im leaving it till september this year !

Single Speed George wrote:im leaving it till september this year !

Me too. Heading up to recce/wander around the Northern Loop of the HT550. Only one significant burn crossing rather than 13

Thursday conditions update:

I had a wee spin up to Carrbridge earlier this evening, after the intermittent, but heavy, showers had finally called it a day. Lovely fresh atmosphere.

Quite a bit of water in the Dulnain - a combination of rain and melt. I suspect some of the other rivers will be similarly affected.




It's always worth keeping an eye on the SEPA water levels page for up-to-date info, but I expect levels will drop in the next 36-48 hours.

http://apps.sepa.org.uk/waterlevels

This is the Feshie at Feshie Bridge - usually a good indicator





Oh - and I pulled a tick off me when I got home. That's the second one in as many weeks so #smidgeup and make sure you have tick tweazers to hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP2qXO9f-I0

ScotRoutes wrote:Thursday conditions update:

I had a wee spin up to Carrbridge earlier this evening, after the intermittent, but heavy, showers had finally called it a day. Lovely fresh atmosphere.

Quite a bit of water in the Dulnain - a combination of rain and melt. I suspect some of the other rivers will be similarly affected.




It's always worth keeping an eye on the SEPA water levels page for up-to-date info, but I expect levels will drop in the next 36-48 hours.

http://apps.sepa.org.uk/waterlevels

This is the Feshie at Feshie Bridge - usually a good indicator





Oh - and I pulled a tick off me when I got home. That's the second one in as many weeks so #smidgeup and make sure you have tick tweazers to hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP2qXO9f-I0

I hope you promptly killed the wee bastard after you shot the video!

Bike all packed and in the car for the morning. Looking forward to it

Anybody interested in a backmarker? http://share.findmespot.com/shared/face ... 0qsn5d0HAi

Howard wrote:Bike all packed and in the car for the morning. Looking forward to it

Anybody interested in a backmarker? http://share.findmespot.com/shared/face ... 0qsn5d0HAi

Well done on finishing Howard. A tough year for it with the inner loop snow and wet, and that horrific headwind hindering progress.

Did you stop for any more pints after Glenmore? I was on the Jones, struggling with a flat (supposedly tubeless) tyre.

Well done everyone who completed. What were the river levels like?

I bailed out on the CL and did the lakeland 200 instead. Tough but excellent ride - the wind was not great in the lakes either, but it was (very) dry!

ianpv wrote:Well done everyone who completed. What were the river levels like?

I bailed out on the CL and did the lakeland 200 instead. Tough but excellent ride - the wind was not great in the lakes either, but it was (very) dry!

The river levels were fine. It was generally wet between Bynack More and Glenfeshie but generally good going. The main issue for me was the headwind, followed by the snow

Well that wind sure made it a struggle.

Well done everyone who got round! I had a wrist issue flair up so decided to turn for home instead of heading up to Glenfeshie.

I attempted to ride across the Geldie at the turnoff, stalled halfway across, failed to unclip, then had a lie down in the river! That sealed the deal on the bailing out!

Untitled by Andy Lawrence, on Flickr

A taste of the conditions up on the tops.

That was definitely hard again. Two photos taken from the same spot showing the difference in snow between this year and last. IMG_1436 by Heatherstalks, on Flickr and Bynack More by Heatherstalks, on Flickr

AlasdairMc wrote:
Well done on finishing Howard. A tough year for it with the inner loop snow and wet, and that horrific headwind hindering progress.

Did you stop for any more pints after Glenmore? I was on the Jones, struggling with a flat (supposedly tubeless) tyre.

Yep - Tomintoul and Braemar

I didn't realise it was you - sorry. So how did you get on - Did you make it to Aviemore that night?

I didn't find the snow that bad (compared to last year) and I got round with dry feet the whole way (unlike last year) - but that wind!! Going down to Inchrory was soul destroying - could hardly walk in a straight line.

I'd love to know how everyone did - missing trackleaders

Martin and I made it to Aviemore for about 1:15am, got burgers from the late night butcher and then four hours of rest at the picnic area behind the Tree Zone place. We got into Pitlochry at 9:30pm, so 35:30 which I was very happy with.

How did you manage dry feet?

Of the two Americans, Louis pulled out at Aviemore on Sunday morning, and Daniel finished some time before midnight, as he turned up in the hostel in Pitlochry at 1am.

Did anyone lose an item of clothing on the push up Bynack More? PM me with what it was, its size and your address and I'll post it back.

Myself and Aidan finished in 30 hours 45 mins. the outer loop took longer than I had anticipated there were nearly tears

AlasdairMc wrote:Martin and I made it to Aviemore for about 1:15am, got burgers from the late night butcher and then four hours of rest at the picnic area behind the Tree Zone place. We got into Pitlochry at 9:30pm, so 35:30 which I was very happy with.

How did you manage dry feet?

Of the two Americans, Louis pulled out at Aviemore on Sunday morning, and Daniel finished some time before midnight, as he turned up in the hostel in Pitlochry at 1am.

Did anyone lose an item of clothing on the push up Bynack More? PM me with what it was, its size and your address and I'll post it back.

Good time! Respect for pushing through to Aviemore. Doing GlenFeshie by lights is proper hardcore

Just answered the question about dry feet at http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB ... 10#p118486 You do have to judge how deep the underwater stones are and not slip off them though