The long trip home

It was raining on Friday morning, but not to worry as we had a day of being chauffeured back to Montrose by Norman in a big comfy and waterproof Mercedes. After our cornflakes we spent 5 or so hours looking out of the car window as the last 6 days' effort were rewound.

Back in Montrose we had second lunch and consulted the weather forecasts, it wasn't so great in Scotland for the weekend so we decided to head to Northumbria for some climbing in the sun. We spent Friday night in a nice seaside spot on some dunes near Berwick. Saturday was spent climbing sandstone at Bowden Doors with views out to the Cheviots, Lindisfarne and Bamburgh castle. On Saturday night we had things and chips and eventually parked on top of Corby's Crag near Alnwick, more great views. On Sunday we climbed after breakfast and then moved to Crag Lough, which tops out on Hadrians Wall. The sun shone and some good picnics were had (the best bit of climbing in my opinion).

Bowden Doors

An excellent trip... thanks to Paul for organising, and along with Fi and Alex being good company and good chefs. We're indebted to Norman and his ladyfriend for the lift and the Scottish weather for being kind to us and doing away with the midges.

Day 6 - Invershiel to Plockton

The final day was as sunny as the first, we forced 6 more Weetabix down the hole, faffed around a bit then saddled up and rode out of town.

Final bout of fettling

We headed back along the road to Morvich and onto the tarmac track up Strath Croe. We had a stiff climb through the forest on fire tracks, heading for the path to the Bealach na Sroine. Once out of the forest it was time to shoulder the bikes for the singletrack climb to the Bealach, the middle section was partly rideable but the path was quite sunken so your feet kept hitting the sides. 

A rare easy bit

Up to the Bealach na Sroine

We were treated to some glorious views back down the valley, and had a sit down near the top to savour them without handlebars dangling in our faces. There was some alpine-esque singletrack over the top, which traversed a little then began to drop to the Falls of Glomach.

Over the Bealach na Sroine

More singletrack

The hillside steepened greatly and the path descended in a set of tight rocky hairpins, certainly a challenge. 

Skills

Hairpins

Down, down and down

The falls were quite a surprise, they were much larger than we expected and dropped into a mighty chasm. There was a steep path down the edge of the chasm, we hoped this was to a viewing gallery rather than the way out so we left the bikes and clambered down for some photos.

Falls of Glomach

The bottom, I need a longer camera

The way out was a narrow traversing singletrack, far too close to oblivion for riding. We pushed along and had to manhandle the bikes down a few rock steps.

Not rideable

There was a steep grassy nose that we could ride down (holding on for dear life) then more scrambling to the bottom and hummus for lunch. We'd spent most of the morning carrying our bikes up and down the hill but the sun was out, there was some downhill fun in the middle and the scenery was spectacular.

The way out

We pedalled down Glen Elchaig on the estate track and cruised along a stretch of road into Killian. It took us a short while to find our track out of the hamlet, this took us around into Glen Ling and very close to a herd of deer. We dropped to the River Ling, forded it and picked up a path on the other side.

River deer

The path made a damp traverse to some ruins then began to climb close to a line of pylons, there were other bike tracks in the mud so there was some promise that it wouldn't all be a bog trot. With a little help from the wind the path proved very rideable despite our weary legs and some soft sections. We sat down at the top below Carn All na Bradh to eat some severely damaged currant slices, admire the views and watch some low flying Tornados.

Climb out of Glen Ling

From the cake stop it was downhill through the forest on fire roads to Attadale and the seaside again. The easy track was a welcome respite for tired buttocks, and meant we could admire the views across to Lochcarron.

Descent to Attadale

We followed the coast road for a while and dropped off the end of our maps. The was a moment of excitement when we got to ride through an avalanche shelter, there's not many of them in the UK. I'd expected an easy spin along the shore but from Ardnarff there was a big alpine looking climb through the forest. I stopped at a view point and had a chat to a Kiwi couple on tour, the bloke was a keen biker back home and had many questions.

Loch Carron

We dropped down to Achmore and found it impossible to miss the home made ice cream shop, despite it being off route and down a hill. We got ice cream (fat Alex had two tubs) from an eccentric Englishman and sat in the garden in the sun entertaining his grandson and dog. We sent Fi in to sweet talk him into letting us fill up our camelbaks then us smelly blokes descended on the tap. From the ice creams we took the signposted scenic drive to Plockton, most of the scenery was obscured by Rhodedendrum bushes but there were glimpses of Mediterranean coloured water, beaches and a backdrop of lovely mountains.

Scenic drive to Plockton

In considerably less miles than the road signs said we spotted a path sign for Plockton, 1 mile. After negotiating a big dozy orange coo there was a fun descent down to the coast, we then pedalled along the edge of an inlet and into the outskirts of town.

Moo laddie

We headed down to the beach and into the sea, much to the bemusement of the assembled tourists. Plockton's a popular and bonny village, especially when the sky is blue.

Plockton

We stayed at the hostel by the station, probably the nicest of the trip, the lounge and kitchen was on the top floor and had big windows to let the sun in. We got in touch with Paul's friend Norman, who'd kindly offered to drive us back to Montrose, and arranged a serious eating session at the Plockton Inn. Certain fatties in the group had some chips to put us on. Norman and his ladyfriend had booked a night at the Inn but it turned out the staff had written it in the wrong month of the diary, so they had to be found another considerably less classy place to stay. The food and beer was good and plentiful, after we had gorged ourselves we walked to another pub that had a band on for a nightcap, it was jam packed with sunburnt and sweaty people. Then we retired to bed, thoroughly coast to coasted out.

33 miles, 4900ft

Day 5 - Fort Augustus to Invershiel

Another sunny morning, another 6 Weetabix. We'd get to the seaside again today, but not the official end of journey seaside until tomorrow.

It was uphill from the hostel and into Inchnacardoch Forest, taking General Wade's road up some grassy hairpins then onto fireroads to lift us over the hill. We had the mega pylons for company again, they followed a great swathe of desolation cut through the forest. From the top of the ridge we dropped into Glen Moriston along the route of the military road. The fossilised tyre marks in the dirt suggested the top section could be quite sticky when wet, thankfully it didn't get very wet until the last km which was deep inside the trees and covered in moss.

Down to Glen Moriston

Before we reached the road we passed over a few patches of bright green turf that was outgrowing everything else in the forest, on closer inspection these were covering little stone bridges that had recently been repaired.

Luminescent bridge

We followed the A887 to Ceannacroc Bridge, crossed the bridge then attempted to follow a black dotted line around the hill to the line of the old military road. We labouriously climbed a wet track for a while then lost amost all the height when I spied a better track. This didn't last long and we ended up pushing through dead bracken, bogs and heather on deer tracks in our search for the old road.

Anybody seen an old military road?

We eventually found the line of the road but it wasn't surfaced and had gone to ruin. Eventually it got a bit more rocky and occasionally bits were rideable but it was slow and wet going despite being relatively flat. At least the sun was out. A good landrover track meets the old road at the Allt nam Peathrain and after this a proper path started. We traversed a little then began to descend to Cluanie Loch. The path had a grand vista down the loch towards Kintail, its surface was a sort of white grit and there was the occasional rock slab to negotiate. For some reason it didn't roll fast and it felt like you had two soft tyres.

Cluanie Loch

Muck Moab

We emerged on the A87 and Fi demanded lunch so we sat in a ditch and had hummus for lunch, for some reason we didn't cross the road and find a nice spot overlooking the loch. We did a spot more road to Lundie, named after me of course. Fi fancied a rest so she continued on the road while us boys took a marbley track up to a transmitter then followed the remains of the military road down to Allt Coire an Clach, it didn't appear passable beyond the stream crossing so we dropped back to the main road and met Fi.

A km and a half before the Cluanie Inn we turned right on a grassy landrover track that took us up An Caorann Mor, a sign at the bottom signalled 17 miles until we would hit road again. The track is apparently the way that supplies are brought into Glen Affric hostel so we were expecting a good path. It was for a while but ended abruptly and we were left to push our bikes over bogs, reeds and damp grass up to the watershed. We were surrounded by some very impressive hills, which took the edge off the bog trotting drudgery. There isn't much of a drop into Glen Affric so we continued our trudging and occasional pedalling for a while before deciding it would be less soul destroying to take a direct line to Camban rather than push two sides of a triangle that would take us towards the hostel. The direct line was very rough but Camban bothy was a good landmark to steer to, and slowly got closer. 

What we pushed across

I was worried that we were in for another 5 miles of pushing through bogs until we hit the next estate track, my spirits were lifted when I eventually dragged my bike up to the Camban path, it was well surfaced and dry - at least as far as we could see to the bothy. We had a celebratory cake and popped in the bothy to sign the visitors book and check out Eric's entry. There were some other interesting recent entries from people doing the 420 mile Highland Trail event, we'd seen one in the morning, he was flying despite being 300 miles in.

Camban

Driven to drink

Paul had done this path before and had omitted to tell us about the treats in store. It could be the finest singletrack in the land, a white string in an impressive situation.

The fun begins

The first part was slightly uphill but we had our old friend the tail wind to give us a helping hand, every now and again there was a steeper pitch or a rocky obstacle to divert our eyes from the scenery - waterfalls pouring out of the corries at the back of the Five Sisters.

Towards the Five Sisters

Also nice

Falls

When the path started down proper it was very much eyes on the trail, it was a bit technical - rocky with the odd hairpin, drainage gulley and pitched section, almost all rideable for me and just about all rideable for Paul and Alex.

Down to Gleann Lichd

Several km later we reached Glenlicht House and were back on landrover tracks for the last few miles down Gleann Lichd to Morvich. A bit of road took us to our hostel out the back of Kintail Lodge in Invershiel. The nearest shop was at the garage two and a half miles down the road in Inverinate so we dumped our kit and went for supplies and an ice cream. After five days of riding we had developed quite an appetite, we were definitely doing our bit to keep the Scottish cake industry afloat.

The hostel had some dodgy 70s decor but was clean and we got individual rooms. We were sharing it with some teachers who were walking, biking, sea kayaking and generally enjoying the sun. The pub was next door to help wash down our attempt at eating 1kg of spaghetti.

37 miles, 4000ft (+ 5 miles shopping!)

Day 4 - Kingussie to Fort Augustus

Today was active rest day, starting off with 6 tasty Weetabix and 10 miles of bum numbing road through Newtonmore and on to Laggan. Notable sights included a police woman acting suspiciously in some woods and an official gypsy campground. There was some occasional light drizzle but still a nice tail wind and it seemed to be brightening up. From Laggan shop (shut) we forked off towards Spey Dam and Corrieyariack.

The dammed Spey

Alongside the dam Paul stopped to upend his bike and started trying to take his back wheel off because it wasn't freewheeling properly. When he'd got the bolt through axle out the cassette dropped off and the pawls fired themselves over the road - diagnosis was a snapped hub axle... bugger.

It wasn't feasible for him to carry on riding so we got out the map and realised we were only a km or so of forest road away from Laggan Wolftrax, which had lost its bike shop last time Paul was there, but was worth a look. Paul acquired Fi's bike and we rode across, there was still no bike shop. Some people in a portacabin reckoned the nearest shop was Aviemore, 25+ miles in the wrong direction. Paul did some ringing round and eventually found a shop in Fort William with a new axle that should fit. The next challenge was getting there, it was 40+ miles in vaguely the right direction, and just a canal tow path ride down the Great Glen to bed in Fort Augustus. We rode back to Fi and Alex so Paul could pick up the rest of his bike and then try and hitch a lift or find a bus on the A86. Alex, Fi and I then left him for dead and rode off down the glen.

General Wade's Military Road is paved to Melgarve, so it was fairly easy going for a good few miles, there were even some roadside deer to distract us from the grind.

Bambi

During our daily hummus sandwich stop Alex told us that when he passed this way last year he found that the old Corrieyariack pass road wasn't steep but it was covered in loose rock making the climb tortuous.

The easy bit

We found that the track had been upgraded to a nice easy smooth surface, the only excitement being some massive rock water bars that needed to be ridden off every 50m or so. They're putting in the accursed mega pylons to replace the old pylons over the pass, to do this they've built a whole new access road along the line of the pylons and maybe as part of the deal repaired the old track.

The top of the pass is marked by the old pylons and still seemed a long way up when we reached Corrie Yairack, the line of the track up the back wall of the corrie is hidden and it was a pleasant surprise to find it gradually climbed in a series of well surfaced zig zags.

Topping out on Corrieyairack

At the top it was a bit breezy but there was a hazy view over to Kintail and it looked sunny in the direction of Fort Augustus, our destination.

Kintail

The downhill had also been smoothed out so our progress was fast and comfortable, there were a few undulations along the way but with a tail wind we were soon in the sunshine and in sight of Loch Ness. Going east to west over Corrieyariack there's a net height loss, so we got more down than we paid for.

Smooth

Fort Augustus and Loch Ness

At the end of the pass we had a few sections of road and track to negotiate before arriving in Fort Augustus mid afternoon. We worked out where we were meant to be staying, Morag's Lodge and checked in. Paul rang at 3:30 to say his bike was on the mend and he'd get to us for about 7 after 3 hours of riding up the Great Glen Way. He'd had a two and a half hour wait by the road at Laggan before a kindly downhiller heading for Nevis range offered him a lift to Fort William. In the meantime we shopped, prepared some bolognaise and ate lots of chocolate and fig rolls, not leaving many for Paul.

The hostel is very nice but is a stop over for Haggis Tours, which are apparently 'Wild and Sexy', so it was full of hormonal teenagers. Paul was a bit worn out after his undulating canal tow path ride and helped us demolish 1kg of pasta, our mega portion sizes were far more impressive than the morsels of lasagna put on by the hostel. After tea we popped into the village for a pleasant al fresco beer by the locks.

Monsters

36 miles, 3100ft (a bit further and flatter for Paul)

Day 3 - Braemar to Kingussie

Day 3 dawned wet and windy, back to traditional Scottish weather then. It continued raining through our standard 6 Weetabix breakfast. We eventually ran out of excuses and capacity for tea, donned our jackets and set off down the road. Today was going to be the longest day, and most exposed too, cutting through the middle of the Cairngorms. Thankfully Paul had ordered a 40mph tail wind.

We had a bit of a road warmup out of town up Glen Dee before crossing the white bridge and heading through the grounds of posh Mar Lodge.

Mar Lodge front drive

We picked up a puddley double track into Glen Lui then joined the main track to Derry Lodge. The west side of the Derry Burn was a hoot of a downhill when we passed through in the opposite direction 3 years ago, so we decided to try the east side, which turned out to be a lovely well maintained path through the pines. We passed a few damp folk mending the drainage and carried on into Glen Derry proper. The path got a bit muddy for a while then more rocky as it started to climb to the Lairig an Laoigh. The massive helping hand from the wind made the climb easier than it should be, occasionally rideable with a bit of pushing through wet snow patches.

Across to Glen Lui

At the Lairig the full force of the wind was whipping the horizontal rain into the back of my bare legs so I decided to push on until I could find a boulder to hide behind. There were lots of boulders but none were fit for cowering behind. On a good day with a lighter bag and a holster of spare rear mech hangers bits of the path would have been almost rideable. I ended up trudging onwards for 2 and a half kms of largely level semi-submerged path, heading for the shelter at the Fords of Avon. The fords were not too deep but the snow melt made them chilly.

Fording Avon

The refuge has got a new interior, a sort of subterranean shed. I was glad of the respite from the weather and set to putting on some extra layers and dry gloves. The others turned up and we did lunch, hummus again.

Shed of the year 2013

The next section climbs the flanks of Bynack More, so we'd be even more exposed. Hoods were put up and grimaces fixed, then we ventured out into the elements again. There was some more pushing along the waterlogged path above the lochans, then we were able to ride a bit of downhill before a peaty climb and a descent to Coire Odhar. Alex had taken his boots off at the fords in an attempt to keep them dry, but they were full now. The path is an eroded rocky strip through the peat, no wonder considering the amount of water flowing down it. Apparently it's quite rideable when dry.

It rains

Another stiff climb took us to nearly 800m, and the junction with the tourist track up the Munro. Then the rain stopped and the sun came out! The descent down to Strath Nethy was well maintained and a lesson in water bar hopping, the tail wind meant picking up speed after negotiating each drainage ditch or bar wasn't a problem.

Off Bynack More

We slumped down in the heather by the side of the track at Ryvoan pass to dry out a bit. The sunny day plan was to go over Meall a Bhuachaille but we decided to give it a miss given the ordeal of the past few hours. Instead we had a pleasant cruise through to Glenmore Lodge, around Loch Morlich and up the stiff climb to Rothiemurchus Lodge. The bottom section of the Lairig Ghru is amazing singletrack, but to get there you have to trudge through unrideable rock studded peat for a km. The doubts set in, can it be really worth it? It is. I got too excited and managed to miscalculate a root near the top, forcing me to abandon bike, it bounced a bit but me and it were unscathed. 

After the twisty fun through the trees ran out we had more pleasant riding over to Loch an Eilein and the tasty and remarkably dry path to Inshriach Forest and the Moor of Feshie. We took another fun path through the trees that we'd happened upon a few winters ago, then a short road section to Feshiebridge. 

After the bridge we took the tracks and paths by the river to Ballintean, then more road and fire road to Corarnstilbeg. By now we were feeling the miles and were looking forward to a cup of tea. But first there was a short lift into the forest and a fire road descent to Drumguish, where we found a cheeky wee path down to the road. We trundled past Ruthven and into Kingussie.

The night's accommodation was in the attic at the Laird's Bothy. While we washing our bikes in the garden we were lucky enough to have cups of tea made for us by some young ladies. They were having a night of civilisation in the middle of a hardcore west to east coast to coast, they were staying in bothies some nights so were carrying a lot more luggage than us. We had a pre tea of cake and pizza forced on us by a chap from Ayr who was working at the local sewerage plant, then some good warm showers. Main tea was a well deserved massive pile of mash, sausages, beans and doughnuts oozing with cream. But no beer.

51 miles, 3800ft

Day 2 - Ballater to Braemar

It's only 17 miles up the A93 from Ballater to Braemar, however that's too easy for Paul. Instead the plan was to scale Lochnagar (our second Munro), then do a bonus hill before dropping in to Braemar. The morning started with 6 Weetabix each then a pleasant road ride up to Glen Muick. We followed some fast estate tracks up the glen to the bottom of the Lochnagar path opposite the Spittal.

Glen Muick

The path starts with a loose stony doubletrack up to Clais Rathadan, this was rideable with a dab or two where it got rocky. When the track reached the top of the hill we cut off on the bouldery footpath onto Lochangar, the original track continues and drops down towards the Queen's back garden at Balmoral.

Clais Rathadan

It was easier to carry the bike over the boulders than push, I was chasing some walkers so forged on up to the col between the main hill and Meikle Pap. After this the path steepens and the rocks grow, I continued plodding with numb arms, wanting to get it over and done with. Eventually the pain subsided as I crested the east summit.

Climbing

Everybody else had stopped for a snack so I had quite a wait at the top, but despite the overcast and patches of snow lying around it was quite warm and still, with some great views across to the moody cliffs above the loch.

Lochnagar

After regrouping we dropped a little then began an easier climb to the west summit. We dumped the bikes and scurried up the rocky outcrop that is the summit proper and enjoyed the panorama for a while.

Lochnagar summit view towards Meikle Pap

From the summit the path drops a bit then stays high, skirting Carn a' Choire Bhoideach, then it drops down to some streams before climbing round the side of Carn an t Sagairt Mor. The gritty peat and occasional rocks gave some relatively easy riding, with a few old snow patches to spice things up a little. The lower ground near the streams was a bit wet due to the fresh snow melt but it dried up again as we climbed out of the dip. It was high time for lunch (or second lunch for 75% of the party), so we sat, ate two varieties of hummus and admired the view for a while.

Snow on Carn a' Choire Bhoideach

After lunch there was a slightly rocky traverse and then the path headed downwards, very steep and rough. After a while a maintained singletrack path appeared, this had easy smooth bits, interspersed with moments of fear on pitched staircases, bedrock and some severe drainage gulleys. Great fun.

Downhill

The path levelled out for another traverse with some tricky features then dropped down to Loch Callater.

Loch Callater

We had a rest at the bottom while I fixed the week's only puncture (damn those drainage ditches), then it was off down the glen on the landrover track. The track up to the transmitters on Morrone, our bonus hill, had been visible for some time, it hadn't looked so bad when we were above it but we were very much below it now and it looked like a mega climb. The start of the climb was almost opposite where our track hit the road in Glen Clunie, but instead of crossing the river by a footbridge we did about 5km of road up the glen then back on the other side of the river. The climb was long but not so steep, and we had a handy tail wind for the final section. 

Morven summit

The views from the transmitters were impressive, you could see just about every peak in the Cairngorms and right down Glen Dee, Quoick and Derry. The massif still had a good coat of snow and tomorrow's journey through the heart of it looked daunting.

Loch Callater from Morven

Mar Lodge and Deeside from Morven

Once regrouped it was downhill to Braemar, it seems the people of Braemar like to walk up their local hill 20 abreast as the first half of the path was a wide avenue of jagged white rocks down the heathery slope. We juddered down this for a while, then onto an entertaining built path with some tricky outcrops. This took us into the suburbs of town, another good descent dispatched.

We stayed in the bunkhouse at Braemar Lodge, which is fairly basic but good enough for us and the Munro baggers we were sharing it with. We had a stroll in the evening and even found a source of real ale.

30 miles, 5500ft