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.

Relentless 24

Teamed up with Amy on this one for a mixed pair race, its a long drive to fort william so stopped off for a loch lomond monster burger at the drovers inn, there was enough energy in that burger to keep me riding for 12 hours. We managed to arrive mid afternoon and got a cracking place for our set up, we could switch over laps at the gazebo half way round a lap of the course. Managed to get a early night and i slept pretty well and was last up in the morning. The race started at 12.30 pm with a 100 meter sprint to your bike, some how i managed to do this run super quick and was near the front when i got on my bike which made me happy. I did 2 laps of the course trying not to push it to hard on the climbs and came through in 10th place out of everyone so not to bad. After that we both did one lap on and one lap off which worked out really good, we were bouncing around on the leader board between 1st and 2nd and had a big lead over 3rd. It was an intense race, i really enjoyed it being so close between us, it gave me something to give it all on every lap, i really was close to collapsing when i came in off a lap and just managed to sit down on a chair until Amy arrived after her lap. Amy started her last lap and did an outstanding time only letting the guy from the other team gain 10 seconds on us. I had spent amys lap drinking caffine drinks and gels so was ready for a super fast lap. I caught him fairly easy and gave it all past him and just carried on, i thought hed be on my wheel all the way round so didnt lay off, i cramped up a bit on a climb but managed to recover some how. By the time i crossed the line i had made 10 minutes on him and we took the victory. Well stoked to win and really enjoyed it even though i had a bad patch around 2-3am in the morning. My garmin says i rode 131 miles with 13,510 feet of climbing. Thanks to mike for driving us there and making me food and drinks for the whole race and amy for teaming up with me, doing super quick laps and making me a team hat.

Ruthin Merida

I had made my mind up in the weeks before that i wanted to do Ruthin's 100k merida again, after last years fast dusty course.
Shaun was going down to do it and so was damain so the plan was to meet them there at 8 am.
At 6.30 in the morning while i was still asleep my phone was ringing, i answered it to shaun asking if i was still going down, so replied yes why. He had wussed out because it had rained really hard all night and was still raining hard. Shaun went back to bed and i got ready and drove to Ruthin and met Damian.
The weather had improved all the drive down and it wasnt raining at all when i got there although i new the course was going to be a mud bath whatever now. It was a fairly big turn out and a few people had done the night race the night before, you could tell who they were as they were still covered in mud...
The event started with the massive climb out of Ruthin, i managed to place myself at the front and kept the leaders in view all the way to the top. After 10 miles or so the speed dropped off a bit and was finding myself riding at a good pace with 4 other riders. The climbs were slippy, muddy and i was struggling to get grip, there were a few climbs i had to push up because of this, i hate pushing my bike up hills! At the 20 mile mark there was a fast landrover track decent which i was flying down i went round a corner and both wheels washed out causing me to crash and slide across the floor at speed. I had hit my knee pretty bad and had to stop for 10 mins to sort myself out, i had numberous cuts and lump of flesh missing from my knee blood was pouring all down my leg.
I thought it was over i tried to ride my bike with just my right leg doing the work, after a mile or so my knee went numb and i was able to ride my bike again properly so decieded to carry on. I had 30 miles to ride back to the finish and managed to feel better and better as the ride went on, i caught a few riders back up i was originally riding with and managed to cross the line after 5 hours 15 mins of starting, 52miles with 7200 feet of climbing acording to my gps. I went straight to the car and drove straight home to sort my leg out, Hopefully i'll be back riding again this weekend when the cuts are fixed. Damain enjoyed the race finishing in 7 hours 20 having a couple of offs himself. Was an excellent event but was one of the harder merida's due to the course conditions.