead of risking carnage (always best to ca’ canny when you’re not sure of riders’ fitness or riding skills – in retrospect we’d have been fine, it was a great bunch…)

As it was there was plenty of technical challenge to be found; here’s Iain tackling a rock chute on his trusty Heckler:

The ride was a bit of a Bothy Bikes former-staff reunion: Iain (not the Iain above), back from his world travels; Mark who now runs Monster Bikes in Inverness and Martin from Square Wheels. It was great to ride with them again!

Unfortunately part of our ride was on a new bit of trail which I’m now calling the Taranaki Tunnel of Wasps (check it out Conchords fans!) Angry wasps dealt out stripey retribution with some riders receiving over half a dozen stings. Sorry about that everyone… I guess that’s just one of the hazards of riding “natural” trails – sometimes nature bites back!

Undaunted, we carried on to enjoy more descents towards Aviemore, finishing up with a well-earned visit to the Old Bridge Inn for anti-histamine cream and ale. Oh, and we met Robbie (another ex-Bothy Biker) there to add to the reunion theme.

The first presentation was of the very colourful 2013 Saracen bikes – stand out for me was their 650b full suspension trail bike which looked spot-on.

On to the Genesis range. Anyone who’s seen our hire bikes for the last few years will know we’re huge fans of Genesis bikes. They always feel ‘just right’ to ride and most importantly our customers love them!

Classics like the Croix de Fer and Day One continue, and their whole road bike range looks very strong.

The ‘I don’t need one but have to have one’ bike was the Equilibrium Ti (pictured below). I think a lot of bike shop staff will buy one of these!

Putting on my sensible bike-buyers hat, I was pleased to see the ‘entry level’ Core 100 and 200 bikes looking very smart, and competitively priced as well.

Below is Genesis’ long-in-development Grapil full suspension bike. A 26″ wheel (eh?) 120mm travel single pivot machine which will be available in two different spec versions. They had a few of these for people to demo, and feedback was very favourable.

Genesis took their time bringing bikes to the 29er table, with this years rigid forked Fortitude series being their first offering. The Fortitude is  a splendid bike and we’re pleased it’s continuing unchanged for next year. They have added a suspension equipped High Latitude range including the Alfine 11 version below – our next hire bike?

There is also (at last!) a range of good honest alloy framed 29er hardtails – hooray! They are the Mantles (sounds like a band…) and here’s a pic of bike shop person having fun on one:

And here’s Genesis’ in-house bike tester having a blast on the Grapil: check out those elbows – you can tell he’s a pro!

These pics are from the afternoon’s bike ride. I took 30 riders (!) on a wee tour from Coylumbridge to Loch Morlich and back via the Logging Way. This is some of the bunch who went for an extra spin round the Canadian trail at Badaguish. Thanks for coming along for the ride chaps!

As soon as we know release dates and confirmed prices for the bikes, I’ll post them here.

Our blog is now hosted with the main site and can be viewed at www.bothybikes.co.uk/blog, if you subscribe to our posts via RSS the new feed is www.bothybikes.co.uk/feed. All of our blog posts from now will appear on our new website.

We’d love to hear your feedback so please get in touch here.

Duncan

This week was looking much better, so we thought we’d go for a classic starting from the Suie Hotel in Kincraig. The Suie is a great place to use as a base for riding: you can head over the Spey to the wealth of trails in Inshriach forest and Glen Feshie or do as we did and head over to Alvie for some rocky madness.

Suie Hotel Kincraig

The ride starts with a zoom along the Speybank Walk path. This features a rather large vertical drop to the River Spey below and is definately not the sort of place you’d want to meet a dog walker while you’re out on your Segway

We then headed over Dalraddy moor, following the line of General Wade’s road before crossing under the A9 to the start of the long climb up to the phone mast. There were ponies in the field here, so it would be a good idea to skirt through the neighbouring woods to avoid them.

The climb wasn’t as brutal as it can sometimes be, due in part to the NE wind which gave us a wee push up the top zag and also to both Jones riders (Phil and Andy) breaking chains on the climb. Coincidence? We shall see…

Fixing a chain on the climb

View from the mast

Last time we were here the cloud base was well below the summit; this time we has great views from Cairngorm over to the Feshie hills and Badenoch. It was a bit chilly so we didn’t hang around too long. When we held our first downhill race here in 19-oatcake we had to move the start down to a more sheltered spot as it was sleeting at the top (also in June!)

Overlooking Loch Alvie

Phil rolls over a rock

The descent was a blast, they have motorbike trials meetings there every now and then, so the track is always evolving in interesting ways. It’s tricky to find your way down if you don’t know the trail well. I’d definately recommend hooking up with someone who does know it, else you’ll spend a lot of time walking back up wondering where to go!

Phil descends

John conquers

All safely down, we returned via Speybank to enjoy the comforts of the Suie bar and reminisce about old downhill races and stuff.

Riders tonight were: Andy, Phil, Fraser, Dawid, Duncan, Ollie, John, Ian and me.

PS Plan A was to ride a different way up and come down the track on the W side of the Allt Each. Just as well we didn’t as someone could well have been decapitated by the zip wire which has been strung across the track. Not good…

However, Saturday dawned, and in keeping with the rest of the week it was a scorcher (as they say).
We (Dave, Colin, Jim, Sanny, Gari and me) met up at the Old Bridge Inn car park; packed our (incredibly light) Alpaca rafts and headed for Loch Morlich.

Jones and Horsethief at Loch Morlich

We were shown the correct use of the ‘Inflation Bag’, which is an incredibly simple way to pump up yer raft.

Inflation Bag technique dialled

All my own work

Soon we were out on the loch, the largest collection of Bikerafters in the UK… ever!

On Loch Morlich

After a play around we repacked our rafts and went for a ride around Loch Morlich; riding with a (deflated!) packraft on your back is much the same as with a loaded up 30L rucksac: the paddle splits into four bits for carrying, just make sure you don’t lose any of the bits…

Rob ridin’ the hood

Next we had a play around in the Allt Mor, to get used to paddling in moving water. This was fun!

Playing in the Allt Mor

Having a bike on your boat certainly invites interest, pretty much everyone who saw us felt moved to make a comment!

Is this Benidorm?

Aviemore had gained a lot of publicity earlier in the week for being the hottest place in the UK; as a consequence the beach at Loch Morlich was mobbed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so busy there… I was worried they might have sold out of ice cream, but thankfully the Boathouse Cafe had plenty.

The sun shines on the rafters

Andy promised us a following wind for the journey back to the far end of the loch; unfortunately this was not to be, but it was probably better to experience the difference a headwind can make to paddling time.

Nearly there…

Back ashore again, we packed up our kit (getting good at this now) and set off down the Old Logging Way back to the Old Bridge Inn for a well-earned pint.

On Sunday we took no time to pack our rafts and get ready to ride, this time heading for Inshriach Forest where we planned to ride some sweet singletrack on the way to a suitable place to join the River Spey.

Maybe next time…

Splashing through

As it happened, this included a stop off at Inshriach Nursery cake shop where we spent far too much time.

We chose cake…

After all that eating, some excercise was called for, so we headed to the Inshriach clifftop trail, which was riding soooo well. Unfortunatelty, Andy discovered his under-frame bottle cage system is incompatible with a particularly gnarly rock section, and had an over the bars episode as a result.

Getting ready to raft

Down by the Spey, we inflated our boats and put in at a nice gentle section, after being shown some hazardous bits from the river bank.

I absolutely loved paddling down the Spey… it was so relaxing, and so great to see stuff I cycle past every day from a different perspective.

We stopped in a few places where Andy and Rob showed us some fallen trees which looked pretty innocuous, but as it turned out could cause serious problems (such as getting trapped and drowning…) if you drifted into them. The stretch of river we did looks very easy, but there were plenty of tree-lined sections, submerged tree stumps etc which could catch you out. I’m glad we had good guides!

Kinrara from the Spey

Craigellachie from the Spey

Lairig Ghru from the Spey

I really didn’t want the journey to end, so it was cool to discover that the river takes a couple of huge meanders just before Aviemore. This also gave us some opportunities to practice our ferrying technique.

Back at the Old Bridge Inn, we packed up our gear for the last time, and, over a beer, started planning further bike rafting adventures.

I’m hoping to go on the next Backcountry biking packraft course, which won’t involve bikes, but will give an introduction to white water technique. Packrsfting is the best – I can’t wait!

Check out the following for more on the weekend and details of courses:

http://www.facebook.com/backcountrybiking.co.uk

http://www.backcountrybiking.co.uk/

Here’s some pics of me and Fraser enjoying the incredible conditions on Cairngorm:

Fraser on Cairngorm

David on Cairngorm

This Wednesday Aviemore was the hottest place in the UK with a high of 26.9C , quite a contrast with last weeks snow!

We met at the Uach Lochan car park on the west side of Glen Feshie; it’s a great place to start a ride. There’s also a bird watching hide (never seen much from it though) and a nice walk around the Lochans over boardwalks.

Guess what bike they’re discussing

Our destination was the trig point on Creag Dubh, which we rode to via crispy dry singletrack trails. It was the first time I’d been back there since clearing the way in March (feels like last summer now…) and everything was flowing very nicely.

The first descent we did was very muddy at the top, perhaps we need to let that one lie fallow for a while… The main forest road to the top has been ‘upgraded’ part of the way and there’s lots of white tape around so it looks as if the area may soon be off-limits anyway due to timber harvesting…

Second run down was fabulous; there’s quicker ways off the Badan, but we took the scenic route for added value! Interesting to see that someone has removed the stone ramps from fallen trees below the trig point and chainsawed through the trees… I was looking forward to riding over them too…

Dawid on the solitude trail

Phil on the solitude trail

After that we headed up to the Lochans viewpoint where Dawid told us how to make a delicious cough syrup from pine needles. Hmm…

Top of the Lochans

From the summit we swooped down the clifftop path then turned off down an old track I hadn’t ridden for years. It was always a challenge to cleanly ride the rock garden halfway down, so I was really looking forward to giving it some 29er action. Unfortunately it’s been cleaned another way and instead of a rocky jumble there’s just a couple of steps. Oh well…