Have an OS Landranger 44 map on my garage wall that I mark my rides on. Cover area from the Angus Glens up to Ballater and Braemar and I've been ride routes from it for nearly 30 years.
Still has large gaps in the middle where the smaller Angus glens are, as these tend to be dead ends with little scope for circular loops. Last autumn though I started doing some exploratory out and back rides and discovering loads of new estate tracks not on the maps.
Today I headed up Glen Lethnot and oh boy, have the estates been busy. HS2 has nothing on some of these! Have never paid much attention to the os markings on a Scottish map, as they are never very close to the truth. Today the single dashes corresponded to both a barely visible path and a 10 ft wide dirt motorway smooth enough to ride a road bike on. As with all estate tracks the climbs were a bit brutal, taking the line of least resistance straight up the hill, made worse by getting attacked by a bee colony from a group of hives at the bottom. Lucky to get away with only one sting but it is right on the back of my neck! To make matters worse I knew I had to come back past them on the way home. Climb went on for ages and only dropped small amounts of height before I reached my lunch stop of the Sheiling at the top of the glen. The path looked to continued up another motorway for a mile or so, but with no real reward for anymore climbing, I decided to head back down.
Thankfully the pay off for the earlier climb was a stonking downhill. Warp speed fast into blind water splash corners, over blind crests into rocky sections where you couldn't risk braking. Coming to the last part of the descent I'd the choice of coming back down the steep wide section I'd came up earlier or down the a natural chute. You could make out a barely visible path on it from the bottom looking up, but from the top it was a bit of a gamble. Of course I went for the dodgy option, although conscious that it put me on a slower path along the bottom past the bee hives. The flat top of the path was wet and spongy and I wondered if I'd made the right choice, but once on the descent the narrow path firmed up with good grip and never got too steep. The zig zags were short though and I had to control my speed to walking pace to get round the corners. Always seemed to be a small rock drop right after each turn but a very satisfying descent. Things got boggier again at the bottom and I had to get off and walk until I crossed an old rickety bridge onto a firmer double track. At this point I put on as good a sprint as I could muster and bombed past the bee hives unscathed, only stopping pedalling when I was on the big track back to the car.
Weather was good and all in all a nice ride, but one I don't think I'd be in a hurry to do again. Despite being not too far off the A90, the roads once you are off it are singletrack all the way, and lack of any signposts at junctions meant a few wrong turns and backtracking. And that's from someone who grew up not that far from there. Nothing too technical in the riding either, but it did have an amazing desolate feel and only saw a couple of walkers all morning.
Looking back on the way up the climb. Car parked at the bottom of the tree patch in the distance.
Glen Lethnot by
Steven Clubb, on Flickr
Stable for my trusty steed.
Glen Lethnot by
Steven Clubb, on Flickr
Room with a view
Glen Lethnot by
Steven Clubb, on Flickr
There is a path there, honest.
Glen Lethnot by
Steven Clubb, on Flickr
Bridge of doom.
Glen Lethnot by
Steven Clubb, on Flickr
