Forum menu
If the current pace continues, it looks like my mate AW will finish alone, i reckon he may push through the night to do so, then its looking very competitive after him as the peloton jostles on into Tyndrum.
Markus should have finished by now. His dot has been stuck 6miles away for well over an hour.
That picture looks like something that would be used in an outdoor safety course ‘what not to do’ classroom session...
Markus has finished, just as I typed the above. 🙂
Been away for most of the week, still up in Scotland and it's still a bit wet, now catching up with things as best I can.
The conditions got to a lot of riders on Sat and Sun. My wife scratched at Invermoriston - she'd missed the bothy at Blackburn ( you have to look behind you to see it and it was thick mist at the time) so she spent the night in the toilets at Fort Augustus. The following day she couldn't get warm and with burns that three weeks ago weren't there being almost impassable she thought it safer to scratch.
Alan said at the start about the Fisherfield river crossing: the GPX line is the easiest but if anyone crossed higher up then they had to go to the landing point on the far bank before continuing otherwise it's a DQ. Going round by Poolewe is no longer an option. The indicated line is intimidating but there's very little flow at that point as the river is pushing up against the body of water in the loch.
Someone mentioned touring the route then reckoned on getting to Fort Augustus on day one! That's five day pace! There's a guide on bikepacking.com with a twelve day schedule. It was written by Lars Henning who is no slouch but was one of the riders to scratch early on. I think a ten day schedule would let you catch bothies or hotels at the end of each day.
Serious kudos to those riders carrying on, it's been cold and wet, a lot of tactical use of hotels.
I have walked across that fisherfeild crossing - I did it higher up after the river split and it was a lot less deep than at the sandbar where the river meets the loch. maybe 200m upstream from that?
Tj - see my post a few up re the crossing picture...
BTW Nelson Trees dropped his tracker (a Garmin InReach) shortly after the start which is why it wasn't "updating". It's been recovered for him.
@whitestone - ~100m to Fort Augustus on the first day might have been me! It was because I like the hostel there and thought fresh legs after a long train journey would make it ok. I since moderated my plans to 9 days and splitting that segment. Now I'm considering missing parts I've already done 🙂 I do want to do Fisherfield and northern parts properly though. Will check the bikepacking.com guide, thanks.
Edit: or maybe I'll completely wimp out and potter along the badger divide 🙂
Nelson Trees has come in. 🙂
@twowheels - consider just doing the central and northern loops starting from Fort Augustus.
There's not much in the way of accommodation between The hotel at the bottom of Glen Cassley and the Kylescu Hotel. The Overscaig might have reopened, I think Jenny Graham stopped there one night this year.
I took twelve hours between Ullapool and Kinlochewe which is a fairly typical time. I started that day at Oykel Bridge and finished by the Teahouse bothy in Torridon.
I'd be taking bivy kit just in case you didn't make the target distance each day. There's plenty of bothies and sheds to use.
What an amazing week scratched after 130 miles and decided to tour it back at my pace back to Tyndrum. Got to Fort Augustus and was feeling ok be it a bit damp and about an hour faster than last year, the rain was not heavy just a persistent light rain but descending really took the wind out of the sails. Some desperate faces in the Pizza Place met up with some friends and decided to head to a hotel hoping to keep gear dry for the next day big mistake leaving that hotel the next morning really did put you on a downer and the ride over to loch stack was a miserable 3 hours arrived in Cannich cafe and the talk was of big river crossings and multiple scratches including the race director using the words pretty dangerous! Hopes of a under 5 day finish were no longer an option and after a hearty lunch decide to bail as the family were meeting me for a family holiday on the Wednesday. A route back catching the return loop down Glen Feshie visting the many fine pubs on the way back! A night in Fort William and then blue skies appeared so a steady ride back dot watching was the entertainment in the evenings. Knowing what the first two days were like i was hoping for really good weather for the lads and lassies out there but it was not be and i was pretty worried for the rest carrying on most of which had not completed a HT550 loop and probably did not realise how tough it was going to be with a fairly exhausted body after days of dampness. Made it back in time to greet the winner Dustin with fellow scratchers and the man is hard as nails is body was in bits he reckoned he had lost 20lbs in weight!!!!
Living in the lakes and be fairly use to riding in the rain thought I would be ok but the Highlands is a total different kettle of fish you have to respect the hills.
Till next year! maybe Rich
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996483693_46835c63a1_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996483693_46835c63a1_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hwqV ]61339148_10157453993511474_8198378061599604736_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
A few more
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996482578_f8cc1393fe_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996482578_f8cc1393fe_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hw6G ]61905211_10157453993721474_628106668885934080_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996525791_3c771cd3bc_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996525791_3c771cd3bc_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hJWK ]61303824_10157453993626474_8639337148379561984_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996482673_8a3322c15b_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996482673_8a3322c15b_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hw8k ]61103195_2442258212498251_8303433880782766080_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996490277_60336232f7_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996490277_60336232f7_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hyor ]61375340_2442258305831575_7784609377683505152_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996526386_fa31b5af55_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996526386_fa31b5af55_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hK81 ]61053311_10156351720107135_6808778308222713856_o[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996525052_9958234ae0_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996525052_9958234ae0_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hJJ1 ]61208990_10157451210671474_5618347643039121408_o[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996516228_4f7754242f_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996516228_4f7754242f_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hG6S ]61142769_10157449205961474_5929567896794562560_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996523502_00acb78694_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996523502_00acb78694_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hJgh ]61572353_10157449147491474_8799967671119511552_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996517863_22c890b091_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996517863_22c890b091_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hGA4 ]61275959_10157451199221474_4083590549246836736_o[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996523502_00acb78694_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47996523502_00acb78694_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2g8hJgh ]61572353_10157449147491474_8799967671119511552_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/145353521@N03/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
I've just found some photos from richpips of that crossing a few years ago. That is outrageous
How long does it take normal humans to do the route? Some of it looks just beautiful
@leffeboy - read some of my earlier posts on this thread. Ten to twelve days would be "chilled" pace.
runs off to read. Chilled sounds about right
Thanks @whitestone, sorry I missed your post. Yep I will take minimal bivy kit (no cooking gear, possibly apart from a meths burner and Ti mug for coffee)
@postierich - nice photos!