Pitlochry to Aviemore via 7 (Not the A9 for a change!)

As part of our preparation for a cycling holiday in Ireland this September, the SO and myself decided to take the bikes up to Pitlochry and cycle up the National Cycling Network to Aviemore and back over a weekend. Well, that was the plan at least, fate and aching buttocks had a part to play!

Fortunately, an anti-cyclone had decided to anchor itself over the whole of the UK so the weather was set fair when we started off on Saturday morning. Must admit, I thought that my bike wasn’t as heavily laden as J’s but she was happy to go ahead with the distribution we had.

First climb of the day was over the Pass of Killiecrankie, Although the road is marked at 14% for a short stretch it didn’t seem that bad. From there until Dalnacardoch, the route followed the old A9, which was mostly traffic free and in reasonable nick. The climbing was steady and none too steep going towards the Drumochter summit.

After Dalnacardoch, we joined the recently built off road cycle path which connects both sides of Drumochter but excludes road traffic. This was gravelly and had the occasional barrier, where landowners have decided that cattle grids don’t actually work, so they put barriers across. Don’t know why this has happened.

The ride down from the summit to Dalwhinnie is a joy as you follow the downward slope coming down from the Drumochter summit. We lunched at Dalwhinnie, before continuing past the distillery onto Crudenbeg. Sadly, any visits to the distillery were off the agenda.

As the day wore on the sun seemed to get brighter and warmer as we got pinker, but it didn’t stop our progress to Aviemore, although J seemed to slow down after Kincraig.

We finally arrived at the Rothiemurchus site at about 5.00pm where we quickly put up the tent and had a much needed shower prior to going down to Aviemore for our well earned dinner.
We had a great meal in the Old Bridge Inn by the River Spey. Best thing about it was that there was not TV showing the England-Paraguay match! Additionally, it was in contrast to the shoddy meal we had in Pitlochry the night before.

Next morning, we rose refreshed and raring to go, only to find that there was a problem with J’s bike which seemed to be the cause of her slowing down the night before, her front brake was binding. There was no obvious reason, so after much discussion, J decided to get the train back to Pitlochry and I undertook to continue by pedal as far as I felt going.

Going onwards, my knees were getting painful and my bum’s complaints were getting louder and louder such that by the time I got back to Dalwhinnie, I decided to get the midafternoon train back to Pitlochry. Not the cheapest journey. Two stops cost me nigh on ten quid!

Got back to the car to find the cycle racks on the roof and J waiting for with a big smile. While waiting for the train a fellow cyclist had spotted the problem with her brake as being a missing spring which he was able to replace. Unfortunately, she was unable to change her travel plans and get off the train at Kingussie, so she had to forego any further cycling.

All in all, a good experience and a very good introduction to long distance cycling with a load.
Next time I’ll try and take some pictures.