This was my second weekender after the torture of Fort William during the summer, I say torture but I can't actually remember much, apart from the very nasty climb up to drumochter and some very welcome ice cream and apple pie at dalwhinnie :-/. The destination for this weekender is Braemar with two killer/fun climbs, Glenshee and cairn'o'mount to bag. oh joy.

So I was feeling a bit more confident than the last time but this would be my first time with panniers, and to make things worse I had one of those crap panniers which attach to the seat post and make the bike very top heavy!.

A good turnout at the gates meant there was a few wheels to sit on. In total there was Brian Sproul, Iain Rivans, Steve King, Chris McClements, Frankie Dially, Iain Anderson, Iain Galbraith, Dave McCallum, Richard and Mirjam (I think), and Marti.

The route followed was controversial, initially it was planned to head straight to braemar and have a stop at the spittal of glenshee as this was Marti's first weekender, but before long we seemed to be heading along the middle road to dunkeld with the prospect of two monster climbs to tackle, Pitlochry to the moulin moors and then the Glenshee beast. This seemed fine to me as we could be guaranteed two cafe stops, a glimmer of hope which fader later on as we rode straight past the spittal despite protests. Later I would see why it was a good idea to press on and get the cairnwell climb over with

From Dunkeld we took the back road to pitlochry and turned off at Ballinluig to have a coffee stop. After some greasy grub and watery soup, I didn't like it much, it was into pitlochry to stop at the bike shop as Richard discovered his well prepared bike (snigger) had a split in the front tyre. No help at the bike shop as they only had lightweight racing tyres so he had to make do. After sheltering there for a few mins to avoid a heavy shower it was up the big climb to the moulin moors. This was my first time up from pitlochry side and it wasn't to bad as the pace was relaxed, but Brian assured me its a killer if you're trying to hang on a wheel going up, something which he assured me he'd teach me someday!

Going down the other side was a bit wet as there were a few more showers but mostly it was a steady run to Kirkmichael and up to the spittal. Of note were the fortunes of a flock of sheep which we followed for a good half mile at the top of the moulin moors.

From then on the cairnwell starts to loom in the distance and the overcast weather helped to darken the mood. From the bottom to the top this hill is a killer, really the climb starts from the spittal but its not until you get past the keepers cottage at the bottom does the real nasty stuff start. The climb goes around the shoulder of the hill and keeps you from seeing the top until near the end, I thought the corner would never end. The first kilometer averages 10 percent but it gets steeper at the end and the last bit averages at 12 percent. I was glad I had that 25 sprocket at the back as a 23 would have been to much, although it didn't stop Brian. First to the top was Iain Rivans who showed what a good climber he was, although I thing he was seeing stars at the end and his breathing was pretty erratic for a while!

After waiting about at the top for five minutes things got pretty chilly as the ski station there stands at around 2000 feet, so rather than wait on the rest we decided to fly down the other side and get the shopping at Braemar so the others could just get into the hostel and unwind. At this point I really hated by pannier rack as it made controlling the bike at high speed a nightmare, I think I reached around 45 before I started applying the brakes to keep things under control. After the major part of the descent Brain, Iain and I started a mad chase to get back to Richard whod proved a demon descender, but to no avail as we just couldn't bring him back so in the end we sat up, not bad out there on his own, must have been the lighter bike as him and mirjam were travelling light with no panniers at all!

The evening meal was pretty poor in the fife arms and after a few bevys everyone turned in to get some much needed sleep

The next day would see us heading east along deeside and then turning south to head over the cairn'o'mount, from this side a series of steep climbs and steep descents all the way to the top. On the plus side the climb from the south side is twice as hard with sections at the end of 16 percent so we were getting of lightly. First to the top this time was Brian Sproul just outpacing Iain, luckily I had Phils wheel to sit on so we plugged away and eventually reached the top.

The descent down cairn'o'mount for me was even worse than the cairnwell so I backed of completely and met up with everyone down at fettercairn. Not far from fettercairn is edzell which would be the one and only cafe stop for the day! From then on it was a steady run back to dundee over some rolling back roads which proved very relaxing after the mountains climbed in the previous days.

And that was that, the only bad point was we never ever saw marti again. Poor guy must have been exhausted. Its amazing how these weekenders stick in the mind as i'm writing this nearly a year after we finished. hmm now I hope I've got the right weekender...

See you all there next year. Chris