Mmm, don't really know how to start this but suffice to say I scratched from the Borders 350 on the morning of the second day.
Five of us started at 9 am, Phil (who disappeared off into the distance at a rate of knots), Ian and Mark, Mike and I.
It all started very well with me riding with Mike mostly and getting to Tibbie Shiels in the expected time. From here Ian and Mark who where not too far ahead went on pretty fast, not to be seen again until we hit Broughton. Covering the ground from Tibbie Shiels to Broughton took far longer than expected due to my under estimation of how difficult this section would be because of the amount of hard climbing and wet trail conditions after the wet summer we have had. Peebles to Broughton is a distance of 42 miles and it took me 8 hours and 40 minutes. As I pulled up at the shop Ian and Mark told me I had just made it in time as the shop shut at six. They were just finishing the food they had bought and then set off again. The shop didn't have a lot, I bought a couple of filled bread rolls, two pie's, two bananas and a pint of milk. As I sat outside eating the rolls I was starting to worry about Mike whom I knew wasn't too far behind, would he make the shop before closing, should I buy food for him, should I ask the young girl serving to stay open a bit longer. I needn't have worried, Mike turned up with a few minutes to spare.
I left Mike contemplating his next step as he said he was pretty tired. I was ready to push on hoping to at least get to Fruid Reservoir where I intended to call it a night. This meant not making Moffat and no take away meal that evening. If I got to Fruid and slept then I could do the hard bikehike the following morning and have breakfast in Moffat. That was now my plan but I had a huge climb back up to Dollar Law then quite a few uphill road miles.
I decided the only way I was going to make the push up this hill was with some sort of distraction so out came the mp3 player. I am no electronic whizz so my mp3 just plays one track after another, I have no idea how to make folders etc, I have to listen to whatever comes. In this case it was classic 70's rock. In 1976 I had turned 18, had long hair and loved rock music, just perfect. Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Jimmy Hendrix, Thin Lizzy, even Uriah Heap, it was all good and got me to the top despite some strong winds and night coming in. At one point I spotted Ian And Mark far away on the skyline, it was the last I would see of them. A fastish descent saw me back at Megget Reservoir, it was 10 pm and I was hungry and bushed, it had taken 3 1/2 hours to do 13 miles. I ate a pie and very reluctantly started the road climb which didn't last long. I was just too tired and couldn't get up the determination to continue. I found a bivi spot pretty quick so set up camp. The midges were out but not in force, enough to be annoying though. I ate the last pie and got into my sleeping bag with my midge headnet on.
Once in the bag I tightened up the closure chord on the bivi bag and tried to sleep. No such luck, the midges were getting in and biting me. I tightened the closure even more bringing the midge net right up to my face. I have a tendency to claustrophobia and also hate having my mouth and nose covered whilst trying to sleep, breathing in warm, moist air, I just don't like it. Anyhow, I fell asleep for maybe twenty minutes and woke again feeling most uncomfortable. I tried various combinations of bivi openings, lying positions etc all to no avail. Eventually it dawned on me to put my whole head out of the bivi then tighten up the closure around my neck. This meant no stuffiness, no midges getting in and my head protected with the midge net. At last I fell asleep only to awake again twenty minutes later. Now I'm too hot, I only have the one bag, a three season one. I push the bag to the bottom of the bivi bag being rewarded with severe cramp in my left thigh due to struggling in such a confined space. After the cramp passes I pulled the bag up underneath me so am sleeping on top of it, inside the silk liner, inside the bivi bag with my head stuck out covered in a midge net. If anyone had looked in I think they may have taken me for some strange mummified corpse type thing or such like. Anyway, this works and I get another hour asleep but then wake up with the uppermost part of my body cold. I am generally a side sleeper so I simply rolled the whole bivi bag over so the sleeping bag is now on top. Another hours sleep and waken again to dense mist outside and I'm cold again. Back into the sleeping bag I go, again being rewarded by nasty cramps. I fall asleep and don't wake until 7.30 am. Bugger, so much for an early start. I pack hastily and am really hungry, I mean really, really hungry. I only have few cereal bars and some energy gels so I down the cereal bars and have a caffeinated gel and start to pedal.
It's no good, I hate cycling when I'm hungry never mind bonking. I try to convince myself that I can make Moffat on what little I have but the thought of the bikehike section ahead just defeats me and I decide I will never make Moffat in this state so back track to Tibbie Shields in the hope the roadside cafe is open. No such luck, not open for another hour and a half at least. That does it, I am tired, hungry and way behind schedule with all my planned provision stops now out of kilter. No matter how hard I try I cannot convince myself to continue and I come to the conclusion that "I just do not have what it takes"!
At this point I decide to scratch but still ride on the road to Moffat for breakfast then just tour what I can. After breakfast I am still not in a good place so decide to abandon altogether. I start to cycle back to Peebles and it takes another two hours before I start to feel happy pedalling.
Could I have continued, maybe, but like I say, I just do not have the mental fortitude for multi day ITT's. I am still in awe of the people who can and do finish these events so good on all of you.
Wil I try again, maybe, but it won't be against the clock.
Maybe tour it......say a group of six people........ say over six day's.......sixty miles a day........think I'll call it the .........

"SixSixSix",

well done ray .
just put it down to having a bad day , there is always next time.

Great to hear a report where things don't work out. I find somedays are not riding days no matter how much I want them to be.
I also find when things start to go wrong they just seem to stack up and its knowing when to stop and when to press on that is important.
Knowing yourself and your limitations when you can push yourself and when to stop that are the great lessons.
Now thinking about your sixty miles a day. If you can raise that to sixty nine point eight miles a day - I think is the number without checking - over eight days you have done an HT550.
Just saying.

Came across this article the other day: http://www.runningandstuff.com/blog/201 ... -communism

I read something somewhere else about decisions to quit are most easily traced back to being insufficiently fuelled. Eating enough on these sort of rides can be very difficult....

Still, as Burty says, there's always next time

Thanks for sharing that Ray, I see what you have written as a kind of therapy, if it was easy it would be no "fun" at all, you will be back

Andy

Hi Ray
Don't feel bad, you did better than me....
Mike's words to me just before we started were 'After the Highland Trail, this will be easy...' I hadn't underestimated this ride but to be honest i'd had a bit of a motivation failure last week - nothing to do with the route, I was just feeling a bit biked out. Anyway my pace was good - just what I'd been using all year, I was eating plenty and felt strong on the climb out of Megget. Doom started to befall on the thiefs road - this was way more vague and unrideable than I recall from doing it in 2003 and I was struggling to keep cheerful. I was also struggling with the nav, with paths on the ground not matching with the line and anytime I tried to follow the path on the ground it quickly vagued out resulting in a lot of high energy dragging of bike through boggy heather. The fact I would have to back track this section wasn't helping my mood. That said I cheered up on the last downhill and the excellent trail from Stobo to Broughton. My legs were feeling quite tired as I rolled into Broughton but no big deal and I had a good stop and plenty of nosh including one of my magic team sky approved (?) drinks powders which normally perk me up no end. Final doom came on the climb out of Drumelzier, my legs just siezed solid with horrible cramping every time I dismounted or mounted (lots) plus it felt I was running on empty with no energy and no strength. Needless to say when I topped out on the ridge and faced with a choice of continuing climbing into a brutal head wind or dropping off the other side into the manor valley for an easy 4 mile roll back to Peebles, I bottled it with good grace.... so I only managed 60 miles which is pish poor considering what I've done this year.....

Not sure what happened really, its as if I was going too fast with not enough food as per HT 2014 but I never felt I was pushing too hard and scoffed loads. That said its bloody difficult to keep an easy pace through heather and bog....

Same time Next year mate!
Phil

Hi Phil, thanks for that. I agree about the thiefs road. Previously I had only used paper OS maps when navigating it. Using the GPS this time has made me reaslise that the route I took is actually off the marked route, I'll need to get it sorted. Thanks again and thanks for the positive comments from everyone else.

Ray, don't feel too disheartened, what you went through is more common than you think. As a certain Mr Barter said a while ago: "you're writing the book everyone else is reading" (or something like that), so getting out and doing riding like that counts for far more than sitting on a sofa complaining about the weather, or whatever. Have another crack, and keep feeding yourself - you can't eat too much on a ride..... (And as Ian said, I have also read that hunger makes the head want to pack it in).

As others say Ray, dont be disheartened. Learn a bit about your fuelling strategy, like the fact you seem to need to fuel in the morning (I do too). Perhaps give some thought to adding a little comfort to your sleep set up. I always ride better on days 2, 3 etc when I carry enough kit to get a good nights sleep. For me that means full size mat, decent bag, proper weather coverage from a tarp etc.

Don't be too hard on yourself ray. It was a bloody hard first day.
I scratched because I was hungry and knackered and couldn't eat much. Also after 9 hours biking I was 12 miles from home. Hard to face that climb from Drumelizer when feeling like that.

I went back out yesterday and took a different route down to moffat, along SUW and back to Peebles. 75 miles and made sure I ate loads and drank plenty. What a difference. I need plenty food. Learned that much. Also tangfastics are a life saver.

I'm sorry Ray but anyone who toes the line has what it takes. The very fact that you set out to do this is enough and one day through perseverance you will. The only way you can say that you don't have what it takes is if you go back out and repeat the same things that caused you issue this time. It's all about learning and iteration as I tell myself constantly having scratched the HTR twice.

All of the above is true, Ray. I've twice crashed 'n burned on TD...mostly due to bio/mechanical issues but I'd say there was a reasonable chunk this year that was pure calorie deficiency and dehydration (which added to my body breaking down to boot).

I'll wager if you went out on the 350 route without the clock ticking and enjoyed yourself, snapping photos and eating regularly, you'd make it around ok. Get around it once, and then start seeing where you can shave the time off and do it again.

Greetz

S.

Thanks for all the encouragement guys, I feel better already.
This is the first time I have had problems sleeping, a summer weight bag is definitely on the cards for next year as I sleep hot and there is not much you can do about that especially when you need to keep your bivi bag closed tight to keep the biting buggers at bay.
Regarding the midge net, I know now how to use it to my satisfaction, I just wish i'd thought of the solution sooner, or maybe I should have just put in my full length one and put up with the extra bulk as I had loads of room in my seatpack.
Thanks once again folks .

Glad to see everyone is back and safe. Mark and I are travelling back now.

Ray the route is as hard as anything out there and not finishing it is no disgrace!

I posted this in the other thread:

Mark and I are back in Peebles. Five of us started, mark and I kept meeting up and there was one rider in front of us (htrider from here I think) but we didn't see any tyre tracks on day 2 so he must have scratched around Moffat. No idea about Ray and Mike.

Ray has created a monster!! It travels through some beautiful places with some amazing views. There is some really good riding too, but also some large sections of very rough ground that are at the limits of rideability. There are some excellent, long climbs too.

We'd thought that getting to phawhope bothy at the end of the first day would be doable (145km) or even greensykes at 190 if going really well. I didn't pass greensykes until 4! And that's pm the next afternoon.

I'd got far as wooler by 1pm yesterday after rinding for ~40hours over the two and a half days (to make 360km!) I felt like I was riding strongly and was feeling good. Albeit a little ragged around the edges like you get when riding for 40 hours over 2 1/2 days with not much much sleep.

The main thing that did for me was electronics/gps. I had two anker batteries charging (or so I thought!) alternately by wooler they were both flat. Most shops were shut and I couldn't even buy a map. I only had about 6 hours of gps time and figured I needed ~20 hours of riding to finish. There is a lot of very beautiful, but VERY remote ground on the route and I thought that putting myself in the midst of it with no maps, or compass would be a survival challenge I wasn't ready for. Plus we need to be back in Sheffield tonight latest and I figured there was a fourth very long day to ride and most of my timing estimations had been way off!

All in it's been a great weekend. I wanted a test of my kit and myself. Oh wow did I get it! By the time I'd ridden the ~100km of road back from wooler it was getting dark again so another long day.

Ray has clearly put in a lot of hard work in planning the route and it is well worth its place in UK backpacking. It's a fantastically challenging route that should not be underestimated! Thanks Ray - I think ;-)

Well done Ian, I'm thinking back to our conversation at the start - 'Over Phawope no bother, Greensykes if we push on' Oh the irony.... I did think that if I managed to stagger back over to megget I'd head to Gameshope bothy and try to recover but my motivation had dropped to zero by the time I'd got back up...

Ray, I've been thinking of the route - two things occurred to me - The first was to just take the john Buchan way from peebles all the way to broughton but this misses out the nice riding over from cardrona to st mary's loch and crucially the cafe / pub at Tibbie shiels. So how about from megget res, head over the trail into Manor valley, along to hallmanor then up to the thiefs road that way. So your only doing the big climb once (and still top out at an HT560 beating 810m) missing out the worst of the vague path stuff, and removing the out and back again sections as well as adding in a nice climb / descent. I know its not meant to be easy etc but this would make moffat more easily achievable on day 1 I reckon.

I think the distance is fine if there was a bit less schlep as it nicely fills the gap between the various 200k routes in Wales and elsewhere down south and the Highland trail. Just a thought - happy to check out other trails and options if required.

Mark and I had a similar conversation on the way back. Not they we know the area but a more direct route to broughton would make Moffat and the bothy/s more doable for day one. That would set you up for a long distance day 2 and put you Kirk yetholm or wooler ish with 180 to go. That's still a good 20 hours++ of riding by my guess-timation.

Also was going to ask what your rear mud guard was? Looks like it actually works unlike most of them!

Hi guys, thanks for the input. The section you mention I struggled with for quite a while when putting the route together.
So you reckon from megget res, over into manor water, John Buchan way to Broughton then the big climb up to Dollar Law?
Or megget res, over into manor water, hellmanor to dead wife's grave then thief's road to Dollar Law missing out the Broughton loop altogether.
Both of these were considered, the climb along thief's road from dead wife's grave is not much fun and I like the Broughton loop.
What do you think?

Something my wife has suggested is having it earlier in the year, say end of June or beginning of July which would give loads of daylight hours. I was also thinking of an eight o clock start for an extra hour.

Ray Young wrote:Hi guys, thanks for the input. The section you mention I struggled with for quite a while when putting the route together.
So you reckon from megget res, over into manor water, John Buchan way to Broughton then the big climb up to Dollar Law?
Or megget res, over into manor water, hellmanor to dead wife's grave then thief's road to Dollar Law missing out the Broughton loop altogether.
Both of these were considered, the climb along thief's road from dead wife's grave is not much fun and I like the Broughton loop.
What do you think?

I don't know the area but a more direct line from Peebles to the broughton loop - I enjoyed that, up to dollar, down to the reservoirs. is there a way down to moffat without the hike-a-bike?

would Broughton via Cademuir, kirkton manor then to stobbo be any good? Whilst there was some good bits on the early route it felt a bit odd to go out and back along the same ground.

No way to Moffat without the bikehike and that leads to The Devils Beeftub which I definitely want in. Cademuir is possibility.

Some thoughts for the discussion.
I would like to see the broughton loop kept in Ray. The direct route from peebles over cademuir and The Glack to stobo is a good route.
I would suggest the direct route down the devils beef tub is worth considering. It made the hike up from fruid reservoir worth it. I did the Annandale route down to moffat yesterday but liked your original route more. But it's your route ray.

Also, I now have accurate, trail recorded gpx files to wooler. Happy to share them, not sure I got the best lines, and actually went through someone's garden after the road crossing before newcastleton but only realised at the bottom end what I'd done and thought it best to get out of there rather than retrace my steps

Also took a horrid line direct up the ridge on a singletrack heather path early on the club back up to the ridge after broughton. It was not an advantage though as mark caught and passed me there.

Hi Ray, back in Sheffield now after a tough but enjoyable few days out! As Ian has said, we rode together on and off for most of the first day and bivvied on the ridge line above the beef tub at 1ish on the first night. I had hoped to get to phawhope, but didn't get back down to the reservoir after the re-ascent past dollar law until 8ish. I felt good along the road and managed to catch Ian just before the hiking started up to the beef tub. I slept well on the first night and got a spectacular inversion over Moffat at dawn.
After breakfast in Moffat I headed on towards Phawhope, making good progress on the forest tracks. I caught Ian when he stopped to dry his sleeping bag out, but he soon pulled away through the forest and I didn't see him again after I turned back into the forest after the phawhope road stretch. I hoped to make the spithope bothy that evening but felt I needed food so stopped at the pub in newcastleton at 8pm. I felt good going through the forest after the food, but my GPS crashed just as I approached the nice wooden bridge at kielder. 25 mins of faffing seemed to resurrect it, so I continued over the forest drive towards byrness. I couldn't face the climb to spithope so slept at the foot of the forest drive. I headed to Kirk yetholm in the morning, stopping at yearning saddle for a break on the way. This section really dragged for me and I didn't get to yetholm until 1ish. Here I realised there was no way I could finish and be home for Tuesday night so I returned to Peebles along the road via Kelso, Melrose and then the tweed cycle way up the valley. As others have said, it was a demanding route with some great scenery and a good chance to ride somewhere new to me. I underestimated the severity of some of the terrain (or overestimated my ability to cover it quickly!) and therefore ran out of time. I enjoyed the route though, thanks for organising it Ray I hope to come back and finish it soon.

i took a few photos; which is a rairity for me these days.

only phone snaps but they are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_fitz/

Hi Mark, thanks for the favourable comments and glad you enjoyed it. That inversion looks fantastic in Ian's photo's.
Ian, some nice photo's there, thanks.

I have come to a decision about the route. I am keeping it the same to Megget Reservoir, taking out the hard climb to Dollar Law and the vague path. This will be replaced with the much easier climb over into Manor Water valley followed by easy road to pick up the John Buchan Way for the Broughton loop followed by the Dollar Law climb. I reckon this will save a good deal of time. I am also going to have the group start at the end of June or beginning of July and start an hour earlier. This means having daylight until 12 pm which is 16 hours of daylight on the first day. All of this should put people either at Moffat to still catch the take aways on the first day or get breakfast on the morning of the second day.
I am plotting the revised route now and will post a link or if anyone wants it direct then email me at youngray50ATgmailDOTcom

Thanks.