Ben Lawers Classic loop — Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve

Ben Ghlas might just be my favourite Munro I've ridden! Starting out from the carpark you're already at quite an elevation and from there you've around 700m to ascend whilst initially you can pedal, it quickly becomes a hike-a-bike for the majority. Upon reaching summit 1 of Ben Ghlas, the views are brilliant and ahead of you is a great ridge line section of trail that provides a great warm up for the day ahead. From the saddle you have to continue hiking up to Ben Lawers. It's well established and is basically a staircase to the top. Reaching the summit, the views are beautiful, on a clear day you'll be able to see across Perthshire and through the Glencoe valley. The descent off of it is fun but leaves a little more to be desired for. It's stepped and at times the placing of these make it awkward for bikes to pass through safely. I was happy to reach the bottom of it and ascend back up to Ben Ghlas to ride down what we'd ascended earlier. The descent off of Ben Ghlas was first class, a good mix of challenging sections, some very steep and exposed rock faces, fun switchbacks and even a ridgeline before carving my way through channels back down to the nature reserve and carpark where we'd started from!