Mountain Biking Ben Alder

We headed for Dalwhinnie railway station before unloading the bikes and embarking on a 53km ride around Ben Alder. The estate road was the first part of the ride heading towards the spectacular Ben Alder Lodge around Loch Ericht.

The route is very popular with walkers who ride to the Culra Bothy, leave their bikes, camp and walk the many munros in the area before riding out. We headed away from the lodge heading towards the Culra Bothy.

Heading for the Culra Bothy

Culra Bothy

The route heads away from the bothy on fantastic singletrack. However it is ruined slightly by the many drainage ditches! Practicing bunny hops was the order of the next couple of k! Unfortunately H mis- timed a ditch and the inevitable happened!

A quick pit stop and we continued up the glen before climbing steeply to the summit of a pass.

The view from the top of the pass was fantastic. We could see right across to Loch Ossian and the Mamores. The singletrack off the top was awesome but concentration was needed all the way.

From the top of the pass we dropped 450m towards the famous Ben Alder Cottage. Yet again awe inspiring views and singletrack was continuous for the next part of the ride. The cottage features in many articles and is rumoured to be haunted! This in itself was a reason to take a de-tour and check it out!

Visiting the ghosts of Ben Alder Cottage! 

After a lunch spot and a nosy around Ben Alder Cottage we headed back up the track to find the path that would test our climbing skills. It was a 2km hike a bike to the summit of Bealach Breabag. 

It was hard work all the way up, however the promise of a 7km descent the other side was motivation to dig in! The view was also amazing over Loch Ericht. The track down was difficult to find at the start but became quite obvious through the Bealach Beithe. Ben Alder became the spectacular back drop.

Ben Alder Looking on

The track rounded the Loch and dropped once again on fantastic singletrack back towards the Culra Bothy. A few drainage ditches and a narrow track was a good test of the skills. We re-traced our steps and headed back along the estate road to the car. 

Heading down towards the Culra Bothy

This was a stunning ride amongst spectacular scenery! It was certainly one of the classics! 

Mountain Biking Ardverikie

On the way back from an amazing sea kayaking trip we were already planning the forthcoming bank holiday. The plan was to head for the Ardverikie Estate to mountain bike in its majestic scenery. The weather forecast was looking good! We headed for Fort William to stay at Glen Nevis, this meant a sneaky evening ride around the XC World Cup course at Leanachan Forest.

World Cup XC Course Leanachan Forest

As huge Monarch of the Glen fans we had looked enviously at Glenbogle from across Loch Laggan so were very excited to be riding actually on the estate! We parked in a layby just down from the gatehouse.

The ride was circular taking in the best the estate had to offer. Leaving the gatehouse we turned left off the main estate road heading for Loch Pattack.

The scenery just kept getting better and better. The riding was a mixture of well made estate roads to land rover tracks that were seldom used. As we got closer to Loch Pattack the track became boggier but the riding was still quite easy going. 

We decided to have lunch at Loch Pattack as it offered a fantastic vista! It was also a respite before the climbing started. We planned to ride a circuit around Ben Alder the next day so we were working out the route which came close to Loch Pattack. 

Lunch at Loch Pattack

We rounded the loch to a great little suspension bridge across the Allt a Chaoil- reidhe that was guarded by wild horses!

The track then climbs gradually before it is time to ford the Allt Cam and the serious climbing then begins. The climb is 3.25km and climbs above the south side of Loch a Bhealaich Leamhain. There are sections of hike a bike and the scenery is truly intimidating! The view from the high point off the ridge of Beinn a Chlachair is spectacular in every direction. 

The descent down the other side towards Lochan na h-Earba was varied with great rocky singletrack. At the end of the descent we arrived at Lochan na h- Earba. We were scene spotting from Monarch of the Glen all the way down. We rode the eastern shore on a land rover track admiring the ongoing amazing scenery and getting excited about the impending view of Glen Bogle itself! 

 And then it appeared. The driveway to the house! We posed for pictures and admired the amazing view of the house. We continued to pick up the estate road to ride the last section to the beach.

Glen Bogle !!

We rode the beach to the end picking our way back to the estate road and back to the camper. The ride had been one of the most spectacular we had ever done! We will definitely be back! We were to stay the night at Glen Truim and Invernahavon campsite before heading to Dalwhinnie for the next ride.