With autumn approaching and the nights drawing in, and with club activities curtailed, if I wanted to go deeper into the hills from off of a bus route, then 2 wheels would be needed to extend range and cut time. Only a few of Aberdeen’s buses will take a bike (the larger coaches, which are randomly allocated) but I have a secret weapon: a folding bike.

Not any old folding bike, but a rare airnimal rhino, which unusually has full suspension, bmx wheels larger than most folders, and is robust and cairngorm-trail-ready: it can hammer down trails that would shatter a brompton into a pile of scrap. Sure, it’s quite heavy and ‘fold’ is more ‘dismantle’ but it ends up in a large holdall that makes it onboard the bus under the suspicious eye of the grumpiest driver.

The forecast was quite good, but escaping the confines of Slugain, it’s a moody sky rolling over the munro tops

Parking up the bike at the falls of the Glas Allt Mor, poles were deployed and propelled me upwards – I planned to half run/hike up, run most of the downs where possible to keep to a fairly tight time schedule.

Just over half an hour later I’m at the sneck where I had a quick look down the fine view of slochd mor before heading up into the clag on the plateau

The crossing of the plateau to the main tor is mostly cloud-bound, but the occasional rift washes open great vistas – some great cloud caps to the south

I don’t stop at the main tor today, I want to go and and explore some of the others that I’ve never visited. The first (1147) is only a couple hundred metres away.

I pondered heading over to Clach Choutsaich, a bit more distant and then theonward journey would have needed descent/reascent so decided against it with a schedule to keep to. I headed back past the main top and onwards towards Carn Eas to the south-west.

After a clamber back down to the path i had been on earlier, I had to return to where the bike was stashed and then continue upwards following the Allt Dearg. The path tracks the side of the burn but fizzles out as it gets higher. It looks like you could follow the burn all the way up to get on to the Beinn a Bhuird plateau. It’s more of a climb up to the level of the first lochans than I’d thought (should have paid more attention to the map contours) – about 150m of ascent. The going once off the path is quite lumpy too.

I could have happily bumbled around the lochan looking for the perfect viewpoint, but I also want to try and find a little known howff nearby – the Smith-Winram bivouac. How much searching it will take is uncertain, and I also want to visit the higher Dubh Lochan (not lochain) and can see that there’s a fair ascent over bouldery terrain to get there.

I plowed on uphill over a boulder field to see the main lochan, but worthwhile as it’s located surrounded by an impressive craggy ampitheatre.

Arriving back at the bike, it was time to get a boogie on as I’d be cutting it fine to get down to keiloch and dismantle the bike in time for my bus. There are only a few evening buses, the final one would be a wait of a few hours. The day almost over, the sun began to power through and the skies cleared, ach, typical.

I couldn’t resist a spin through fairy glen albeit I needed to walk the bike down parts – the 20″ wheels finding a limit of safety amongst the angular boulders on parts of the track here. Hammering downhill afterwards I made good time, the rhino soaking up regular trail no bother – a bit more care required splashing through small fords as the small wheels are easily deflected. Overtook a few hikers on their full sized bikes at speed, shame to not join them and blether our way back – fortunately the bus was a few minutes late, and just made it. It is a bit of a faff dismantling the bike (particularly under a bit of pressure) but without it I couldn’t have done this trip, a great day out. Total bike distance 24km, total on foot 20km