The Reason for going
Unusually, I’ve only been up this one once - way back at the start of my SOTA lifestyle, in August 2021. From my end of Deeside, the drive to the parking involves a tedious trip up one side of the Dee, over a bridge, and then return down the other side. Now, if I could park at Keiloch and take my bike, could I get to the start of the hill path in less time than it would take me to drive? An extra 21km of driving and a 2km walk versus 6.7km of cycling.
cycle approach from the east (blue solid line) v. extended drive and walk from the west (red lines)
Challenge accepted!
Oh, the reason I was going - Alex @GM5ALX was going up Ben A’an and Beinn a’Bhuird, and so I looked for a hill that was close and one that he needed for a Complete.
Alex messaged at 0720 to say he’d left home in Aberdeen. I hadn’t planned on leaving until 0930, so did get in a wee panic, however stuck with it, after checking the, “are we speaking BST or UTC language today?”
The Climb
Leaving Keiloch at 1000 on the SOTAbike, I found myself on familiar trails. Indeed, the first 3km was shared with Alex’ route to his peaks. After I branched off, the trail was undulating in places, but still easy enough for my mountain bike. I was aiming for a point where there is a nice wee waterfall and the outflow crosses under the road. I went cycling straight past it, though. The stream bed was dry! Issue quickly corrected, and I ended up walking up the narrow stream bed for a short distance and dumping the bike in the dry watercourse.
clouds just lifting from Carn na Drochaide
There’s a bit of path/no path up the right bank of the waterfall, so I went hunting for that. Above the waterfall, I found the quad track, which I followed up to the west shoulder of Creag a Chleirich. Thanks to muirburn, this was much easier to follow than last time. I dropped slightly to the NW, aiming for the land bridge that would take me onto Carn na Drochaide. More muirburn, and a really strong smell of TCP.
land bridge, with Carn na Drochaide up to the left
For a change, I followed a nice stalkers path around the north side of the hill, which revealed nice views down to Gleann an-t Sluggain, The Fairy Glen, site of The Secret Howff. It gradually rose and then faded out near the upper slopes. Cloud came and went. The wind was fresh and from the NE. Ben A’an and the northern end of Beinn a’Bhuird remained int thick cloud. Alex might be without a view for the second time up there…
At the top, there was a large cairn. There was also a smaller one, about 20m away. I wondered?
looking north to Alex’ summits
The Activation
With he pole plonked in the small cairn and the hot end of the EFHW stretched towards me, there was just enough coax to allow me to shelter behind the SW side of the cairn. With HF set up, I got out the 2m handie. I hadn’t bothered carrying a gain antenna, after all Alex was only 8km north. With the S2S in the bag, I managed a weak contact with Simon @GM4JXP and then turned my attention to HF.
@GM5ALX putting a brave face on it, atop GM/ES-006
You never know what you’re going to get these days on HF. 40m was slow and steady. 20m revealed a short pileup. I had a short break while I changed from my KX2 to QMX and then added another couple in the log. The KX2 was only putting out 5w today, which was strange, because I was sure I’d charged the battery and spare. Maybe they are getting past their best?
enjoying sunshine and my (5w) KX2
the south top of GM/ES-004 clearing
Anyway, due to me faffing around with two radios and a bit of filming, I’d been up there for 90 minutes and Alex was nearly at his second summit. Another quick 2m FM S2S and then it was time to head back down.
Cairn Toul GM/ES-003
Cpnclusion
The ride back to the car park took about the same time as the outward leg, around 22 minutes, due to the undulations, so I convinced myself that I’d won the car v bike challenge. Driving through Braemar (30mph) and then up the Linn of Dee and then back to Linn of Quoich (30-40mph) would have taken about five minutes more. Then I had the additional 2km of walking to factor in, so a convincing victory for the bike!
