The Other Glenshee Run

Nice chilled start to a damp, cool but sunny Sunday morning with a quick bacon roll and a cuppa providing my fuel before hitting the road to fuel my Kawasaki Vulcan S and meet up with Peter Johnson on his BMW R1200 RT, Ali Lazizi on his BMW 750 GS and Ian McIntosh on his BWM R1250 RT at Dobbies in Stirling. We were joined at Dobbies by a prospective new member Niall Findlay on his Black Yamaha MT-10. Niall is based in Duns so hats off as this would turn out to be a long day in the saddle.

With Peter leading the way and Ian playing TEC at the back, we left Dobbies and set off on the A9 north, leaving the motorway at Greenloaning heading towards Crief. At Gilmerton we took the A822 north heading past Amurlee and onto Birnam where we crossed the A9 and headed through Dunkels and onto Blairgowrie and onto the A93 that would take us to the Glenshee Ski Centre for lunch. Food selection wasn’t brilliant but the mushroom soup was enjoyed by the other guys. I maybe should have joined them with the soup but instead had a luke warm steak pie and a similarly heated sausage roll that were satisfactory but not brilliant.

Weather had been a bit hit and miss (cloudy with rain instead of meatballs) in the morning but would clear up for the afternoon. Back on the bikes, we headed south on the A93 towards Dalrulzian where we turned onto the B950 towards Pitlochry. Bypassing Pitlochry we picked up the A9 briefly before a quick pit stop for fuel at the Ballinluig Services (damn my piddly 14L tank). All fuelled up, we left the services west on the A827 towards Kenmore and the north bank of Loch Tay. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) there was a road closure and after much deliberation we headed along the southern bank of Loch Tay on the National Cycle Route #7. This nice bit of single-track was only spoiled by the road surface in several areas. Couple of cars in front of us did the right thing and pulled over to allow us an uninterrupted run into the Falls of Dochart where we parked up for a cuppa and a bit of cake (if available). Before the excellent cake Ian said his goodbyes and headed home to do the hoovering. Tea and cake were had at the excellent Tearoom next to the Falls of Dochart Inn (who had no room at the Inn…deja vu).

With us old guys feeling the hours in the saddle, we set off, towards Mid Lix and the A85 and the nice run past Lochearnhead, Strathyre and Callander to our final destination back at Dobbies in Stirling.

Great day in the saddle only spoilt by cars slowing our progress down but with the saving grace the lovely south bank of Loch Tay and the marvellous views on-route. Good bit of bike chat was had along with tales of skiing in Scotland, motorhomes and global warming. Highlight for me was getting to stand in for Ian as TEC on the final leg where it turned out there was no need for a TEC…I like that type of responsibility.