We stayed in the Hilton which is an ideal location for families to stay to explore the Cairngorm area with lots of activities on site and nearby. A bit pricey and very busy but very handy for the kids.

First outing on the bike was to the spectacular Loch An Eilein with my eldest daughter who was thoroughly enjoying herself until she spotted the killer black slugs along the trail! This triggered much upset and involved tears and such like! Anyone have a cure for irrational fears??

Click Link for Endomondo Track

Another bit of bother on this cycle was my chain kept coming off and gears kept ghost shifting, It appears I had bent something falling off a log so I had to pop my bike into Bothy Bikes  whilst I was at Treezone just accross the road to get fixed allowing me to get out again that afternoon for another ride.

I had intended to ride to the summit of Bynac More however due to time constraints I had to cut my journey short by a couple of miles. However it was still a very much worthwhile route Endomondo link

This is An Lochan Uaine which is along the route and the water is an amazing colour worthwhile stopping for a look on the way past. I managed to collect 6 punctures on this route and ran out of spare tubes and repair patches so I would recommend being fully prepared for any eventuality as you are venturing out into the mountains and far from civilization.

The Aviemore area is a fantastic destination for outdoor activities and we regulary visit. There is so much to do for all abilities and ages in the area that I think it is well worth a visit.

Links to google maps provided.

Lime Kiln Loop Starting off in the village of Reay approx 11 miles of forestry road with a bit of overgrown rough track on the way back down. You can avoid the boggy rough bit by retracing you steps back to the bottom by always following the better condition track, However you will miss seeing the Lime Kiln if you do this.

Loch More Loop Park at the start of the forestry road and you can do a 16 mile loop via Altnabreac past Loch Dhu, Dalnawillan and then back to the start. All on forestry or estate roads  with fairly gentle hills, Road surface is pretty good for most of the way.

Rumster Loop Short but fun loop round Rumster forest.

Holburn Head A short and fun route than can be completed from Thurso, Ideal if you dont want to be driving to go out on your bikes.

Broubster Forest Again a short section of forestry road, A selection of dead end roads to explore, If you keep turning left on the way in you will have a fairly steady uphill for most of the way but that means downhill on the way back and you can pick up quite a bit of speed.

Golspie Wildcat Trails (not strictly in Caithness!!!) Checkout www.highlandwildcat.com for more info.

This list will be updated as I explore more areas in and around the county of Caithness and surounding areas. If you have a favourite route drop me a comment and let me know about it .

Cheers

Donnie

Beware there may be a risk of ticks in some of these places! Give yourself a good check when you get home.

Unfortunately water was a bit low but we went out anyway to explore this river. It started off with a slow moving grade 1 bimble before it turned steeper and faster flowing. Although a bit of bump and scrape we could see the potential for fun with more water. After a few small rapids and a nice shute the river started to narrow as it approached a steep walled in gorge section. The entrance rapid to the narrow gorge was a double drop with a 90 degree bend at the bottom. The potential to get stuck half way down was obvious and quite difficult to protect properly with only the 2 of us paddling. A fairly quick decision was made to walk this one and wait for another day with a bigger team and slightly more water.

The next rapid in the gorge looked a bit more straight forward and after a few hums and haws it was decided to run it. Gavin made it down first and gave the signal for me to follow. On the entrance to the drop I hit a rock that knocked me offline causing me to miss the correct line into the next part of the rapid and caused me to drop off a ledge sideways instead of straight on. The bow of my boat hit the side of the gorge and turned me sideways promptly causing my stern to jam on a rock on the opposite side. I was well and truly pinned/broached at the bottom of the rapid. I sat for a few seconds as the water poured over my boat and I could feel my upstream edge dropping under the force of the water.
With that in mind and also the fact I was concerned about my boat folding on me I decided to swim out before I ended up in an even stickier situation. I shouted to Gavin who looked more worried than I felt that I was going to swim out. I popped my deck and the boat immediately filled and sunk deeper as I clambered out and swam bumped and bounced to the edge. The boat was now completely submerged and well and truly jammed, I am glad I was not still in the thing at this point. A bit of nifty rope work and a lot of hauling later my boat was free and making its way down stream to the eddy below. At one point I was thinking that I would be walking to the bottom and coming back another day in lower water to retrieve my boat. The hauling was made a bit more difficult due to the fact some of the rocks were covered in sheet ice and were treacherously slippy. Sometime in the whole procedings I sliced a small part of my thumbnail off and burst a few knuckles and gathered quite a few bumps on the swim out. Today I am sore and starting to realize how serious the whole escapade could of been.  Maybe that was one rapid that should also have been saved for another day. I got back on and paddled the rest of the section without a problem although Gavin did mange to get stuck half way down one of the last rapids for a while. He managed to shuffle/push himself back into the flow and carry on to the bottom.

The last bit after we came out of the gorge was mainly a boulder garden with too many boulders and not enough water. 6 inches more water would of made the whole run a lot more fun.

Should I of walked that rapid and avoided the pin,  should I of paddled the rapid?

I am not sure as I think I have learned a lesson from it. Would I paddle it again under the same circumstances I would say no. With more water and more paddlers the answer would be yes.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=uk&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=214214879053063722745.00049da7b17a466b75310

What I hope to do over time is compile a selection of my favourite mountain bike routes online so that I can share them with the world. I Have had some disasterous route due to following what looks like a track or path on a map only to find overgrown unpassable or treacherous places that I have not enjoyed. I have also found a lacking of info availible on the web for places to try so keep tuned in over the next while as I try to share some of my routes and a few notes of info about them.
Cheers
Donnie

Just recently received my new phone, a HTC legend. This is one of these fancy smartfone type things. I found a WordPress app so I thought I would have a go at creating a mobile blogpost.  I am afraid I don’t have much exiting news other than my thumb is starting to get back to normal. Hopefully if I have done this correctly there should also be a  picture attached to this post.

I decided to try and make myself a nice sturdy knife….. This is where things got a bit tricky. What do I need how do I do it etc. Now I do have a bit of knowledge of metalworking from my days at college during my apprenticeship many moons ago so decided to embark on a refresher trip of fact finding. With the help of my good friends youtube and google I soon found a wealth of information to help me on my way.

First of all I selected an old rusty file from my tool box and this was to be the donor metal for my wee project. Then I needed to anneal the hard steel so I could work with it. The BBQ was loaded up with charcoal and the heat treatment began. So after a long time in the BBQ (overnight) I went out to the garden to retrieve my trusty old file. Now that it was suitably softened and suitably cool it was time to drill holes in the handle and use another file to shape the blade. A couple of hours of sweating and swearing later my knife had roughly the shape I wanted.  Now the tricky bit. Time to re harden the steel.

This involved the BBQ loads of charcoal and my wife’s hair-dryer to help the forge (BBQ) reach the temperatures required to re harden my knife. Now apparently the correct temperature is when the steel is no longer magnetic so every now and then I would take my knife out and stick a magnet to it, on one of these attempts I managed to vaporise the fingerprints from one of my fingers when my finger tip brushed against the nearly red hot piece of metal! (Not actually as sore as it sounds) Once I got the temperature correct the blade requires quenching in some water to cool it quickly. This now left me with a hard but brittle blade. The next step was to clean up the piece of metal to make it nice and shiny so that I could temper it. I did this by putting it in the oven and keeping an eye on it until it turned a straw colour. This indicates that the blade is now tempered which means hard enough to take an edge but not so brittle that it will shatter!

I sourced a couple of hardwood offcuts to make the handle and this is where things got messy and sore. Whilst cutting the wood to make my knife handle this happened!!!!!

This hurt more than you could imagine

My saw slipped and came to an abrupt halt embedded in my thumb. So thumb in mouth I went to the first aid box and bandaged it up. After about 5 minutes the pain was getting unbearable so I got the wife to take me to A&E to get checked out. The first hospital sent me to another hospital where they cleaned the cut bandaged it up and gave me a tetanus injection. Which made my arm swell up and hurt like a biatch for a few days!!  The picture above was taken 3 days after the injury occured. It is now a full week after my injury and my finger is still a bit tender and I can see it being quite a while before it gets back to strength. On insection of the saw afterwards I removed several small pieces of bone from its teeth!!! I really do need to be more careful in future.
However I can now do a limited amount stuff again so decided to complete the job in hand. Luckily for me the wife is away for a few days as I think she would of had a turry murry if she caught me with a saw in my hand again! Thanks to one of my mates who provided me with a rather fetching pair of work gloves I was confident that I would not be repeating the injury.  So after much cutting shaping rubbing down I manufactured a nice couple of pieces of wood to glue and pin to my knife. The finished job can be seen below!

It may not be a Ray Mears Woodlore knife or a Rambo survival knife but I am quite delighted with the outcome and the fact it was all done in a very much handmade and simple fashion has impressed me. I have yet to chop any trees down or slay any marauding zombies but I am sure it will function perfectly well for its intended use. My next project will be to source some leather and manufacture a sheath for it. However I think that will have to wait until the thumb is substantially better due to the dexterity I think the job will require. If I remember when I am making the sheath I will try and take photos of the process and not end up in A&E.

With a sprinkling of fairy dust!

This was her out on her plastic skis age 2

This was her age 4 (the winter just past)

The older one is doing very well too!

Can we try this one now dad?

The older one who is now 8 Skied from top to bottom of Cairngorm last winter in what I can only describe as zero visibility conditions on the upper mountain. She did so well and I think next winter she will be away and I will not be able to keep up with her!

This was her in 2008

Footage from winter 2009/2010 was sadly lacking due to not many trips away and poor conditions. However we did have a couple of great days at the Lecht but by the time I stopped got my camera out and switched it on the wee troll was at the bottom of the slope and back in the lift queue!

Do you think she like the snow?

When the weather and the finances are in it I also try and venture south to proper Scottish Resorts. So far I have been to Cairngorm and the Lecht a few times. I hope to be able to add Nevis Glencoe and Glenshee to the list in the not too distant future.