day 6 scotland trip easy chilled ride

After a long day in the saddle the day before and minus 5 tempertures in the morning i took it upon myself to have a big breakfast and chill out in the morning and go for a spin in the afternoon. Mike, Helen and Stu were all heading out on a walk up ben nevis, ive been up there twice already and find the tourist route pretty boring that and a minus 20 windchill on the summit put me off that idea. So i ate loads, drank loads of fluids and chopped some wood for the starting the evening fire. I had a what mountain bike magazine from a year ago where they did a few rides around the fort william area, i had already scanned through it and had deceided i'd do the ride in it upto the scottish cic mountaineering hut which sits at the bottom of the north face on ben nevis. The hut is just over 2000 feet above sea level and is suppose to be a cracking decent down.
So i set off at 1pm from 78 feet above sea level at our cabin, rode into leanachan forest at the north face car park at set off up the ben nevis path, this is mega steep but is all rideable in 1st gear if you fit all the way to 800 foot where it levels off. The views from here are ace looking down to fort william.

Looking back up the climb to the north face of ben nevis, singletrack path all the way with plenty of stream bunnyhops.

The path looks nice and easy from the picture above but its steeper than it looks and climbs another 1000 foot from where the picture was took, once i got to the 1500 foot mark i noticed how cold it was getting, it was well below freezing the floor was frozen solid and the wind wasnt helping. As i was looking at the amazing views of the north face whilst riding i managed to ride into a boulder which sent me over the handlebars and i head butted a rock, i got up laughing at myself for my lack of concentration, it was pretty lucky really as i didnt even get my arms out and i cracked my helmet, i need a new one anyway.
The path slowly dies away to nothing and you need to scramble over boulders to the hut, i deceided i couldnt be bothered with that as i didnt plan on staying there long, i stopped my ascent 100 meter from the hut at 2036 feet.

Time for the decent it had taken my over an hour to climb up. The decent is ace its technical singletrack in the way you have to bunny hop over gaping holes that streams run through all of it is ridable if you have good technical skills, i could see people getting alot of flat tyres by not quite making the bunny hops over the streams. The 1000 foot singletrack decent to the fence was over quickly and i took a right onto a fire road which took me down to the highest point of the world champs red route course and carried on with that decent back to the north face car park.
All in all i had climbed over 2000 feet and dropped the same in just over 10 miles.

A easy ride with excellent views, could be made alot longer by linking it up to other routes in the forest

day 5 scotland trip highland tour

The west highland mountain bike tour is completly off road lasting 50 miles going round Ben nevis, the Mamores mountian range and also the grey corries mountains. Which is a very hilly area, the guide book reccomends doing this in 2 days with a stop at a bothy half way round, i on the otherhand was going to try complete it in 6hours with lunch at the bothy half way round. I set off about 10.30am and jumped on the west highland way at fort william, the fire road climb is long and takes you from sea level to 900 feet the views down to fort william were lovely.

it was at this point i saw a sign saying forest road closed due to tree felling, i carried on regardless and soon was stopped by a guy driving a big monster truck looking machine, so i asked him where the west highland way went. He replied with "its shut, theres a detour sign at the bottom carpark".
Nice one i hadnt even come through the car park. I rode back down the long fire road and found the detour path. Wow this was a climb back up to nearly 900 feet again but this was 1st gear steepness and i even lost traction on one bit and had to push for 10 feet. Once at the top i was next to cow hill which over looks fort william and i knew where i was. I carried on up a country lane to rejoin the westhighland way and carry on over to kinlochleven on a nice solid track with lots of little stream crossings, some which were frozen.

                                                      West highland way
Leaving the west highland way at kinlochleven i made my way up a climb past a hotel and then stalker lodges, the climb was a very loose rocky fireroad and went up for a while to 1300 feet the views down kinlochleven to glencoe were excellent

I went down a decent to arrive at the shores of loch eilde mor a good old landrover track travels along side it and past another small loch till you reach luibeilt bothy

                                                          The old landrover trail

                                                                luibeilt bothy

From here i now had to do a river crossing which all went well apart from the slipping down the bank and dropping my bike in the river at the start. It wasnt to deep and i marched across it quickly slipping on slimey stones on the way. I would think twice about this ride after rainfall as i could see how high the river gets with the tide marks left on the bank. Once across the river i followed a path up the side of a gorge which a stream had created this climb was ride a bit and then push a bit, but most of it was ok to ride, nearing the top i noticed my gps was reading  above 2000 feet, it was at this point when i was at my highest a blizzard hit me, luckly it only lasted a few minutes.

                                                      After a minutes blizzard

I followed the path going up and down for a couple of km until i reach a fire road and went down to another bothy. It was a really nice bothy with bunk beds in, shelfs and windows. i stopped outside and had a energy bar and a drink

From here it was a really fast fire road decent for 7km all the way down to leanachan forest, i past a statue of a monk or something and went into the forest joining up to fire roads where big trees had fallen down and blocked the road. I had to climb with my bike over these and it was alot harder than it sounds. Eventually the fire roads brought me to a fireroad i reconised from the relentless24 mtb course and i was back at the nevis centre in no time. I took the blue route back to the north face carpark in torlundy and crossed the road back to the cabin

                                                       My bike and the statue

                                                       Gpx of the route

day 4 scotland trip rest day

Having done 3 days of riding and getting alot of hours in on the bike i had a day off, we drove to malliag for dinner and stop off at some beaches on the way back, our 1st plan was to get the ferry to the most remote pub in britain and have a pint but due to poor ferry times we had to give it a miss.
We had fish and chips with the fish being fresh from the sea, it was an excellent meal. We drove the coastal road back and stopped off at silverdale beach.

                                              beach looking over inner hebrides

                                               Cullin ridge on skye

After the beach we started our drive back to fort william, we past some stunning dead still lochs and had to stop to take a few pictures .

After getting back in the car we carried on with our journey back with another stop at glenfinnan as the sun was setting and the monument looked ace with a completly still loch for background.

Also in glenfinan is a massive railway viaduct which has featured in harry potter films

arriving back at the log cabin i took this night pic of the cabin with ben nevis towering behind

Day 3 scotland trip

After a few to many beers the night before i woke up with a slight headache. I managed to eat a load of food for breakfast and then get into my cycling gear, it was already getting on and theres only 7 hours of daylight in the day. I managed to get out the cabin for 10.30am. I had deceided on doing the glengarry forest circuit starting from laggan a hard 20 mile loop, although i had made my mind up to ride to laggan 20 miles away to get a decent mileage in. The ride there was excellent it used the new great glen cycle route which started in fort william and followed the caledonian canal for the first 10 miles to gairlochy

                            boats on the caledonian canal above neptunes staircase


At gairlochy the route jumps onto the road for a short while and then cuts off road onto great singletrack crossing over the road and running along side loch  lochys small beaches

                                         Singletrack running besides loch lochy

After the singletrack you jump back on the road for 5 km to clunes where i took a right onto a fire road that carried on running along the length of loch lochy, the fire road climbs and dives over and over until you finally reach Laggan. I kept following the great glen way up a climb and down a decent to easter mandally,

                                                  fire road climb after laggan

here i left the great glen way and took a left up a small country lane which led into a fire road climb that went up and up for a while, when i finally arrived at a cabin that dates back to the 1800's i took a left up a rocky track.

The rocky path led up for 2km through frozen puddles to a gate, through the gate i left the path and took a smaller path to the right. This is where the fun started. I could tell from the start of this path it was going to be hard, i found myself in 1st gear riding on wet clumpy boggy grass through a forest fire break. At one point i put my foot down into a 2 foot deep bog it was hard to get it out but i carried on,

                                                   The faint but boggy path

i finally emerged from the forest after 3km and contoured round the mountain sron a choire ghairbh on a path that would disapear and the reappear all the time for another 5km it was really hard going with a bit of pushing involved. I climbed steeply (or should i say pushed) up the the side of allt cam bhealaich to the col inbetween 2 mountains. I was tired and the sun was setting, i had a drink and watched some walkers come down the mountain. I was over 2000 feet above sea level and had a decent in front of me that would take me down to the orignal fire road on the great glen way i came in on that was pretty much sea level.

                                               The start of the decent

All the pushing i had done to the summit where i stood was hard and i was thining this decent had better be worth it. Well it was i think this decent was one of the best technical descents ive ever done, none of it  was high speed all big boulders on tight singletrack with drops, sharp turns, steep loose off camber parts and the odd sheep to dodge, all of it was ridable and i cant really compare it to anything ive ridden before due to its 2000 foot drop in height, maybe some of the rocky decents in the lake district would be close but they dont have the remote feel to them. I made it to the bottom just as it was getting dark i followed the fire road back along the great glen way in darkness with my new off road light on. i arrived back at the cabin after 6hrs 30 mins of riding id been out for over 7 hours including stops. The ride was 60 miles long , 4500 feet of climbing with a max height gained of 2040 feet above sea level.

                                                   Gpx of the route

Was a excellent ride apart from the pushing but i guess you have to expect that when riding in remote parts of scotland i think the path on the os map i used isnt used alot at all. would do the ride again but would choose to do it in summer after a long dry spell.

Day 2 scotland trip

After a good nights sleep at the kings house hotel i stuffed myself with breakfast and packed my car. There were deer in the car park that were really tame walking ride upto you and letting you touch them, a lady was feeding one of them toast out of there hand

I got in the car a drove through glencoe and went to Kinlochleven as id never been. I parked up and did a forest walk, there was a big water fall coming off the side of the mountain

I drove to fort william and had a brew in the nevisport cafe it was 12 oclock and new i couldnt get to the log cabin till 4, I needed to do something for 3 hours. I drove to the nevis range and decieded to have a ride around the red mtb routes there linking the 10 under the ben course with the world cup circuit. My legs were tired from the day before so just took it easy, i had some bigger rides planned for the week ahead. Ive done around 400 miles of riding at the nevis range in the last 2 years so i know alot of the tracks and was able to make a interesting loop up, I managed to waste a hour 40 riding round and clock up 15 miles or so with 1500 feet of climbing. I got changed and drove to the log cabin where it was just about ready for me. I had a shower and sat down with a beer and waited for the others to arrive.

Scotland holiday

Friday 19th November i got up at 3.45am and drove all the way up to tydrum in scotland. I had a log cabin booked for a week near fort william with a few mates but had come up a day early to get an extra bike ride in. I arrived at the green welly shop at 9.30 and parked up. I dug out my cycling gear and was riding for just after 10. I had bought a mtb guide book for scotland and was doing a route out off it. I joined the west highland way and rode for 7 miles up it to the Bridge of orchy.

                                         West higland way just after Tydrum

Leaving the west highland way i skirted round a hill side on a small country lane along side loch Tulla where deer were grazing. Once over the victoria bridge i took a left at the forest lodge and the remote off road riding started. Following a river i rode on a fire road for a couple of miles where it shrunk down to a path when hitting my first river crossing of the day a nice foot deep 15 foot wide river, it was fun to ride through

                                                   1st river crossing

Another river crossing 100 meters on proved a little more difficult 30 foot wide and 3 feet deep led to a submerged bike, luckly there were some stepping stones across but i still ended up with wet feet. I would think twice about this ride if there had been heavy rainfall.

                                                   2nd river crossing

Following the path now up past loch dochard i began to recognize some mountains that i had walked up a year or so ago. A nice tricky decent with rock slabs and nice singletrack led down to a bridge over a river, This bridge looked pretty dodgy and was trying to work out whether it was safe or not to cross.

                                                   The dodgy bridge

I decided to head down stream a bit to find a place i could walk across the river when i came across a new bridge about 500 meters further down.

                                                      New bridge

I descented down rocky singletrack and wet grippy slabs for 5km to glenkinglass lodge where the singletrack turned back into a fire road. A fast fire road descent for 10km i had in front of me down to sea level, i got the miles in quick, plenty of wild life was seen, a deer ran out in front of me and ran with me 5 meters in front for a 100 meters before darting right into the forest.
I arrived at loch etive and took a left on a fire road running along side it. This proved to be the hardest part of the ride with short sharp steep climbs and descents for 7 km, my legs were tired by the end as i was attacking the climbs hard cause they werent to long.

                                                    Loch etive

The fire road led to the a85 in taynult where the guide said the 35 mile off road ride finished and i should now get the train back to tydrum. The train was £6.00 (a price of a meal back in tydrum) and also a hour wait so deceided to ride the main road back to get a few more miles in which took me just under 2 hours and i beat the train. It felt along road ride back which was pretty much all a climb or flat but the views made up for it. I was eating cake and hot chocolate as soon as i got changed and packed my stuff back up while i tried to warm my feet back up.
Then drove the short 15 miles onto rannoch moor to my hotel for the night. The kings house hotel.
The ride was 55 miles with 3300 feet of climbing, althought the climbing felt alot more.

                                      Gps map of the route

New light

Bought myself a new light which arrived today an exposure six pack. 1800 lumens of daylight. Cant wait to get out and try it theres just the one problem, i have a cold! Pretty gutted about it really as i wanted to head out tomorrow and do the mary townley loop finishing in the dark. I guess i'll have to wait and see how i feel when i wake up tomorrow. Think i'll finish of tonight by drinking a wee bit of scottish whiskey that will sort me.