Burma Road

Climbing the Burma road out of Aviemore

Looking back at the Burma road descent from the North

This ride mainly follows landrover tracks and fireroads, with only a couple of rocky sections near the Ryvoan Bothy. The Burma Road section of the route can be done as a ride on it's own, but we added on the section to the East of the A9, to make the route a bit longer, and to revisit some areas we crossed on our coast-to-coast cycle earlier in the year.

The weather was excellent (almost too hot at times) when we set off from the campsite in Aviemore, and headed South, to cross the A9 at Lynwilg, and start on the ascent of the Burma Road. There are a couple of SROW signposts, which pointed us in the right direction, before the main climb started for real. The ascent is all cycleable, and it looked like most of the landrover track had been recently resurfaced, which made it slightly easier. It still took us about 35 minutes to reach the summit (about 500m of vertical ascent) mostly spinning away in our low gears. Once at the top you get a great view of the next section of the ride stretching out in front of you, as well as back down over the Spey Valley where you started.

The first descent is long and fast, and you continue along the track until you reach the second bridge, where the route heads North, following the Dulnain river. This is all pretty flat, or slightly downhill, so you get the benefit of the long ascent from earlier. Some of the cycling along this section is reminiscent of high mountain meadows in Canada, with the path snaking through the long grass, with even a couple of ruined shacks thrown in to make the scene complete. Continuing along this main track takes you out at Insharn, where you join an offroad section of National Cycle Route 7, which follows one of General Wades Military Roads. These roads have been a source of much debate in our group in the past, with certain members unhappy with the shear hilliness of the routes chosen by "The Boy Wade" (the Corrieairyack in the rain springs to mind) but this one was much more enjoyable, although that could have been due to the fine weather. Once we reached Sluggan bridge, we continued to follow the Wade road, until it reached the A9, and crossed the railway line. At this point we re-joined NCR 7, for a short road section into Boat of Garten, where a particularly welcome ice cream was waiting.

The Ryvoan Pass

After a long lunch, we continued along the road, past the RSPB reserve at Loch Garten, before leaving the minor road to head through the Abernethy forest reserve. There are probably some off road variations in this section, but we were unsure of the status, as they run through a nature reserve, so we thought it best just to take the minor road. Once we joined the forest road to the East of Tore Hill, we were back on familiar territory. The route climbs steadily from Forest Lodge, following the main track, until it reaches the high point at Ryvoan Bothy. Then the reward for more climbing was another long descent to Loch Morlich. We resisted the temptation of an ice cream from the visitor centre, and headed off round the cycle trails on the South and East side of the loch, eventually emerging at the Cairngorm Club Footbridge. From here we followed the paths down to Loch an Eilein, and then the minor road back to Aviemore, via a quick stop in Bothy Bikes.

The route was about 45 miles in total, and took us about 6.5 hours altogether, including stops. Although not technical, the scenery (helped by the weather) make it one of the more memorable rides we have done, and it comes highly recommended.

Posted: 05/08/06