I will be doing the West Highland Way later this year, and would like to stop in the Glencoe Valley to walk up Buachaille Etive Mor.

Do you reckon it would be safe to leave my bike as high up as I can get it (away from the road) with out too much carrying, and trying to cover it up with the bracken etc?

I would hope you could trust the kind of people who go walking up mountains… but you never knwo.

Would you like a £2.5k bike?

Hopefully some where around here

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=221920&y=755250&z=120&sv=221920,755250&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=847&ax=221920&ay=755250&lm=0

It is reasonably close to Glasgow…

Not sure I would enjoy the walk knowing my pride and joy was stashed away somewhere out in the open.

Why not email the SMC and see if you can lock it to or in their hut.

I stayed in a log cabin thing at a pub there once. Could be the Kings House Hotel nearby on your map. If it was… I wouldn’t be surprised if you could leave your bike there if you asked nicely… and booked a table for a meal 🙂 (they had all kinds of buildings/sheds etc).

Do you reckon it would be safe to leave my bike as high up as I can get it

Back in the 90s this was how I got into MTBing or ATBing as it was called then. Admittedly the bike was only £250 but I used it to cycle in to some of the more remote Munros and left it behind a rock or off the track in some undergrowth. Up the hill and down again and back in time for tea and cakes.

Never had a problem I must have left the bike at the bottom of more than 50 hills

Left (good) bikes locked (plus skewers out) in the heather plenty of times on the Munros – remote though. Prob wouldn’t on B E M in Glencoe – tiny risk but it’s a relatively busy spot and the road is right there.

You have considered taking a lock?

ask to leave at the kings house hotel and walk from there. Or hide it in the wood on the other side of the road, just make sure you’re not in any bright clothing whilst rummaging around.

When are you going?

(No, don’t answer that!)

Basically that.

Could be the Kings House Hotel nearby on your map

I think you might find this adds a fair few, frustrating miles on to a walk in/out that would have been easily biked.

I’ve left a bike at the foot of many munros as it’s now part of the main way I access them. I’ve even kept going and biked to the top of a few. I wouldn’t recommend attempting that here though. I’d either lock it to the SMC hut or take it a little way off the path and lock it to itself in a dip in the heather. Just give yourself some good visual clues to find it on the way back. Saves a bit of panic when you forget.

Back in the 90s this was how I got into MTBing or ATBing as it was called then. Admittedly the bike was only £250 but I used it to cycle in to some of the more remote Munros and left it behind a rock or off the track in some undergrowth. Up the hill and down again and back in time for tea and cakes.

Exactly how I got into too, and never had a bike pinched 😀

How confident are you on the bike? Me and a mate carried up onto the saddle from laraig gartain (a wee bit scrambly for a short section) last summer and the ridge was a blindingly good ride. Technical with only a couple of very short bits we had to walk down. It’s a fair heft but worth the effort.

To descend, we headed down into Glen Etive breaking path down the grass. It was like skiing, it was so steep. 😆

I’ll warn you, it’s a route you could easily **** yourself on but we had a riot. One of my best days out last year. Buchaille Etive Beag on the other hand was a disappointment. A lovely ridge ride spoiled by the stone pitched steps down into Lairig Eilidh. Garrr!

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Take mountain bike up mountain? Just a thought…

(I’ve not been up BEM)

peachos…………see pics above! 😀

cross posted! looks ace. will try and squeeze that next time i’m up that way

There is also a bridge and other buildings at Altnafeadh you could lock it to

adds to list of hill-walker turned MTBer by default.

biking in – e.g. from Linn of Dee, wasn’t a great advantage, but biking out, now you’re talking! As above, chucked MTB (bright yellow Rockhopper) into the heather 20 yards from path, always been fine..

can’t recall if I took a lock – not much of one anyway. good idea with QRs. 🙂

Why would you bring your bike and walk up a hill and miss out on riding down?

….probably because you’re going up a mountain that even if you have the skills, can still bite you on the ass! Plus I suspect not everyone shares the same approach to biking that I have and prefer to ride their bike for most of the time! Ha! Ha!

I like the idea of removing the QRs.

If there are a couple of you, using a lock to fasten the bikes together somewhere out of sight should be a reasonably safe.

It’ll be fine, done similar loads of times, if you are worried, chain it to something, but as long as it’s out of site, be fairly unlucky for someone to stumble on it, as long it’s away from well walked paths(even then I’d be confident 99% of people wouldn’t touch it.)

I’d recommend leaving a note attached to it stating the expected time of return so the local mountain rescue don’t get turned out 😀

We are staying at King House, which is actually 3 miles from the bottom of the mountain, so walking there is out of the question.

The removing skewers is a very good idea, and yes I would leave a note, just in case anyone was curious why a mountain bike is lying around.

I definitely like bike hike, however 2 things are against me on that one. Although we are taking the WHW easy over 3 days, I will still have covered some miles in the 2 days, so not too sure my legs go take a proper route. It will also be early evening, so hence why I was thinking ride to the base, and then quickly walk up, sit up top for a while and then back down.

Having said that it looks much more rideable than I had imagined and would be great to do.

Sanny – I’m struggling to work out which way up and down you went? Did you go up to Coire na Doire and then down Coire na Doire. How long did it take you ?

Why is walking 3 miles out of the question?

Edit – I see about the time of day, but it wouldn’t take long.

Up Coire Na Doire then down from the saddle into Glen Etive. Ralph Storer in his Ultimate Munros guidebook indicates there is a vague path down but we couldn’t find it. No matter, it was a steep, grassy, make your own way down ride and good fun to boot. 😀 You won’t have time as an evening ride to do it if I’m honest. Best to save it for a glorious day like we did and savour it.

The direct route up is your best bet if you are ok with a bit of scrambling. The views from Stob Dearg are stunning. The pic of me and Donald riding is taken looking onto the summit.

There’s a block of FC trees at Altnafeadh, adjacent to the A82 and WHW. Twenty yards in there will have them hidden from anyone. For peace of mind; note for MRT, cable lock around a tree and skewers out. The Buachaille path is just across the road. Can’t get much handier than that.

Cheers for all the info.

Will probably dump the bike some where and scramble up and down the most direct route.

scotroutes – Member
robarnold » I’d recommend leaving a note attached to it stating the expected time of return so the local mountain rescue don’t get turned out neds know you won’t be back for a while

Alltnafeadh doesn’t have any local neds 😉

Well I ended walking up last weekend.

All I can say Sanny is, your mad, but good on you! Very little of it looked rideable to me (in the scheme of things) It was hard enough just walking (with a broken wrist)

BEM is my favourite mountain in Scotland & is on my bucket list but with these knees I dunno if I’ll ever make it. 😐