its been a while since i rode my bike any great distance - possibly my arran tour or my shetland - back home ride which were both at least 3 years ago.....
lifes just got in the way - i mean its not like ive been slacking - a brief recap of the last 4 years would be - bought a house , rewired,replumbed,redecorated said house , built a land rover from the ground up , got married.
Feeling hungry for an adventure but aware that im not as fit as i should be i made excuses for not riding the cairngorm loop or Ht 550 with my mates when asked but conscious i needed to do something about it....
Hello scotrail.com - £14.60 for the train from aberdeen to kyle of lochalsh on the 6.14 on monday and there bike space. Yes please. and with that a plan was hatched to ride back to stonehaven via the interesting/high routes.
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train journey views
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looking out to skye.
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looking down into kylerhea
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off the ferry - the C2C starts now.
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glenelg bay.
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perhaps someone can shed light on this sign ?
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i guess its uphill from here - mam ratagan climb from the west side.
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looking out at the 5 sisters from the mam ratagan view point. heading for morvich which is round in that dark shadow between the hills.
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the last shop before entering glen afric.... slim pickings to say the least - i ended up with a pasta in sauce packet for supper and a tin of ambrosia rice pud for breakfast -
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entering the mountains on the afric kintail way. This was a good going land rover track up till
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from here it was a ride some , push some , ride some , push some. But that was no surprise having looked at the os map - goes from double track to single track and also starts to cross contour lines at an alarming rate.
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some of the riding bits .....
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looking back from where i came.
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camban bothy. Nice gaff but i wasnt ready to stop here - was only 17.30 and the midges hadnt come out - there was still a wind as we were on top of the pass pretty much.
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did another 3km down the hill and came across alltbeithe - stopped here to consider on the map how far down the hill till the next suitable spot and it was then the MIDGES came in in great clouds. I knew glen afric was famous for them but did not realise that this late in the season they would be this bad. My tollerance for midges being a scotsman is quite high but these were unbearable. Hannah the hostel warden had been watching out the window timing how long till i came in looking for a room as she knew the midges were hungry today. its a very nice hostel and i found the self sustainaning side of it very interesting. Wind and solar with a back boiler for the shower.
perhaps someone can shed light on this sign ?
The Mars rover traveled up a valley on Mars and then turned around and returned the same way. They named the valley Glenelg because it is a palindrome.
day 2
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low cloud leaving the yha.
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not the first to join up these two fire roads it seems. near plodda falls
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plodda falls them selves.
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climbing over to glen morriston
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redburn cafe - 2km from the bottom of the trail - just happened to see a cafe open sign as i looked left onto the road and was happy not to have to go to fort augustus for food as it was 13:00 and id had a granola bar and a tin of rice pud at 7am....
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the climb up the military road from torgyle bridge was actually very good and a welcome change to the pylon construction tracks i had been riding over the previous pass.
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climbing corrieyarrick in the dark- this was a bit disorientating as my maps showed clearly i should be along side the pylons - i wasnt. There was a road and pylons to my right....should i be over there..... then it dawned on me. Those are not the same pylons that were here last time i rode this trail - those are new pylons and a new construction track - im on the right trail 😀
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home for the night. all to my self.
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it is possible to make supernoodles in a 400ml mug on a barebones 8gram stove using only 1 fill of fuel 😀
Looks awesome. Did you record the ride so i can take a look at the route?
i did ,I have got the GPS trace plotted on OS maps. bare with me , i think the internet at melgarve bothy was better than mine here .... i seem to stick after uploading 25pics at a time - but i blame the wifes laptop for that more than the internet.....piece of crap.
Anyway that was the end of day 2.
stunning photos 🙂 .... makes me want to go do an epic now !
Brilliant write up. Thanks
Most of that looks familiar from HT550. Did you have a look in the 'hut' at the top of the 'pylons' road over to G Morriston? With a quick tidy up it's an overnight option (though not the prettiest....)
Many thanks. Interested in the route too as planning something big for next year when (hopefully) recovered but don't use GPS -I'm a confirmed paper map user, so a rough description would be great, as and when.
awsome
Excellent stuff!
i did it all with os maps ononeorange - although in hindsight if id had more time to plan it i would have made up laminated route cards as i needed 10 os maps for this route due to zig zagging across sheets .
yes i did refer to the ht550 route for most of the first couple of days with a couple of deviations to what i thought were more interesting routes - endless pylon construction trails was getting old 😀
later on i use the cairngorm loop for inspiration
and then i just use trails i know from being local for the last section.
i did look in that generator hut - theres one on the corrieyarrick too - its a solid roof but frankly id rather be under my tarp in all but absolute pishing rain. i was determined to make melgarve that night - took me till 10pm to get there, Descending corrieyarrick with a USE joystick was actually quite fine. wasnt looking forward to it mind !
ive managed to get 6 photos from day 3 uploaded so far :S
Cracking stuff. Well done.
*likes*
Glen Affric in the broad sunshine was one of the most glorious rides I've ever had the pleasure of.
Day 3
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arrived in the dark the previous night so it was good to see it in the sun - later start than i hoped having spoke to the game keeper for a fair bit in the morning over another breakfast of ambrosia rice pud.
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hitting the road
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glenshero lodge to kinloch laggan trail
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down to kinloch laggan
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from kinloch laggan i couldnt find a way through onto the river pattick trail that wasnt absolutely closed due to forrestry (and i mean closed in such a way that without deliberately breaking and entering by cutting fences i couldnt get through with signs etc) so i went to laggan wolftrax for lunch - which was a disapointment compared to the carruthers hardy fare - looking forward to a beans on toast with toast the size of doorsteps....got a "burger"
I spoke to some folk who seemed to think i could get to dalwhinnie across the tops from the top of the old red route the maps said no but even so i had a look- you can - i even went bush hacking for a bit incase it opened back up into a trail - it doesnt.
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one of the trails i wanted - the old drove road to dalwhinnie. anyone ridden that when its open ?
following scotroutes previous advice i took down the red route at laggan - and peeled off at the closed section right down the carpark at the other end of strathmashie - the one next to the dalwhinnie road turn off and climbed my way up towards cathouse and turned left to glentrium.
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where old pylons go to die.... bringing them in by helicopter and claw.
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its the center of scotland so the sign proclaims.... didnt know that was there - its literally a single track unclassified road
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again thanks to scotroutes i took the trail from just north of etteridge up through phones and back onto the military road to ruthven, which id been
warned can be quite boggy at times but it wasnt so bad on wednesday.
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if you want to go to ruthven - dont miss this turn ! - i did the first time.
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had a very short traverse up the side of the A9 as the trail spits you out on the A9 and you can either risk crossing the a9(was rush hour) so i just rode up the verge for the 300m before throwing my bike over the fence and going down the bank to the trail again up to ruthven steading looking out at the barracks.
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Turned right just after the barracks and crossed into glenfeshie which i had all to my self for a change- usually meet quite a few folk in there although usually mid summer.
took a slight wrong turn - was supposed to end up at loch an eilean - thought i could descend to the road on some singletrack then climb back via the fire road on the map - turned out that fire road went straight into a deer farm which was all locked up due to a deer rut ongoing.bugger- into aviemore for fish , chips and tradewinds.
day 4 saw heading back out the old logging trail past loch morlich
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a ridable stream crossing.
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up ryvoan bothy - stuck my head in , looks tidy. Although as usual theres always some pricks who cant pack in/pack out and left a pile of tesco sandwich boxes in the porch! I had no spare capacity either to take your junk out who ever you are !
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not a ridable river crossing .... was knee deep on thursday in the middle. Shoes and socks off for this one - i still had dry mt91s at this point.
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popping through the gap to glen brown and onwards to tomintoul for the old firehouse cafe lunch break.
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climbing up past a ruin - on the descent from here i got my only puncture of the trip - a sodding rim dinger on a waterbar i misjudged. wouldnt seal. Was right on the bead so out with the valve and in with a tube - and i rained - and the midges came in - and in my haste broke my own rule about refitting tires by hand only because schwalbe on Stans is a tight fit and was covered in stans goop.
out with that tube - washed my tire in the burn and refitted another tube - tire went on the rim no sweat this time.
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Hitting the road to tomintoul where the driver of the highland school bus just about wiped me and a CRV coming the other way out as he overtook me on a blind corner cut into the side of the hill - prick.
quick stop for food and restock before heading to braemar.
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heading up glen bulig
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at this point i put the camera away due to pishing rain so less photos.
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the rain chasing me down the glen.
into braemar for night 4. The audax legend that is the hungry highlander fish and chip shop (home of the biggest fish suppers i ever saw only to be eaten during 300k audaxes) is now an indian..... disapointment. So i went to the co-op bought a olive loaf , a pack of smoked ham , a pack of grated cheese ,box of salad and a jar of horseraddish sauce.... the dutch woman in the hostel kitchen just looked bemused when i cut the loaf in half length ways and made a very big sandwich 😀
final day - not much as i was on home known ground ALTHOUGH i should be clear i didnt actually make stonehaven.
I got to the phonebox in glenesk at 19:00 with no food and i knew from previous experiance i needed 4 hours to get over glen dye and cairn kerloch/drumtochty/fetteresso so made the decision to Time trial against the sun to montrose as per the standard C2C finish and made it by 20:30 where the berlingo was waiting for me 😀
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over the bridge at inver heading for glen gelder.
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looking up glen gelder to the saddle over to loch Muick
My camera battery died then - but the rest of the route went - down glen muick to ballater for coffee and lunch in the bothy(FYI the co-ops closed down now) before climbing over the cairn leuchan track down to mount keen - a shove up mount keen before descending into glen esk and TTing to montrose.
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and for the rest i just followed the road down to the edzell road - turned left then right and went past the airforce base to northwaterbridge onto hillside and down to montrose beach.
cheers to the guys from the HT550/Cairngorm loop/Scotroutes for the inspiration and help with routes and to Househusband of this parish for putting my trace on an OS map.
Wonderful Sunday reading and congratulations 🙂
I assume you are aware of OS select maps where you can select your own area and have them printed, great for when route overlaps standard maps. Also OS Map online people subscription gives you ability to print your own sheets plus phone app which can cache maps and at the touch of a button show where you are.
Bookmarked. Good work. Ta.
Yep how ever. My phone was off for almost the entire trip and the whole thing was planned in less than a week so no time to make maps...... And in that week i changed my bike from singlespeed to gears , got all my luggage sorted (cheers alpkit- good to see you have finally strayed away from trying to be the cheapest to actually providing good usable kit for reasonable prices as oppose to just cheap one trip bin fodder previous experiances with them have been less than satisfactory) and then planned a route.
Then theres the fact i made a few chunks of the route up on the hoof over a cowboy coffee in the morning 🙂 i knew where i had to get to and i had a rough idea of some trails i wanted to include so just joined the dots on the map....worked out mostly,
Was just thinking the same. Has got my brain whirring for next year. Thanks for sharing.Wonderful Sunday reading
This forum needs a like button. Genuinely inspiring. Cheers
Inspiring indeed. I need a print of one of those OS map tracks on my garage to get me out riding properly
Love this - thanks for posting & well you know, riding it! Like! 😀
Wow, that looks excellent. Thanks for posting up.
TR, the Co-op has relocated both stores into a new location, namely the old bus depot opposite the church green.
Epic ride btw.
Thanks for the credit for the mapping, Terry - happy to help.
Jambalaya; OS has only just caught up with the other mapping that has been out there for years - I just happen to use Quo as I've had it for years and have all of Scotland at 50k.
If anyone's interested here's a link to[url= https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Oom9k3xSpCWnBpdHg5S2hxNVk/view?usp=sharing ] trail_rat's GPS log[/url].
A cracking read from which I may gain the inspiration to do a big ride
Amazing!
Not local i assume you mean ballater ? In hindsight i should have popped in and asked dan where it went , given theres not many other options its hard to imagine they would have upped sticks and left.
In fort augustus the closed cost cutter meant raiding the garage - which was actuall? quite well stocked if a bit pricy
These photos have just cost me a heap of money ......- measuring up mrs t-r bike for luggage now :/ she wants to come on the cairngorm loop tour we have planned.....
Yeah, sorry, should've been clearer. Not surprising you missed it though as the signage is about 30 feet off the ground.
The bothy is an acceptable substitute - they do some good coffee in there . Its often a haunt on road rides 🙂 shame it was ( as it often is) busy to get a seat 🙁 ( a good thing for them no less)
Brilliant sir, thank you - getting ideas now about my big ride next year (hopefully).
And thanks for that mapping at the end - appreciated.
I normally argue with you trail_rat but that sounds like a good trip 🙂
Btw, in that shot up there of some glen where you said you put the camera away due to rain - is that a rocket taking off in the middle of the picture?
Although it never dawned on me at the time christopher, micheal and mathew mayo were the 3 folk killed in bad conditions with in adaquate equipment for the weather in 93
I remember reading about them in cairngorm john.
Good to see the bothy dedicated to them in such great shape.
Fantastic pics, thanks for sharing. Makes me want to do an epic long distance adventure!
Glenelg is also the name of an area in Gale Crater on Mars, hence the sign 🙂
great report and a ace ride, one day ....................... well done 🙂
Enjoyed that read, cheers.
flippin ace t_r.
thanks for the inspiration for me to do same (once get family stuff sorted out).
Did you carry a rucksack/pack as well? By the time I've looked out a tent + gear there's not a lot of spare space 🙂
Great report.
What bike did you ride it on? It looks like a Ti Pipedream I once had with the paragon style dropouts.
On the bars i had a 3 season sleeping bag ( time of year - normally i carry a bag the size of a can of beer and can get my whole sleeping system out front) and my bivvy bag.
In the frame bag i had my stove , cup , spork and meth, my maps ,rig 1.0 tarp and my neoair sleeping pad
Top tube bag got snack food and my midge net and ti sticks tent pegs.
Just the one bottle carried on the top tube.
In the rear bag i had 1 spare set of cycling gear, my skins for sleeping , a pair of warm gloves , my down vest. And a pair of columbia packable shorts for casual.
On my back i had a camelback blowfish. I put my waterproof in it and my electronics - i had a 7800mah charging brick , and cables for both phones and my garmin. My multitool , tubes and leatherman wave, this let the bag close on its fully compressed setting. I then just expanded it to carry food after food stops.
Bugger tents to much weight 🙂 i aimed for bothys first , yha's second . The bivvy was the last resort. Only came close to using it up on corrieyarrick.
Bike is a ragley td-1 with triple butted project 2s
Nice but tri bars pleasssssse remove them aerorat 🙂
Eh-no. My fingers are shot and cant take long distances in one position anymore, ruined them at mayhem one year.
Also do a good job of holding my map in place 🙂
Funnily enough I also had a td-1 for a short while. I couldn't stay on the damn thing so replaced it with the Pipedream. Still regret selling the Sirius Ti.
Well I'm reading this I bed and it's great to see someone have fun and genuinely be pleased to share.
Superb.
Great stuff.
Brilliant read with great pics. Thanks!
Threads like this remind me that I need to get out more.
Great stuff!
Loved reading this!! Thanks mate!
Excellent. Thanks for that.
Just the type of trip I aim to start doing again, need to pull my finger out and get my bike rigged out for tripping asap.
Cheers.
Thanks for posting that. Nice trip and set of photos. I did think your Glen Tanar plan sounded a bit optimistic!
You were unlucky with the midge. They've been mostly absent this year and only seem to have been turning up in numbers the past 3-4 weeks.
You've got me interested in another C2C now so I might steal some of that route.
From what I can see of the pics on my ridiculously slow internet connection, that looks fantastic!
brilliant that.
Ace, just ace. Thanks for sharing.
Just lovely,
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks that's inspired me, great stuff.
Fabulous!
Thanks for posting 😀
Good post there TR.
Fantastic read. Inspiring stuff that has got me thinking I need to have my own adventure!
Looked a cracking ride. Had a good mini tour myself last month, going to try and get a knobbly tyre one in next year. Looks like you were quite lucky with the weather too considering where you were. That makes a massive difference.
Thanks for taking the effort with the photos, enjoyed the read.
Absolute pleasure to read...and to think I've bottled out of doing the STW this month as it's "too late in the year now" 🙁
Loved it. Good stuff, fella. Strangely I didn't have any bother at all when I was at Glen Affric. Tbf, it was February...
Goodstuff TR...well done
That's a great ride TR - must have been TD-1 season on the Corrieyairack.
I did it a week ago - following the military road Kingussie to Dores via the pass. Bit sketchy on Big Apples, but made up for it on the road.
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That section down to the gate draws blood. 🙂
Great stuff, I'm just researching a 3 to 4 day trip myself and glad to have come across this.
Wasn't gonna bother with bike luggage and ship stuff ahead, but this may have convinced me otherwise...
Thoroughly enjoyed that!
A decent undertaking, an interesting route, some great scenery and a cracking read.
Thanks for posting.
Good stuff. I did it the other way - Montrose to Skye at the end of July. I did it that way against all advice (and very glad I did - arriving at the west is definitely best). I didn't do your route around the Cairngorms. For me it was the grind down Glen Geldie to Feshie, however I did that Cairngorm route as part of a longer bike packing + munros trip two weeks before.
I also ate some odd food from the Shiel Bridge garage but while sat on the bench outside the shop met some wonderful people also bike packing who made me change my plans and divert to a bothy after leaving the pub way too late. (that wasn't likely had I chosen to finish at Montrose).
For future reference, Braemar chippy does generous amounts of Stornoway black pudding.
I like these types of posts. I had been thinking of doing a post from my coast to coast (one of four in different places across Scotland this year) but I still haven't put all the photos up on facebook yet.
Which braemar chippies that ? The hungry highlander ? Looked and smelt like an indian when i went through 🙁 although it was 10pm on a thursday night....i would have eaten my left foot at that point after being disapointed with the tackle on offer at the old firehouse.
I nearly did east-west but decided the pressure of having to make a certain train wasnt worth it, having been stuck on the west coast waiting on the next train in the pishing rain at 7am before.......my parents live in arbroath if all went to rat shit near the end as well 🙂
that's a cracking trip, good work!
now tell me, where can you get OS maps with the relief shading?
Great Photos and write up.
Trailrat
How many hours did it take you from kyle of loch alsh to The hostel
And how many from hostel to great glen way
im hoping to do kyle to inverness
cheers ,
Strava says 5hrs from kyle to hostel.
and 5hrs also from hostel to fort augustus although i did stop at the cafe in tomich for a feed.
Edit - sorry thats moving time... a more useful estimation of time would be i got off the train at kyle at mid day and i was in the hostel at 18:00
and the next day i started at 8.30 and was in fort augustus at 3pm
makes planning a bit easier with that info
cheers
Maddy
Holy thread resurrection.
But thank you - I had forgotten about this one!
mee too matt , seems like so long ago. Im currently on a clerk of works(wife) mandated DIY spree. Im in the painting phase of a total replaster of the hall , stairs , upstairs hall and both upstairs bedroom. Spent all weekend putting 4 coats of paint on the roof. only the hall walls still to do. - although to be fair she has been patient - i did the rewire 3 years ago.
Then its - skirtings , carpets , hang the door , refix all the electrics back to the wall ....
then i may get out on my bike again 🙁
trail_rat - Member
...Then its - skirtings , carpets , hang the door , refix all the electrics back to the wall ....then i may get out on my bike again
That's good, we need another epic from you. 🙂
good, too - you've been part of my inspiration to look at doing more 'stuff' that I simply enjoy 🙂
Thats a dangerous game calum.
Before you know it you will have, torn your house apart l rebuilt a car , ridden your bike on laps and laps of the cairngorms .
Anyway - its not been all work and no play.
This happened at easter.
For a few years we have been talking about touring skye on the bikes how ever - weather and midge have always put us off....
We sucked up the weather this year and just got on with it.
We opted to park the motors in glenelg as public transport to the west coast with a tandem and trailer is not a stress free option.
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Stayed in the ratagan YHA the first night - highly recomended , nestled under the 5 sister.
took the ferry over to kylerhea
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Some of you may recognise the chap (in bike gear not the ferry dude) on the left if you ever ride in the a9 corridor.
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the horror climb out which killed the granny ring on the tandem in 50 yards
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a rather scenic pee ....
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looking over the south of skye
day 1 finished in glen brittle - after a visit to the talisker distilelry , the old inn and a puncture on the alfine 8 day one .....
day 2 - brewing my coffee and this little guy came to visit.
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the campsite in the light - the big tents were a godsend later in the week !
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The view out from glenbrittle - and if any of you have been there you will know about the only way out of glenbrittle...so we had a half way break and walked up to the fairy pools....
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Which then meant a midday start for dunvegans lunch stop.....not our best move.
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Check the flat top peaks , i love the features on skye !
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Oatcakes , cheese and olives from the shop and washed down with some coffee from quite a rolly eyed coffeeshop serving slices of cake for 7 quid. didnt look too impressed at sweaty smelly cyclists bothering all the other (non existant) customers....
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Climbing out of dunvegan heading for portree
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Down tuther side heading for the portree bike shack 😀
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Same road - but i just really like the definition of the shot......nothing i take photos of gets close to photoshop - im a lazy mofo plus i like to show em as i see em .
we took a right at carbost and headed for peiness..... where we met the shinty team running up from portree to teh pitches at peiness
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Portree - not tobermory . thought id taken a wrong turn somewhere !
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The view from our bog....i mean campsite...there wasnt a single dry place on the site..... so we pitched up at the top and enjopyed the view of the cuillins before heading down the hill to town for food....finding out almost everywhere had stopped serving..... trudged back to the tent after finding a feed and went to bed , only to be woken by horrendous wind and rain - and the sound of the other guys tent filling with water :S
The next morning we went to portree to find a hostel to dry out and rode out to the old man of storr while the camping kit dried.
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its up there somewhere but as with most of skyes attractions they are weather dependant..... we were supposed to go to staffin but with the tandem getting blown ALLLLL over the road by gusting head and side winds it was decided we would head back .... during which we were greated by ....a headwind
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the next morning we headed back to broadford to camp there ....or that was the plan.
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We hit broadford about 11am - the plan had been to camp here and go to elgol - Jayne and the tandem via road and i would back track to sligachan and ride the sligachan path how ever sitting in cafe sia enjoying cake and coffee the tandem decided to head back over to glen elg while the winds were in their favour. We looked for a campsite in broadford. We found 1 that i swear was a trailer park/knackers yard - static vans and transits ahoy....and the next one in breakish had only hardstanding with little bits of uncut rocky grass and toilets/showers with a view (ie no doors) - im not fussy but the wife isnt into the nudest thing 😀
so we pushed on to kyle expecting a site there , met an old enlightened gentleman and asked him if he knew where there was a campsite near by..... We got his life story for about 40 minutes followed by a - yeah theres a campsite a couple miles that way..... before we knew it we were in dornie and standing in the boggy campsite :S
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riding into the rain :S - wouldnt recomend the road from kyle to sheilbridge to anyone traffic soooo impatient.
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Back under the shadow of the 5 sisters - opting to spend our last night back in the hostel rather than in the dampness of dornies finest campsite - with the leur of the food at the kintail arms after a longer than planned day 😀
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full circle at the YHA again.
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Riding home from the pub.
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Good first trip for my new kona Rove AL, Bikes very comfy and loving dynamo power , right time of year to do it , not that bad weather , not too busy roads - but i will say the locals are nuts.... the bus , the bank and the libary all tried to kill us by overtaking on blind corners, several cars also and 1 van ran a car off the road overtaking us in a silly place. Some of the worst driving at speed ive seen in a while, ive seen worse driving but usually at low speeds in africa or something. Speed kills though.
Know a few folk from Skye, can attest to their utter lack of sense.
Thread is giving me itchy legs but like yourself I have an absolute ton of stuff to do in the house and garden before I'll get permission to go buggering off on a bike (might nick the Inbred rather than trying anything on my Trailstar 😕 )
Great read.. respect! want to do one similar now 🙂