Bike pack from home

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.

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..!?

The Strathconnon Experience

To be honest I've done a lot of Scottish skiing this winter, more than probably the last 2 winters already. It's a strange situation with Covid, restricted travel, and not allowed to see people etc, but I feel quite lucky that I have a job at least. During this lockdown (number 2) we are told to 'stay at home', but legally I can travel anywhere within my local authority area (I can actually go 5 miles out of it) for exercise, which is the whole of the Highlands. It's a strange message and when I look on social media I now notice lots of outdoor folk are either not going out (and saying this, making a point of posting old photo's), going locally, and making sure they type on every line of their post that their adventure 'was local' (most), or some are travelling more widely (very few).

So this winter just happens to be a one in 10 years winter, weeks and weeks of snow and sub zero weather - brilliant. I'm trying to ski as much as possible always conscious that a thaw must come soon. 

Loz is (almost) cursing this winter. He's a prolific and very good winter climber, but the sheer amount of snow with very little freeze thaw has meant winter climbing has been limited. We have had 2 aborted trips to try and winter climb lately, and the 2nd was yesterday. We'd planned well, picking low ice climbing, knowing that it's been cold enough to form. We checked the wind direction that the snow was due to arrive on, so in theory yesterdays climb should have been clear, blasted by the wind. 

We headed to Strathconnon and started following some skiers ahead on a snowy track. It was hard work, post holing in deep snow. I had been kind to Loz, not going on my ski's as he hasn't got any ski boots at the moment and with lockdown is struggling to get some. 

After a few hours we got to within sight of the crag sitting above a small but beautiful Caledonian Pine Forest. The snow was 1-2 feet deep, but the main problem was that the crag, and ice was absolutely plastered in snow! After considering the situation we binned it and headed home, later to find out that the skiers had logged the route but commented on UKC how poor it was with rotten ice and too much snow to clear/wade through.

But with a day off I decided I would go back to the same area for a ski tour, which made so much more sense than trying to wade to a climb. I loaded up and headed owt!

Even from the start easily skinning up the buried track was great and so much easier than yesterday. I got to the col and took in the seemingly endless tundra before me before ripping off the skins and gliding down to the forest. The powder in here was surreal! between .5 and 1m deep. Its a small forest with a track through it (buried under snow), lots of deer were sheltering in the forest as I slid through. Near the bottom I noticed that yesterdays skier/climbers had headed up to the crag, so I stuck the skins on and headed up following their tracks to look at the crag in more detail. 

Once I headed down again it was surreal tree skiing! I wish I'd set up the camera, but I was too excited to do this! The transitions in meter deep soft snow were annoying enough without adding extra ones in to retrieve the camera!

I popped out of the forest into Glen Orrin and sat on an old pine and had lunch looking at the Strathfarrar Munro's ahead.

From here I followed the River Orrin towards the Loch/dam. It felt wild rolling country as I moved on mile after mile. My plan was to then get to a shooting bothy I'd seen on the map before turning left and going over a low hill to get back to my outward track. 

I'd spent quite a while taking pictures and when I looked at the time and it was 3pm I knew I needed to hustle! The low angle ridge seemed to go on for a while, but eventually I hit the top and the amazing 360 degree views. I'd picked a low tour for the better snow (more wind affected higher up), and low angle as the avalanche risk is quite high at present on certain aspects.

From this minor top to my return track was an absolute joy, silky smooth fresh snow on a hard base and no-one had skied anywhere near this slope! Fresh tracks!

The way out was uneventful thankfully (there's a bit of a toboggan section) and I took off the ski's at the farm walking back to the van on the road tired but smiling. As I sat on the back of the van changing boots it started to gently snow. I think the perfect Highland ski day. Amazing 

Time for a hill day out West

Apologies to my one blog reader I've been a little rubbish lately! Ebbs and flows dude! 

Okay, need to concentrate... Actually it's nice to pull together some nice pictures after a great day in the hills, and that was what I definitely experienced last Saturday.

The NW looked the best weather so I decided to head Ullapool way as I couldn't face a super early start! A few years ago I/we had a very memorable day climbing Penguin Gully on Beinn Dearg. What's memorable is an early start, longggg walk in into a head wind with Loz, Shaw and Judith, a long fun winter route followed by a longgg walk out in the dark. To be fair this was our second day winter climbing   and walking out in the dark I was so knackered that I was hallucinating thinking that path side rocks were sheep! We then had a dinner party at Loz and Gemma's which was great, but boy oh boy was I tired! A very memorable time!

This previous trip left me with 3 Munro's to explore in the area next to Beinn Dearg. This time I learnt from before and took my bike for the initial couple of miles through the forestry (boy oh boy this was nice on the return). 

It was a great start to the day at first light and I headed in on the familiar track to Beinn Dearg. My solitude was slightly broken as I caught and overtook another very friendly and chatty walker. The light was beautiful as the sun rose as I passed a lochan and got to the high col. 

From the bealach, my first hill was Cona' Meal which gave fine views in all directions. The snow line was just higher than this hill at around 1000m and evident on Beinn Dearg. On my way down from this hill I saw another couple heading up who I didn't see again, in fact these were the last folk I saw. 

From here it's back to the Bealach before heading NW to Meall nan Ceapraichean. What fine views of the sea, Ullapool and Summer Isles! Magical.

I got into my rhythm following the tops over verglassed rocks with fine views of Seana Bhraigh to the North. My last top of the day was Eididh nan Clach Geala and I allowed myself a 30 minute break to enjoy the views from here. I toyed with waiting for sunset to take some pictures but it's always a hard thing to do.. do I wait here for 1-2 hrs in good but cold weather to potentially see a great sun set etc, or carry on and be back at the van at this time! I'm not disciplined and always carry on!

The walk out was really nice, scenic and uneventful apart from hearing a stag roar and weirdly hearing what I thought were people talking blowing in on the breeze but I couldn't see anyone anywhere... did I imagine it? Was it a spirit, or just the wind? 

30 mins before dusk I got back to my bike and enjoyed the down hill miles back to the van after a great 14 miles in the hills.

Into the Northern Unknown

Winter is fast approaching and I managed to squeeze in another bike pack before the weather probably puts an end to such antics. I've been intrigued by the Highland Trail 550 for some time. After a little research it looked like it could be fun to do the Northern Loop in it's own right and mapping it out gave a mileage of 125. 

I decided to do it over 3 days, easy I thought! But with rain on the first morning I then thought well I'll start after lunch and I mean 2.5 days will be fine, surely. Won't it? (Did I learn nothing from the Cairngorm Loop!).

I now "swear to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me..". I thought I needed this 'clause' in as I'm still not sure whilst writing these words the day after finishing whether I would recommend it to people I like or not! So I need to be honest and work through it!

An enjoyable start from Rosehall saw we nervously cycling up the scenic Glen Cassley. It felt very different heading off on my own with no idea about this particular route and the trails. The rain had mainly stopped but there was a cold NE breeze. Luckily my slightly worried internal monologue was soon broken when I saw a band of 4 musketeers lounging by the river and having cup a soups!

I was surprised to see other cyclists and we had a nice chat. They had taken a month off and were cycling the Great North Trail (800 miles) which goes mainly off road from the Peak District to John o' Groats. I headed off wondering if I would see them again. At the end of the glen I hit the interesting old hydro works trails which took me over a hill to the top end of Loch Shin. I could see the '4', miles in the distance behind me as I dropped into the next valley. 

At the loch and a road I got slightly grumbled at by a game keeper who said I had probably scared off the stags he was heading up to shoot. The weather was cold, breezy and bleak and not long after heading North on the road I noticed an old overgrown field and native woodland by the river on my left. After checking the map it looked like this was the last shelter for ages and the route became more exposed after this point....

Decisions, decisions... I decided it was sensible to camp even though I had only done 26 miles! It was a grand spot and I set up camp under the tree's near the river. Someone had been there before and left neat piles of kindling, sticks and dead wood. Just as I wondered if I would see the musketeers cycle past (I could just see the top of the road through the tree's) they did, stopping themselves to survey the spot, before seeing me, waving and heading in! 

I was momentarily annoyed (just being honest remember the clause), thinking the mystery of my solo adventure had been slightly broken, but pretty much immediately it was great fun and I was glad of this chance encounter! They all spread out and set up their individual tents before we all met in the middle and they cooked and lit a fire. It was a lovely chance evening and they were most generous sharing tales, whisky and chocolate! 

They were just starting to get up and breakfast as I was leaving around 9am. They had told me the night before that they have settled into a nice rhythm of 30-40 miles a day usually and generally not starting before 10 - 11am each day. 

Up the road I went in the morning sunshine full of optimism. The track from the A838 at West Markland was where Abi, Kev and I had walked up Ben Hee months ago. The track got better and better with dramatic views of Ben Hope to the North. Near the fancy Gobernuisgach Lodge I presumed the Musketeers route would head NE, as I turned West. 

Glen Golly was lovely, but unexpectedly my legs went somewhere and I quickly started to struggle! On and on went this (bastard) scenic track! Initially rideable, then too steep for me to pedal on my laden bike. At a high point (Creag Dubh) the track split and I continued on a scenic but torturous boggy track ever westwards.

I had a really difficult time on this section both emotionally and physically. I've just measured it and it's only 8km of basically pushing but I really struggled. Lowering the bike off peat haggs then having to jump down before lifting up over the next quickly lost its appeal. I felt a failure, acutely aware of my slow snail like speed. It was here I started to really think I had bitten off more than I could chew!

Many hours later I got to the Bealach Horn and was treated to a brilliant, loose, steep at times descent down to Lone and the road below Arkle. I sure did feel lonely at lone! Looking at the maps I had another hill crossing to get to Kylesku. I had to do 45 miles or more today if I wanted to finish on time but by the time I had desperately pushed up this next hill (the track was good but steep, my legs were still MIA) and seen I had only gone about 28 miles fear crept in again! 

Good loose track shot me down past Loch an Leathiad Bhuain towards Kylesku. I could see it below, I was close but I knew again I had to camp early as I was cold and knackered. I found a nice spot by a hydro scheme with views across the water and hills to the west. 

It was a good camp and watching the sunset cheered me before a fitful nights sleep listening to stags bellow, the hydro water outlet discharge loudly and worrying how I would fit in 66 miles on my last day!

With a new day brought a better frame of mind! I let go of the fact that my phone was nearly dead and I had forgotten the charge lead (I had an external battery pack), I fixed my gears after realising the back wheel skewer was loose (idiot for not checking this)! I looked at the map and had a plan and new sense of optimism!

My original route took the coastal road to Lochinver (scenic but lots of small hills), but I worked out that I could save 10 miles by using the main road, going over the big hill and then West along Loch Assynt! 

I felt slightly like I was cheating or giving in, but knew I needed to save some time and it worked as I surprised myself by rolling into Lochinver around 12:30pm as the legs had come back to me. I had calculated that if I left Lochinver after 3-4pm I would need to spend another night out so it was really cool to be leaving the amazing pie shop around 1.30pm after knock out pie, mash, peas and gravy - delicious!!

The pie meal literally fuelled me for about 4 hours. I took spare for later but never needed them, after a while I didn't notice the extra kg of pie on my back :-) . I felt great, although it was difficult to move given how full I was! I've been on some of the track that passes Suilven before and it was nice to be there again. Suilven is such an iconic shaped mountain. I'd thought beforehand that I would have plenty of time to nip up Suilven on this trip! Somehow these things seem so plausible before hand. 

At the SE end of loch na Gainimh (would be a great place to camp) the track deteriorated greatly and I started walking with the bike. I could ride the odd short section, but when it's like that I just prefer to push. I really enjoyed this section even though I wasn't riding. I felt very chilled at last, even taking the odd selfie. It was so scenic, so quiet, all I could hear were the stags bellowing. I stopped and made a cup of tea above Lochan Fada thinking well there's only about 3 miles to go on this section so I may even get back to the van in daylight.

Clearly I had no sense of time, or maybe the pie, or pastry sent me into another slower dimension space because quite quickly after this I noticed a red glow to the West indicating the sun was setting. Oops, where had the last ?5 hrs gone! I really wanted to get to the road before dark so had to really hustle to do this on spicy rocky tracks. Pretty horrible end to this section pushing on horrible narrow, muddy cattle paths, through bogs, around beaches etc (just for info I think this section of pushing is around 14km - with some riding in it, but not loads for me at least!).

I was elated at popping out at the road just as the Highland landscape crept into dusk. I dug out the head torch and enjoyed the 20 mile road ride back to the van. I admit I was hallucinating a little from tiredness by the end but really felt pleased with myself for completing this loop. It's definitely harder and less rideable than the Cairngorm Outer Loop, but as a journey it's pretty special passing through some spectacular Northern Landscapes... 

Will I do it again and include the coast road that I missed out this time...? well that's the real question isn't it...