Glas Tulaichean on a mountain bike

Distance - 7miles to Summit

Height climbed - 690 metres (2263 feet) (summit Height is 3440 feet)

Time taken - 2 hours to summit, 45 minutes back to car

Terrain - stony landrover track all the way

I have been wanting to do this route on a bike for ages, having walked it a few years ago - after all it is mountain biking so it was about time I got to the top of a Munro (mountain over 3000 ft) on my bike. Starting on the road to the Dalmunzie House Hotel, you can park just beyond the Spittal of Glenshee (see map). You can if you wish pay £2 to park at the Dalmunzie hotel, but on a bike there really is no need.

From here you follow the road up to the Dalmunzie hotel, passing this by on your left and carrying on until you come to a farmyard. take a left in the courtyard and go through a gate. The track is obvious. Follow the track until you come to another gate, passing a few cows on the way) Here the main track goes straight on and veers to the left and then fords a burn. Unfortunately I did not realise that instead of passing the burn I could have turned right up the hill to meet a dismantled railway line (see map). Crossing the burn - in spate in the middle of July - left me cold and wet before I had even gone 2 miles. Either way you carry on up the valley for about another 2-3 miles until you reach a ruined lodge. This marks the end of the dismantled railway line. if, like me, you have crossed the burn once, you then have to cross it again to meet the lodge. Despite being further upstream the crossing was deeper here and had me up to my waist in fast flowing icy cold water (OOh the cold sppon effect). If you keep to the railway line then there are bridges to keep you nice and dry, although in the wet there was quite a lot of surface water on the dismantled railway line( I descended that way) and the going would be slightly harder going uphill than the main track as the terrain is more uneven!

From the lodge an unmistakable track heads much more steeply from this point up the face of the hill. The first half a mile or so is just about bike-able, but after a while the track did flatten out quite a bit. The track heads NE up the face of the hill for some time, taking you to just under 3000 feet, before it takes a slight right hand bend North towards the summit. Again most of this is bike-able if, unlike me, you have any push left in your legs. The trail heads up to almost the very summit - here you will have to turn off the main landrover track and follow a grassy path for a few hundred yards to the summit trig point.

A quick refreshment stop and then its back to the car - 100% ride-able all the way down. It took me 45 minutes without really pushing it to get to the car, The descent is well worth the push up and the smell of burning disk brakes will fill up your senses as you descend all too quickly to the lodge.