A ride of two halves. A couple of days after the last section (long enough for a few days recovery), I used our Fort Augustus holiday cottage as the handy base for the next section of the Scottish National Trail. Although I had initially planned on separate sections between Fort Augustus and Cluanie, and then Cluanie to Morvich, I wondered about combining the two, since I am not in this corner of the world often, and it would be good to tick off a few miles.

The weather for our holiday week was dry but breezy and not particularly warm. Still, you can’t be too greedy in April, so this would do, and so I headed out early, leaving the understanding Mrs W to entertain the boys.

The first section from Fort Augustus was predictably easy – westwards along the canalside path following the Great Glen Way and then along the old railway line on the south side of Loch Oich, before heading round the head of the loch and into the forest above Invergarry. Good forestry roads allowed some quick miles to be ticked off down to the farm at Greenfield and then across the narrows of Loch Garry and on to the public road – apparently the longest dead end public road in the country.

As expected, the turning off the road a mile or so west of Kingie marked an abrupt end to the fast miles. The footpath up and over the shoulder of Mam na Seilg was obvious and fairly well made, but damp in places and generally just too steep or rough to ride for any great length. Ride a few hundred metres, walk a few hundred metres, repeat. The descent was little faster – interspersed with boulders and rocky slabs it was reasonable rideable, but I had my head dialled to full on mincing mode, and opted to walk more than I should have. I had not passed anybody for miles, and this was not the time for a silly spill. The lower section gradually flattened to a heathery and grassy valley bottom – more rideable but little faster.

No sooner had I waded across the River Loyne (mercifully low after a few dry weeks) and squelched along the bank on the other side, than the path headed sharply upwards again – rocky climbing (again generally too steep or loose to ride) over Creag Liathais. The summit plateau was relatively flat and allowed for better riding on a good, obvious path, before a short, enjoyable descent down to the what is left of the road to Loch Loyne – the old “Road to the Isles.” Apparently in dry months, turning east down the road allows the old bridges to be visible in the loch which was formed when the glen was dammed for a hydro scheme, but today I was turning north west for the short fast run down to the A87 at Cluanie – slowed only by a stinking westerly headwind, and a huge herd of deer brazenly blocking the road.

I rolled up to the inn at Cluanie way behind schedule. Having already read the route guide for the next section to Morvich, I suspected that the riding would be no quicker, and given that on current pace I was likely to be an hour late for my scheduled wife-driven taxi ride home, I elected to put my feet up with a coffee at the Inn.

Curiosity got the better of me as I waited for my lift home though, and I rode up the first mile of the next section on An Caorann Mor towards the Alltbeithe Hostel. A stiff climb on a good wide path suggested easy riding, but the route guide and the narrowing alongside a burn on the OS map suggests otherwise, and that boggy fun will be saved for another day.

Another short section ticked off – good views, barely a soul in sight all day and still an enjoyable day out in the hills.

Fort Augustus to Cluanie

Scores on the doors:

Distance: 57.5km
Height Climbed: 1,219m
Average speed: 13.6kph
2 hours for the first 40km, 2 hours for the next 20km

After the easy logistics of the last section of the National Trail, the section to Fort Augustus looked a bit trickier, with the finish being a long drive from the start, and miles from a train station. A holiday cottage for the week in Fort Augustus solved that issue though, and I was duly turfed out of the car in Kingussie, to leave my wife and children to finish the drive up on their own.

The first few miles out of Kingussie were on what looked like a relatively new and well signposted walking trail, climbing through the woods towards Loch Gynack. Unfortunately the awkwardly placed stone steps meant that whilst this would make an interesting descent, it was an impossible climb in places, unless your surname is MacAskill. At least when Loch Gynack came into view, the singletrack improved to that well drained, pine needle covered stuff which is so common in the Cairngorms. On approaching Newtonmore, a “wildcat” trail offered the possibility of singletrack through managed woods, but unfortunately this did mean more gates per metre than even the worst sections of the West Highland Way. Ride, dismount, unchain, open, close, re-chain, remount, repeat. No wildcats spotted either. Harrumph.

Emerging on to the Newtonmore to Glen Banchor road allowed a few miles to be ticked off on tarmac and then good double track. Unfortunately the pace slowed again as the path petered out through Glen Banchor, and time was wasted dithering at river crossings. After ditching the socks and shoes for the first major crossing, getting damp feet on the subsequent bogs meant I adopted a rather more relaxed attitude to subsequent splashes. At least in double figure April temperatures your feet soon dry off.

Keen to make up some time when emerging to the good track at Strath an Eilich, I overshot my planned off-piste turnoff when doing 20mph down hill, but was in no mood to back track for the sake of another boggy “footpath”. Continuing down through the grounds of Cluny Castle just meant that I emerged on to the A86 a mile earlier than expected.

Looking back down the Corrieyairack Pass toward Melgarve

The ride through Laggan towards to the Melgarve Bothy was as expected – easy riding, but a bit sloggy into a stiff April headwind. Despite the knobbly winter tyres remaining installed, I caught and passed a few other riders. The fourth hybrid rider I passed sat in my slipstream until I glanced over my shoulder and just about needed a change of trousers when I realised he was there. Good company for the last few miles took my mind off the tarmac slog, as we chatted about the estate and its new owners, and the relative remoteness of the cottage he was riding back to. I bade him farewell at the Melgarve Bothy and continued the slog up and over Corrieyairack on my own. Although mostly rideable, a long week at work meant I was feeling pretty knackered before the start, and so I took the easy option of walking round a couple of the looser, steeper hairpin bends on the zig-zag section near the top. Ascending into the clouds, the Beauty-Denny tower lines were barely visible through the gloom, but I soon dropped out of the greyness again, to open views of the hills and forests on the north side of Loch Ness. Regardless of your views on development in these locations, you have to be impressed by the engineering that goes in to building overhead power lines at this height, in these remote locations.

From the top of Corrieyairack Pass it was (almost) all downhill for the run into Fort Augustus:- smooth tracks, a mile of a back road and a quick jaunt through a graveyard all that stood between me and putting my feet up in our holiday home for the week. Another section ticked off, and now definitely with a more Highland feel – higher passes and big hills all around. Onwards and northwards…

Kingussie to Fort Augustus

Facts and figures:

Miles: 41mi
Meters climbed: 1,285m
Wildlife seen: The usual tame deer standing 10ft away in Glenshero
Ride-ability: 95% (wet feet in the other 5%)

The GPX for the ride can be found here

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The next stage of riding the Scottish National Trail has been a long time in the coming. Two young boys, a new job, lots of commuting and a house move mean that free weekends have been difficult to come by.

I’ve been looking forward to this stage for a while – a bit more remote, but logistically a lot easier than the next few sections. The first weekend in June 2016 could not have seen better conditions for riding (barely a drop of rain at home in Perthshire for the past four weeks), although being Scottish and needing something to complain about, the weather was, if anything, a little too warm.

Joined by Simon again (who rode the Comrie to Pitlochry section with me), we parked in the spiritual home of Velo Club Moulin and picked up the trail in Pitlochry early on Sunday morning, with easy riding alongside Loch Faskally and the River Garry northwards to warm up the legs. A mix of forest tracks and the odd sandy singletrack in woods that looked like they might contain lots of fun options for lucky locals.

Popping out onto a back road following the river from Killiecrankie to Blair Atholl allowed a few swift miles to be ticked off in the sunshine, before stopping for an early coffee and sublime carrot cake at The Watermill. This would normally be a bit early in a ride for a stop, but this would be the last chance before Kingussie – it would be barren glens from here on in.

The ride up Glen Tilt was exactly as I remembered it. Like many Scottish mountain bikers, I have ridden down here as part of the classic Beinn a’Ghlo loop (around the East side of Beinn a’Ghlo to Fealer Lodge, and then a great descent to and then down Glen Tilt). The riding up the Glen was uninspiring but brisk – easy Land Rover tracks follow the river, giving a chance to glance at the interesting pools and rocks in the river, with tall hills on either side (mental note: looks like there are a couple of rideable munros up here).

When the land rover track eventually peters out, the riding gets more entertaining, with singletrack punctuated by rock step ups and the odd burn crossing. Mostly rideable for those in the zone, but momentum is your friend here – satisfying to clean as many of these sections as you can.

Lunch stop by the Geldie Burn

In this section, the route overlaps with the “Cairngorm Loop” – evidenced by the numerous bikepacking individuals we passed heading south. At the top of the Glen, passing the ruins of the Bynack Lodge gives a real sense of remoteness – by this point we have ridden for miles since the road, and when in use, the lodge would have been barely more accessible from the Braemar side either.

Crossing the Geldie Burn (disappointing the waiting hoard of walkers who were anxiously waiting to see if we would fall in), the route turns Westwards climbing gently alongside the Burn. At Geldie Lodge (another ruined hunting lodge) the double track runs out and the climbing gently continues across boggier singletrack.   After several dry weeks this was mercifully rideable, but this could have been a very different section in a wet Spring – several miles of burn crossing and bog could have been hard work.

A scaffolding crossing over the impressive waterfalls on the River Eidart marks the start of the track heading downwards. At this point a blown fork seal added to the creaky bottom bracket (from the aforementioned river crossings) and the spongy front brake so a steady approach was taken, as the forks pogoed up and down. At the top of Glen Feshie we chatted to a rider heading to Braemar from Aviemore for a week of work by riding up the way we had come, and then on to the Linn of Dee. Not a bad approach to commuting.

As we descended further down Glenfeshie, the trail becomes a mix of single and double track with numerous river crossings and a few freshly laid sections of new stone. The reason for the new sections soon became clear as we rode past numerous vast washed out gulleys – the power of the water here in previous winters has clearly been awesome, and it was interesting to see tiny burns running down vast scars in the hillside.

Eventually crossing on to the west side of River Feshie at Charnachuin, we picked up what is now a well surfaced estate road to tick off a few easy miles in the sun. Eschewing the obvious turn westwards through the forest, the route continues on this for a few more miles, instead turning into the forest only closer to Inshriach, and winding down towards Insh before doubling back to Kingussie. From here, a gentle mix of forest track, footpaths and the odd tarmac section brought us into Kingussie for some very well earned steak pies in the sun. Another stage dispatched, and the satisfaction of tired legs for the drive home. More of this sort of thing please.

Facts and figures:

Miles: 54mi
Meters climbed: 1,220m
Wildlife seen: Not a huge amount (its all been shot)
Ride-ability: 99%

After last week’s failed attempt at combining “stages” 4 and 5 of my planned Scottish National Trail ride, I took advantage of the continued dry September weather to nip back to Comrie and finish the job off properly – 40 miles of mountain biking from Comrie to Pitlochry.

As noted on the last post, the logistics of a ride from Comrie were a bit of a headache, but this was solved by joining forces with VCM teammate Simon Fairfull (most of the rest of the VCM crew were jogging or slogging around West Yorkshire for the Three Peaks CX race), and leaving a car at each end of the trail.

After an 8.30 depart from Edinburgh, a car was abandoned in Pitlochry, and the fun twisty roads from Pitlochry to Comrie were quickly dispatched. The driving to the stage start meant we finally rolled out of the car park after 11am – setting off up the Deil’s Caldron climb I had ridden in the previous post, and on to Invergeldie where I had turned round little over a week ago. The track from here will be familiar to any munro baggers who have slogged up the grassy mound of Ben Chonzie – a good land rover track that quickly gains height for a couple of miles. We parted ways with the track before the slopes of Ben Chonzie kicked up too steeply, and turned north to head on up the valley. A good wide path narrowed to single track and eventually petered out for the last few hundred meters as we bogtrotted to the top of the bealach. From here, the map suggests continuing north for a kilometre or so, dropping into the valley, but with no obvious path, we cut the corner slightly to pick up a land rover track and drop down to the dam on the valley floor.

Turning east, the path now follows around the back of Ben Chonzie. The route picks up the Rob Roy Way again, with flat land rover track miles down to the farm at Auchnafree. The track kicks up more steeply again here – a narrow single track climb above a burn with plenty of obstacles thrown in. Damp rocks and a worn Racing Ralph on the back led to more dabs than I would like – almost falling down the bank towards the burn in one moment of inattentiveness. The parts which were rideable were slow and technical, but satisfying.

After picking our way over and around the boulders, a Land Rover track is picked up by the Lochan, which dropped us down to the minor road Loch Freuchie and then the parallel fast doubletrack, alongside the River Quaich. Turning our legs to “slog” we turned up the steep road climb out of the valley towards Kenmore. This afforded great views back down the valley and at least allowed the height to be gained quickly. The reward was fast miles eastwards towards Aberfeldy – initially on good land rover tracks, ducking beneath the huge (and controversial) pylons of the Beauly to Denny power line, and finally on to the footpath alongside the Birks of Aberfeldy – great single track with little rocky step downs on the bends.

A coffee and some tablet refuelled us in Aberfeldy before a few easy miles of riding. Although pan flat, the path was generally tight and twisty – more entertaining than a path  squeezed in between the River Tummel and the main road eastwards had any right to be. Reaching Grandtully, a helpful signpost marked the footpath to Pitlochry and suggested that only around 4 miles remain. Excellent. What that signpost didn’t say was that half of those miles would be steeply uphill.

At this stage in the ride, Simon had a leg injury which was playing up – not ideal up a steep, often grassy climb. The trail was good though – single track that was satisfying to clean, with only a few ditches near the top to force a dismount. Over the top, we entered the woods and thankfully turned downhill again for a final fast blast into Pitlochry. Like the descent into Aberfeldy earlier, this was a fast entertaining blast through the trees, and was a great way to finish a good ride. A spirited drive on back roads to Comrie followed to pick up the other car. A good day out – another 40 miles of Scottish National Trail ticked off, and now well into Highland Perthshire. I am really looking forward to the next section from Pitlochry to Kingussie up Glen Tilt and down Glenfeshie, but that will probably wait until 2015. I need to earn a few more brownie points for these big days out first.

Facts and figures:
Miles: 40mi
Meters climbed: 1,590m
Ticks collected: 1
Ride-ability: 95%

The GPX for the ride can be found here.