Ballachulish Blast

With inclement weather forecast, and my flaw of list ticking and exploring new (trail) areas's I decided to head over to the West for a mountain bike ride.. It's been ages since I've headed lochaber way and set off reasonably early after dropping Abi at the airport but it still took forever and there were a serious amount of 'bumberly' tourists on the roads.

I reasoned with myself on the drive over that I would attack the ride and try and go quickly for training reasons...

first distraction 

But almost immediately this didn't happen as the first section from Ballachulish along the old railway line towards Oban (now cycleway) was just too scenic and I had to sit by the sea, look at the rocky beach, take some pictures and paddle!

The weather too was hot, 20 degree's and sunny, which was very different to the forecast drizzly day. It felt warm enough to swim, but it was too early on the ride for this... must press on..

imposter on the throne

Then I saw a side trail in the forest to the spot where a famous Scot was murdered hundreds of years ago... So I had to look at this too.. By the time I got to Duror and the forestry section I knew that the ride had very much changed from training to fun..

Cycling up into the forest behind Beinn a Bheithir I saw a sign for another exploratory trail to the birthplace of James Stewart (interesting but barbaric tale, follow the link) ... and well.. I had to look!

This deviation was a great trail, and seeing three young back packers heading out with bags of rubbish made me think that it must be a bothy (I'd imagined a ruin)... The bothy was really cool and included a throne which I amused myself with for far too long.

arty time

Now I was completely off route (I could see the forestry track down in the valley below) I thought well I'm committed to enjoying myself so I'll just carry on and hope the tracks converge (the map wasn't clear). Brilliant single track led East from the bothy and eventually rejoined the main track at the watershed.

lovely trail...

The views had been fine all day, but as I came out of the forest at the head of Gleann an Fhiodh the view to the Mamores was spectacular. Sadly someone was killed by lightning on one a couple of hours after I was stood admiring them. I'd been thinking all day it would have been great up top today, and the weather was so humid that I guess it triggered a storm just after I left the area.

Shinty time

Before I left this view I spent ages taking pictures and felt unbelievably happy and refreshed even though I wasn't getting far on the ride!

There was a bit of bog to navigate in this open valley section that returns you to Ballachulich, but soon the trail became really interesting and quite technical at times with numerous small river crossings..

I rolled into Ballachulich after pausing briefly to watch the shinty match and somehow a 30km ride had taken me 4' 30".. and I felt like I had been out for days as there was so much to see and explore. Really fell in love with this area and it made me realise that this is the kind of ride I love... (slow!)!