I've wanted to do this route for a number of years and came close last Autumn, nearly talking Kev into it, but the weather wasn't quite right (too cold). After completing it today I think that it's good we didn't do it at that time as it was pretty tough even in more favourable conditions.
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| Misty forest |
Leaving home and the Black Isle I headed over the bridge on the heavily laden bike and stopped briefly in Inverness to top up food supplies. The Haar was in, murky, misty with droplets of water in the air as I cycled through Inverness and up the hill to join the Great Glen Way.
I though that this weather would improve quite quickly but it stayed with me as I munched the miles through dank forest and high moor top roads to Abriachan. It slightly improved beyond this point as I headed to Drumnadrochit, this section I have only ridden once and its a nice mix of forest trails with occasional views through the heavy forest.
Drum is an odd mix (for me) and because of Nessie land blaring out bag pipe music from its (awful looking) visitor centre I didn't linger. From this point on the trail was all new to me. Some lovely section's of old packhorse trail lined with flowering black thorn, and trails through forest, ancient croft land, all great fun.
My goal had been getting beyond Fort Augustus before camping.. but this didn't quite work out.. maybe I should have left before 11am I guess. By around 5.30pm I was tired and started thinking I would stop for the night, well short of the 'Fort'.
I found a nice spooky forest edge and camped there, near Invermoriston (35 miles from home). It was dark, but had a peaceful feel, from camp I could see out beyond it with far reaching views of loch ness. After my freeze dried Daal I had a great nights sleep, occasionally waking to the sound of an owl.
In the morning I was rudely awoken at 6am by either a deer or boar making some odd noises fairly close to camp... Oh well I guess I should move, so I packed up, stuffed a banana and headed onwards thinking that I would hit a cafe in Fort Augustus for breakfast.
Of course there were no normal looking cafe's in Fort Augustus (mainly tourist shops), and very little was open, so I loaded up with food and a coffee from the garage as the drizzle started.
Even though I have wanted to ride the Corrieyairack Pass for years after seeing some pictures of the high voltage power line which also runs the route I thought it may not be overly scenic. I was kind of wrong, the start is beautiful, and it's a nice steady gradient. It goes on for ages (in a good way), and after a scenic traverse I passed the empty bothy with fresh ?swallow nest right above the door and an amusing wifi information sheet inside, which I had to try even though I knew it was a joke!
The power lines do join close to the pass on the final section to the top of the pass where I had a really close encounter with a Hare which seemed to want to get to know me, staying 2-3m away for ages.
I was quite relieved to get to the summit as by that point I was knackered. I didn't bother closely looking at the map and just assumed I would be down around Newtonmore to get the train back in approximately 1-2 hours (oops).
The descent was great, and long, but after dropping a lot of height I was a little surprised when some locals at another bothy mentioned it was still 10 miles to Laggan, and probably another 6-8 beyond that to Newtonmore.
The train situation from Newtonmore to Inverness was limited, 1pm, or 5pm. I'd missed the 1pm, probably arriving there around 3pm. In the end 'Abi's cabbie' came to collect me from Ralia and saved me waiting around for 2hours.
It was a great ride, quite tough, 78 miles in total, with 9347 ft of ascent (2848m). I was definitely glad I finished when I did as the rain re-started. I wonder if Kev will be keen to repeat it..!?
