[Closed] Last weekends ride, contains proper mountains.

Last weekend I headed up to Applecross and Torridon with Feenster of this parish and the Boy Stott. Unfortunately due to the man flu, Stott had to miss out on the Torridon ride on Sunday, so Feenster and myself headed for Torridon and parked up at the visitor centre. Now the normal ride would be to head along the road to Loch Clair and head for Achnashellach Station but we were planning something a wee bit different. We were heading for the Bealach na Lice. After an easy 2km along the road it was straight into a brutal climb. It's rough, loose and a pretty punishing gradient. Throw in little step ups and the like and it was near impossible to ride it all. Feenster had a good bash, was riding most of it and dissappearing into the distance. I was struggling a bit and knew it was going to be a long day so decided to walk the tougher bits rather than waste too much energy this early in the day. As I got close to Lochan Domhain I found Feenster waiting for me and the trail levelled out for a bit.

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We pushed on around Loch an Eion.

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/33522744@N04/7597397980/ ]P1020778[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/33522744@N04/ ]steven160275[/url], on Flickr

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/33522744@N04/7597406004/ ]P1020781[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/33522744@N04/ ]steven160275[/url], on Flickr

But it was soon time to head up again as we aimed for Bealach Ban and a bit of head scratching when we came to a fork in the trail. We should have known better that the trail we wanted was the one heading uphill, luckily we spotted our mistake early and didn't wsate too much effort and had another great bit of trail to ride which finished at the bottom of a wall, or at least that was how it looked from where we were.

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/33522744@N04/7597414400/ ]P1020787[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/33522744@N04/ ]steven160275[/url], on Flickr

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/33522744@N04/7597423300/ ]P1020790[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/33522744@N04/ ]steven160275[/url], on Flickr

Luckily there was a bit of a breach in the wall. A bit of hike a bike where a rope might have been usefull took us to the head of Coire Lair.

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/33522744@N04/7597431288/ ]P1020793[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/33522744@N04/ ]steven160275[/url], on Flickr

And about 7km of descending.

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It was hard going to begin with, a mix of fairly large and loose rocks meant it was hard to get up any speed or stay on line and the weather was starting to close in.

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/33522744@N04/7597459904/ ]P1020800[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/33522744@N04/ ]steven160275[/url], on Flickr

We pushed on and soon joined the path from Coulin and a trail we had ridden before.

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The trail was bone dry the last time we rode it but this time it was like a river in places and some of the off camber rock was a bit sketchy when trying to get round the tight corners. With rain threatening we were still making good progress when I clouted a fairly big rock with my rear mech. With the mech slapping the chainstay I stopped for a look, as did the midgies. I had bent the small piece of metal that stops against the back of the hanger and bending it back into place resulted in it snapping. A zip tie was wrapped round the link and seemed to do the job but we were only half way round the ride. We descended the rest of the way to Achnashellach, necked some food faster than the midgies and road bashed along to Coulags. I was feeling pretty tired by this point as we had been out for almost 5 hours and I started to think it might be wise to get to Lochcarron and get a taxi back to the start. However as Coulags came into view I started to think about the descent too Annat. I couldn't contemplate riding up it and then not riding down it so we ate some more and despite heavy rain we set off up the climb. We met Kunstler at the bottom of the climb and with him slightly ahead of us we made good time despite more sections of pushing. Water was pouring down the trail and a lot of it was under water, particularly the section next to LOch Coire Fionnaraich where it was nearly hub deep. There was no stopping for pictures at this time of the day.. We caught Kunstler at the top of the climb at Beallach na Lice and it was out with the zip ties again to fix his rucksack strap. A quick check of my rear mech showed it was still ok and we started the descent. It seemed rougher than I remembered but with a table booked for dinner and time running out we flew down the mountain side.

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/33522744@N04/7597484840/ ]P1020808[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/33522744@N04/ ]steven160275[/url], on Flickr

We rolled into the car park nearly 7.5 hours after we left, just in time for the sun to come out.