WEST HIGHLAND WAY in a day

Its been on my mine for over a year now, having rode a bit of it and really enjoying it but wasn't quite sure how id cope with 100 miles of pure off road that isn't all completely ridable. I thought sod it and booked myself into a premier inn in milngavie saturday  28th April and a premier inn on the 29th in Fort william.
Sunday 6am came round quick and i managed to drag myself to start for 6.30 while leaving Liz in a comfy bed.

The start

The plan was to try do it in 12 hours and be in the pub in fort william for 7.30, and things were going to plan the 1st 15 miles is fast, it had been a cold night and it was icy but the morning sun was warm.

Fast trails warm your legs up

 Soon you get to conic hill, your first climb. Bit of a push and a bit of riding not bad at all, really nice view over the southern end of loch lomond.

Conic hill

A steep rocky descent that had my brakes cooking led me down to Balmaha where the route sticks to the side of loch lomond on nice singletrack passing by nice beaches and lovely scenery.

Nice camping spot

There was some nice steep climbs and fast singletrack runnning all the way to Rowardennan which i really enjoyed.

ben lomond coming into view

I was making good time, i was ahead of schedule this was to good. flying down fast fire roads at 30mph the miles were getting in. Then i arrived at that dreaded place where everyone gets the ferry and wimps out of the last bit of loch lomond, Inversnaid Hotel. No way was i doing that i was doing the full trail. Well its pretty grim as far as riding goes an hour and a half of walking in fact. I tried to ride but ended up with a puncture from a sharp rock. The views are nice and you get to visit rob roys cave.

rob roys house

techy trails

 

After the dreaded hike a bike i was glad to get back riding the views back down the loch were ace.

End of loch lomond

I was soon heading down nice singletrack and arriving at beinglas campsite a place ive stayed before and rode over to meet liz at the drovers pub for a quick drink and a mars bar.
The next few miles were easy going on fast landrover tracks passing by the falls of falloch.

Falls of falloch

A rather long climb that i wasn't expecting that cuts round crianlarich was good fun and all rideable with a fast track down into the flat glen at the bottom as i headed towards tyndrum.

snow capped ben more

The weather was excellent, and i had a slight problem that my chain was running dry, i had no lube with me and needed some badly. I made it to Tyndrum and stopped for half an hour where i stuffed my face with food and refilled my camelbak. I bought some 3 in 1 oil to put on my chain which did the job for an emergency issue, Gears and stiff links now running smooth i carried on and made the bridge of orchy quickly. The climb from the hotel is fairly long and can be avoided  by traveling on the b road next to it but its worth the climb for the descent down its another cracker.
Heading up onto Rannoch moor was a long drag, i had a slight headwind that didn't help matters but i had good weather so the views made up for it.

climbing across the moor

Again a cracking descent led down to the Kings house hotel where Liz was waiting with some more food and drink for me, I rested for a while as deer chilled out in the afternoon sun.

view from kings house hotel

Had a couple of gels and forced myself on knowing i had the devils staircase to deal with, a steep climb, rode a bit and pushed a bit, your pretty high when your at the top.

top of devils staircase

Now this next bit of trail is something special i really need to go back and do it on a long travel full suspension bike cause its one of the best downhills around it really is that good i cant say a bad thing about it. 2000 foot drop into Kinlochleven and it gave me the rush i needed to complete the whole ride.

The start, heading down to kinlochleven

Still on a high off the descent i headed up the last big climb round the edge of the mamore mountain range. Again it was steep and i rode bits and walked bits it passed quickly for a 1000 foot climb.

looking down towards kinlochleven

I found energy and blasted along the high mountain pass knowing if i blew up it would be bad but i just had to press on it was getting late.

high up in the mountains

I came round a corner of a hill and the view i had been waiting for was there, Ben Nevis, its all downhill from here.

Ben nevis

Through a forest and a fast fire road descent into glen nevis and the road into fort william, Mission complete.
13 hours 50 mins in total, 12 hours 10 mins riding, 11,000 foot of climbing. 98 miles.
Thanks to Liz who came up and helped me through the bad patchs i had.