A Ride Of Two Halves

Things go from sublime to ridiculous on this increasingly challenging ride from the Linn of Dee.

- Alex Corlett

IF we’d known how it was going to end,would we have started today’s ride? Idon’t know, to be honest.

I was riding with my friend Roland and before we’d even arrived at the Linn of Dee we’d confessed that we’d both thought of cancelling on each other.

It was a showery Sunday after a heavy week, and the waves of rain that washed loudly across the van on the way to Braemar were pretty discouraging.

But getting out is always better than staying in, isn’t it? I was sure of it.

Our route would take us right in the heart of the Cairngorms, but with very little ascent. Beautiful country with minimal effort, you might think. You would be wrong.

It is beautiful though – from the moment we left the Linn of Dee car park, this felt like a definitively Highland experience. Scots pine surround the car park, before the track leads into a wide valley with mountains rolling off into the distance like a stormy ocean of rock.