The Uncertain Path I A Cairngorms Bikepacking Film I 2023

A trip we’d been planning for years.

An ambitious route around the biggest, wildest and most remote national park in the UK, the Cairngorms.

A story of letting curiosity lead you astray, a tale with twists and turns, moral dilemmas and beautiful meetings in lonely places.

A trip filled with wild natural beauty but also one that would change the course of our cycling for good.

It really made an impression on us and we’re really excited to share the video with you.

Thanks for watching!
Josh & Sarah

Come Find Us On FB & Insta @joshandsarahride ✌📷🎥

All music from Artlist: https://artlist.io/referral/2557477/Joshua

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#bikepacking #cairngorms #scotland #cinematic

We leave after work and cycle the 15 miles to the train station we cross National borders and Capital Cities we’re on our way to the largest national park in the UK the kangs are right in the heart of the Scottish islands a rugged and remote land and it’s somewhere we’ve dreamed of

Cycling for a very long time this is a story of letting curiosity Lead You astray a tale with twist and turns moral dilemas and beautiful meetings in lonely places a trip filled with such natural beauty but also one that would changed the course of our cycle for Good and our Story begins with a late arrival about minus one it’s quite chilly quite cold we cycled here in the pitch black and there was lots of mist as well which was really really atmospheric but it means we have no idea what is around us what’s around us which

It means tomorrow morning it’s going to be quite a nice surprise it felt strange finally in the land we’ve been fix exited on for years train cancellations Hospital operations and bad luck had foiled previous attempts but here we were brigh eyed and bushy tailed about to set off for an ambitious

Off-road loop around the kangom you ready to properly experience where we are yeah to fill the freze the sun is coming out it has risen above minus one now so everything is just starting to melt so I’m starting to FL out as well I’m excited to cycle yeah

I’m really excited really excited to see this FY this trip starts slowly setting off in the fog filled with excited nerves after such a long buildup our imaginations had created this elaborate picture and we were really eager to see how that compared to reality so we got here at night and we couldn’t

Really see I we still can’t see that much but it’s so beautiful with these Misty trees we knew there was tough riding ahead pedaling towards wonderfully wild and remote environments inspiring but unforgiving lands that would require caution but in this peaceful fog that all seemed Worlds Away

It’s pretty good we don’t have F to go yeah this can’t stop but just taking it all in it’s just incredible it’s so beautiful so atmospheric today was our easiest day we could allow ourselves to get LED astray by these atmospheric Landscapes we just had a simple objective make it to a body

And not just anybody we were just speaking with a local and he made it sound incredible so this body has rooms and running water and even a compost toilet which is a lot more luxurious than we ever encountered so it sounds amazing we pressed further south gradually pulling away from the heavy

Fog you could see the nature of the route changing this was our first glance at the vast landscape around us civilization was behind us and ahead lay this dense abyss of rock and Earth trees Rivers streams and ecosystems this was a land famous AED for big bold adventures and to really

Experience the park this seemed like the best approach for us too following this route along we cross the Glen fleshy fleshy fleshy fleshy and then find this body bothy bothy bothy this wasn’t the bothy but we did need to cross the river the fesi to get to it

Oh seems it’s going to be a bridge we can’t get across there yeah we’re just going to have to go slowly slowly it’s a bloody River we’re going to get wet it’s a glen fresy it’s Freez it’s literally freezing there is ice on the ground well ready take

Shoes I’m not what if we fall over I’m not then we get to the body as quickly as we can this is the only way yeah turns out six of the bridges that were still marked on the OS Maps had been washed away in floods thankfully though Sarah remembered there was said

To be one still standing a little F last crossing over the fishy always M it you ready for a river crossing I and to think that we nearly waited through yes so glad we did it thank you at last bridge over the fishy but there was still more River

Crossings to go before we could find shelter for the night it was cold and wet our bikes were heavy and the trail testing but there’s a special kind of happiness you get from a good Adventure in a new land the beauty of this day was we were enthralled by the world around us

Embracing The More Physical aspects of the root and we had the time to take it all in this icy makeshift Bridge was a highlight rather than an obstacle we took our time grinning throughout knowing the bothy was only a short distance away we found it I think we made this

Wood it’s hard to believe that this is a b it’s bigger than our house let’s go in excited let’s go in now we’ve been to our fair share of bothies but this felt more like an inn that time had forgotten so we have decided that we’re going to

Sleep upstairs tonight we’ve chosen our bedroom because this B is so big it has rooms we’re going to get cozy and I think we’re going to eat some lunch because we’ve not actually had lunch yet so but it’s about what 4:00 p.m. it’s only it’s about 400 p.m. I say only but

I mean it’s starting to get dark already maybe think about dinner in an hour or two the walls were in olated there was beautiful woodwork throughout all the cooking pots and pans and Cutlery you could need two fires Ray sleeping platforms and little glimpses of culture and identity hanging on the walls and

Again it was XL firep chili big one and that porridge chili was all right the porridge was with bothy I love that you never know what you’re going to find you could have the place to yourself you could be sharing with a military Squad doing Mountain training as we have before or

Like this evening you could be joined by friendly local bike Packer happy to share lots of useful Trail information and interesting stories and on this trip we really locked out with our fellow bothy guests we’re talking in for the night tomorrow is seeming like a hard day a big question mark and the

Next few days are seem like a big question mark yeah so we may have to rethink things going to another situation where we have potentially been enough more than we can do potentially we’ll see you in the morning good night over breakfast we had a little chat with

Our new friend about our route he’d mentioned that with the tricky terrain the short days and conditions we might be hard pushed to complete our Loop in time for the return train home we knew it would be an ambitious trip but this did make us a little

Hesitant a little pep talk today’s going to be um I think very hard mhm so we got to work as a team mhm and we can get through it together I agree yeah yeah we agreed to push ahead sensibly and see how we got along a really big thank you to Fi we’re

So grateful for all the helpful information not sure where we’re going to end up no but we got about minimum of 20 25 mil to do and lots of warnings from people for different things bit of a bad forecast with apparently like a rainy front coming in soon okay let’s go

And this is where the nature of our video takes a bit of a turn Sarah is a tough cookie and she was fine the problem wasn’t actually the sketchy Trail this aspect we were loving apparently there’s two hairy like rock for bits fell down the first bit

The so I think we made it over the two hair if not yeah hairy must be really hairy teamwork got us through we had a lot of miles to cover in not much time the problem was we were barely covering ing any ground and right now our looped

Route was taking us further and further away from the train station there were no shortcuts he was either push ahead or turn around we could still make the train in 48 hours if we rode in darkness and didn’t allow for any distractions but that just wasn’t sitting right but it’s beautiful just

Yeah I think if we weren’t trying to rush be very different we’d waited years to come to this beautifully rugged land now it just felt like we were rushing around to the train station highlights felt like obstacles the landscape something to slow us down rather than to

Mar and so we stood in the rain feeling very torn deliberating what to do I can confirm it’s not easy a second time round it never feels great turning back but we asked ourselves why’ we come to the kangor and we realized the answer had changed over the years what do you want

To go over the other side yeah I’ll pass it to you you pass it to me we realized we were just we were just constantly rushing and there were so many things we wanted to take and we weren’t really yeah we weren’t taking in the landscape

At all we were feeling quite stressed I think as well from the rushing and not really Eno like we came in this trip to sort of enjoy this area and really take it into something that we’ve never been before and we weren’t doing that at all years ago we were happier cycling hard

And pushing ourselves that was our motivation but now it was the landscape that made us happi the meetings along the trail and the smaller details you only notice when you slow down there such beautiful trees the plan is go slow avoid Saddles saw that’s the main thing

Avoid Saddles saw for Sarah and yeah just to make most of a place that we’re probably not going to get back to for quite a while it’s beautiful and so we did just that we backtracked and replanned and immediately The Joy came back to the Run we could enjoy the challenges of the

Train again go they felt like many successes beautifully done rather than setbacks piece of cake the kangs are so wonderfully rugged this change of pace meant we could soak it all up for grins on our faces again I don’t know about you but I’ve decided that these places are too beautiful to

Rush yes I am in agreeance with you are you in agreeance with me yes I’m glad you’re in agreeance with me meun and so we took one hell of a big slow detour on the way to a different bothy we live in this big beautiful world filled with intricacies and

Details and so far this trip had really been a reminder you experience so much more of it if you slow down Okay what’s the plan to go slow take the T it’s so beautiful here that is really really beautiful it’s so vast I mean we weren’t planning to explore all while we were here but even the small parts we are exploring it feels like we need weeks more to really make the most of

Them but it’s just been amazing really really loving it and it’s really nice sort of the last day of riding to have such good weather and such a good temperature so we’ll get up to this bothy and enjoy our last night sadly but it just means we got to come [Applause] back

When you’re eager to visit an experience somewhere it’s quite easy to attempt too much weed overlooked the subtle for the obvious assumed simpler options might be less rewarding this turned out to be one of Europe’s largest surviving areas of ancient Woodland a beautifully dense ecosystem filled with rare wildlife and

A vast network of amazing bike tracks and even though we felt miles away it was right next to ayore the place we got the train to rainy empty beautiful woodlanders it’s amazing yeah and it smells so good with all these sort of Pines in the rain it smells really really good you can

Just hear little sounds of rain on on your waterproof really nice the bothy was 5 mil off and the sun was slowly setting we sat and chatted for a long time we confirmed the obvious our older more grueling style of bik trips weren’t doing it for us anymore we’d always thought Adventures

Needed to be big gold and testing and that’s how we planned trips even when it stopped working for us but we were now realizing the best trips were the ones that made you happiest I think we’d be more open-minded going ahead and so we set off content with our

Leisurely chat and slow pace pedaling toward towards a bothy night we wouldn’t forget so we got about 3 miles of the body bothy and it seems to all be uphill but um as expected yeah I’m looking forward to beding down actually I’m a bit naked yeah temperatures dropping wind picking up Fire’s on

How you feeling yeah bit tired bit sweaty final rest and sweat but I’m happy to be here we unloaded the bikes St them inside and found this trip had at least one more surprise in store for it it’s chance encounters like this which make life and bothy so special this is

Quite likely the only night of our Lives will sleep in this bothy and very likely the same for these two lovely musicians traveling from America at the end of tough days on outdoor trips if battery permits we treat ourselves to some soothing folk music played from our phone so this

Meeting felt very surreal but like it was meant to be we tucked into a bottle of Gango wild capat and it all felt Perfect sometimes you just know you’re experiencing something you won’t forget we were very grateful to our new friends and in exchange provided them with beer and wood for the fire oh Wow the last meal cooked slowly whilst reflecting on the trip a simple meal we dehydrated at home but that tasted perfect too I think the best trips teach you something we’ learned that in places like the ks less can be so much more and that the best route is the one that

Makes you happiest keep open-minded and see where it takes You so the final morning of the trip before we get back to the train station really calm and peaceful sort of here in the house just so all you can hear is running water yeah andless she gr flying around knowing that you can just go anywhere and explore that like the Open

Access it just feels that much more inviting and it had this feel to it that was just very very different more like this is land for you to explore and for you to look after as well and the know just felt like a real sort of gift in

That way the area we have just scratched the surface and I quite like that but for now we pack our stuff up yeah try and not wake our musical inhabitants and then a 15 M cycle back home we just Lu My is it your we’d written things off for the end of the trip but the rain cleared and we got one last little surprise incredible such beautiful so beautiful and we thought that the ride home it’s just it’s on the road it wasn’t going to be too impressive did this

Sun look it with the mest in the Sun so so beautiful amazing absolutely incredible that was a bang at the end where are we going AB where are we abore where are we leaving soon abore a worldwind trip filled with twists and TS moral dilemmas and beautiful meetings in lonely places a

Trip filled with such natural beauty but also one that would change the course of US cycling for good thanks for watching folks catch you next time