ACTIVE OUTDOORS: Home and dry after soaking on Cairngorms gravel bike ride

Character building, you might call it. For both of us.

What started off as a boys’ adventure – dad and son on a fun mountain biking trip through the Cairngorms – turned into a mud-soaked, tear-filled battle.

Showers had been forecast, but not the torrential downpour that went on and on.

You wouldn’t know it from the photographs, but even during the brighter spells the rain continued to fall on us two sodden cyclists.

These kind of days are tough enough for a resilient middle-aged man, but for a five-year-old drenched on the back of a tagalong with mud splattering into his face, it must have been pretty grim.

However, I am pleased that the experience hasn’t totally put Matthew off cycling. The next day he was keen to ride his own bike around the street and his memory from the day was of the purple hillside rather than the cold rain.

We’d started in dry conditions from Glen Feshie, on the west side of the river past the Uath Lochans. There’s space to park responsibly at a very wide track junction a short distance before the road end close to Balnascriten.

Waterproofs packed, we followed the track south-west past a wooden building at Corarnstilbeg, enjoying the variety of flowers that were in bloom alongside us. The track runs close to the Allt Fhearnasdail and passes a wooden footbridge – one we had cycled over previously on the way back from our wild camping expedition further down Glen Feshie.

The rain started as we made our way to the crossroads at Drumguish, where we stopped and donned the waterproofs. It was a wise decision, as the rain was soon falling heavily. Turning left, we passed a few houses before dropping downhill to meet the estate track, keeping left to head into Glen Tromie.

It’s a nice cycle through here and, when the rain started to ease a little, we stopped for a picnic lunch to refuel before the more remote section of the route.

The new track that links this glen to Glen Feshie has cut a bit of a swathe through the mountains and the historic Minigaig Pass. I have mixed feelings about its impact on this spectacular landscape – running close to the spot where I once nearly stepped on an adder on a backpacking trip to Blair Atholl!

However, the feeling of remoteness is still felt here, despite this circuit – and variations of it – already having become a popular biking route, including for those on e-bikes.

But before we reached the turn-off for the link route, the rain started coming on hard again. Then it just got harder. It was so bad I diverted the bike off the track so we could shelter under a small pocket of trees.

We hunkered down and watched the rain bouncing off the track; it was even dripping through the trees and down our necks. After some time it eased from torrential to very heavy, and we were left with little choice but to get back on the bike.

Poor Matthew was soaked, but it was his hands and feet that were feeling the cold and leading to the tears.

Past Bhran Cottage, you continue along the track until it crosses the Allt Bhran on a bridge over a gorge. Almost immediately a new track bears left, climbing steeply up the ridge of a hill. Matthew was too cold to help pedal up here, so I had to get off and push the bike, and him on the tagalong, up here. I certainly wasn’t cold after that!

At a fork at the top, keep right and follow the track as it wriggles through the trees, rising and falling until it eventually drops across the hillside above the Allt Bhran. A sharp left leads down and across the burn before a steep and pretty relentless climb up through a couple of patches of forest.

Eventually the beginning of the long, steep downhill came and, despite another short, sharp climb, we were soon on our way past Lochan an t-Sluic. It was here that we talked about the purple heather that was covering the hills on both sides of us, something that clearly stuck in Matthew’s memory.

He was still cold but the rain wasn’t quite as heavy now, and I knew the ride back up Glen Feshie would be so much easier than the last little bit, so my optimism was returning.

The descent into the glen is so steep that Matthew was a bit scared and asked if I could walk some of the way down. After the gradient eased, I hopped back on then, as it flattened out, we stopped to warm up Matthew’s hands and feet again before the final leg of the journey.

Passing our previous wild camping spot, we saw the three white horses that live down here and then, with Matthew a little bit warmer and knowing we were nearly finished, he started to pedal again. That was a big boost and we made excellent time on the road north through Glen Feshie, back to our starting point.

This circuit, on a better day, is a superb gravel ride out into the Cairngorms, with a great sense of remoteness. For us, it certainly was character building – and we still have happy memories from a great day in the mountains.

Route details

Glen Tromie and Glen Feshie

Distance 24 miles / 38km

Terrain Estate tracks, very steep in places, remote

Start/finish Glen Feshie, west side – parking at track junction close to the road-end north of Balnascriten

Map OS Landranger 35; OS Explorer OL56; Badenoch and Strathspey Trailmap

Exploring a new track in the Cairngorms that links the glens of Tromie and Feshie

Click here to see the route in OS Maps