Kyle of Lochalsh to Aberdeen C2C advice

[Moder-dye]

Cheers for this new section. Great idea

After last years pretty tame bike packing trip (up the Deesside Way and across and down the Speyside Way) I'm planning to do a more challenging route based on one of the Scottish C2C routes late May.

386km or so starting at Kyle of Lochalsh then Glen Elg, kinloch Hourn, Corrieyairack Pass, Glen Feshie,Loch Muick,Glen Colva and then the coast to Aberdeen for the ferry home.

This is just a rough sketch up of the route for now... http://www.strava.com/routes/4208524

I'll be doing it as a holiday (rather than ITT type ride/race) and wild camping, so don't want to flog myself too much and do want to enjoy the views, take pics etc. I was thinking may be 4-5 days based on the fact that I'm ok with about 100km or so a day on the road for multi-days and there's a reasonable amount of tarmac and ok track in the route.

I'm just wondering if anyone who's done it has any feedback on the route?
What sort of time it might reasonably take? It's mixed road and off road, but some bits look to be pretty tough, but is 4-5 days likely to be a bit excessive?
I can see some sections that will be a bit of HAB either due to terrain or my fitness, but are there any of particular concern?
Any bits to avoid or better route options that I've missed?
Any known damage from the winter floods that's impassable like in Glen Feshie?

Anyway, I know I'm asking a lot but I guess that's what this new section is for, so thanks in advance

Kevin

P.S. I'm going solo unless anyone else wants to come along!

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[fatbikephil]

The eastern section - from Glen Muick hows about going left to Ballater, down the deeeside way to Aboyne then the Fungle road over to Glen Tennet. You can then get up onto Mt Battock on double track (marked on later 1:25k maps but not on 1:50k) then head east to pick up Char bothy. From there head across to the Builg Mounth and over into Feterresso forest and then pick you way along various forest tracks to Stonehaven. This should save a lot of road riding from your current route albeit with a few bumps thrown in! Another more fundamental change is to do the northern route from Aviemore to either Braemar or Ballater via Ryvoan, eigh mhor, Dorback lodge, Glen brown, Tomintoul, Glen Avon, Loch builg (ie a bit of the outer Cairngorms loop) - generally easier riding than the Feshie / Geldie crossing with more bridges.

[Moder-dye]

Cheers for those ideas

I'm happy to make big route changes so that's more to look at. Initially I dismissed the ballater-deeside way as I've already done it and it there's not too much of interest and thought I'd end up just running home for the ferry! But the bit to Aboyne is interesting so to go there than detour via your suggestions is a good consideration.

Similarly I'd dismissed Loch Builg Tomintoul as I did it last year and fancied Glen Feshie (despite knowing it would be tough),but your route would add interest and as you say avoid a lot of road which is good. I'll have to do Glen Feshie one day though.

Reckon I'll be busy at work tomorrow re-jigging some things I've got all the 1:25000 maps any way on my phone (I use maverick pro) and on paper.

It's a step up in game with the distance for me so want the challenge,but not to kill myself off! Still I'll get plenty of miles in once the weather improves, sadly too much turbo tedium at the moment

Cheers!

[ScotRoutes]

You can avoid a bit of road work by avoiding Laggan - Newtonmore - Kingussie.

Where the road from the Corrieyairack comes to the Spey Dam, carry straight on along the remnants of the Wade Road. This takes you to the A86. Turn up towards Catlodge then a right in the forest at NN678942 to Crubenbeg and the Falls of Truim, Cross the A9 at Etteridge and remain on the Wade road until it meets the A9 again. Cross once more and then you're on a wee road to Ruthven Barracks. I can send you a GPX track for that if it helps, but it's all on teh OS maps.

Once on the B970 you have a couple of options but one is to take a right at Bridge of Tromie and cut straight across to Glen Feshie via Baileguish and Corarnstilbeg, missing out Feshie Bridge.

Oh - and the bridge at Carnachuin in Feshie has been missing for years. You'll either get wet feet crossing somewhere near Craig na Cailleach or head to the bridge at NN850964

[Moder-dye]

Brilliant, thanks for that. I'll hopefully sus it out tomorrow and see if I can put together a better route.

I mainly put it together using strava heatmaps thinking the more used routes will be more sure routes rather than ones that a few have checked out and thought they'd never got back! As you'll gather I'm not very familiar with the area.

Thanks again

[Trail-rat]

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic ... -pic-heavy

i did something similar last year

Had planned to take HT riders route but ran out of time on the last day so bombed to montrose.

I highly recomend the slog(HAB) up to camban bothy and coming down glen afric the views are worth it - plus you get rewarded for your slog with a morning of descent.

[Moder-dye]

Cheers Trail rat I think I've seen that before, looked great fun. So Glen Affric rather than Kinloch hourn... I can see many route changes before I set off! So many nice Glens that can't reasonably all fit in the one trip!

Is that pretty much 5km HAB from Glenlicht House? Or is it possible (sensible with a bike) to go further north to get into Affric via Gleann Choinneachain and loch a bhealaich?

Hopefully will get time soon to rework it. So many ideas now!

[Moder-dye]

Well after having a look at the various options I'm more confused than ever as to the best route! Saying that I've taken some of the advice on board in various parts to improve the route interms of reducing road miles, getting in the places I fancied, but not making it too challenging, especially towards the end

I'd like to do Glen Affric, but it takes me too far north for a nice route back down to Fort Augustus for the Corrieyairack (as far as I can see) and The Kinlochhourn Route looks like a good start to the trip.

I like the look of the Ryvoan, Glen Avon route as I've been in some of those areas so I reckon I'll go with that. Glen Feshie would be a more direct route and I do fancy it, but from comments its much harder going and also wetter in terms of crossings and I've not been down that way.

I think I'll stick with Loch Muick and Glen Clova though. I've looked over the Fungle Road, Mount Battock route and it looks interesting, but I fear it might be a bit lumpy for me by that point. But I have put some of the Fetteresso Forest in to the route before hitting Stonehaven.

With all that the route is up to 430km, but I guess I have some 'wuss out' options if it gets too much one way or the other. https://www.strava.com/routes/4221373

Hard work trying to figure it all out juggling maps, strava, satellite and blog posts so I appreciate the help and I'm still open to any other ideas

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[Trail-rat]

Dont know about the route north of glenlichd - i did the glen lichd route I met a few walkers that said the route in from cluanie was a no go ....even for walking - the single dotted line isnt there.

fyi there are good fire trails in for the construction of the power lines between affric and glen morriston before you ping onto General wades military road to from the dam to fort augustus.

Did you not fancy turning right at bulig and coming over the cullardoch shoulder and then going straight on over the bridge at crathie into the queens estate and going up the fire road next to the gelder sheil track (bothy at gelder sheil) and taking the nice relaxed climb over into glen muick - saves the road trek up from ballater which is all up hill and singletrack/passing places then scoot round the east side of the loch as the bridge at the west end has been destroyed for now and then up the lightening strikes as you plan.

FYI the bunk house at clova is good(clean and reasonable price) with good kitchen facilities but be aware it books up fast. loads of good spots to bivvy up within 20 minutes of there anyway if its full.

[Moder-dye]

Good to know about that northern route! Now you mention it I see that route over from Glen Affric via the power lines. I'm looking at the OS on Bing so it's easy to miss things zooming in and out between scales. I'll give it a miss for this trip, but bear it in mind for the future as I do want to visit Glen Affric sometime.

I remember looking at that route over to Loch Muick in the past and don't know why I've ignored it this time! It would be better than going into and out of Ballater for sure, unless i needed a shop, and save on road and miles. I assume you go up and south to the west of Ripe Hill and then turn east after it to Gelder Sheil?

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Ok, more refinement...

Cheers

Kevin

[Trail-rat]

dont do that unless your part time job is with pickfords .... youll be doing alot of pushing through the heather that way.

Geldersheil best treated as an out and back the path after gelder sheil turns to nothing and theres a reasonably deep water crossing and steep bank to traverse.....dont ask me how i know.

take the next path after gelder sheil once you cross the bridge and turn right to head up the hill and its a gentle fire road ascent going through the number 26 grid ref on your map .up to the saddle and a tech (but fully ridable on a fully rigid loaded bike) down to the loch

Do check if the queens in residence in the area when you plan to go , ive been pulled by the royal guards before...they usually let you carry on but warn you .... last time i got pulled i was with an irishman and we had parked an irish plated vehicle at the time in the carpark at braemar which they clocked - they werent to keen for us being there.

[Moder-dye]

Thanks for the heads up on that route, unmarked heather is no fun, one of the reasons I mainly road bike or walk up here. So there's a way to check she's there in advance? Useful for the bad guys

Anyway I'm only 1/4 Irish, so they'll never tell and the bikes a patriotic Charge

Got a mixture or apprehension and woohoo-ness about it all as it'll be the longest trip I've done solo and lots of the ground is unknown to me.

[Moder-dye]

So, change of plans, hopefully for the good!

A mate of mine down near Dornoch wanted to join me for the first couple of days as it'll be his last freedom before his first child comes along. So, rather than go Billy no mates, and due to his availability we're going to do a 168km route from Kyle of Lochalsh, via Glen Affric, Glen Moriston and the Great Glen Way up to Inverness and if time allows go up on the Black Isle. Obviously a lot less than what I wanted to do, but the chance to ride with an old mate trumps doing the longer C2C.

Here's the new route, which I'm happy to accept any advice/suggestions on https://www.strava.com/routes/4271272 Plans are a relaxed few days with first night at Camban Bothy, and Second night somewhere near Invermoriston. We're heading off on the15th April, so a month earlier than planned. Any ideas if there's likely to be snow at the head of Affric or going over the top to Glen Moriston then?

With any luck I'll have enough annual leave left to do the original plan late summer/early autumn.

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[ScotRoutes]

As an idea, From Torgyle on the A887, how about heading up over the hill into Fort Augustus on the Old Military Road and then follow the Great Glen Way?

Also - there are a couple of optional higher level sections on the GGW now. They are undoubtedly harder work but you are rewarded with much better views. They are signposted as you leave Fort Augustus and Invermoriston so easy to find or I can send you a GPX file for that whole section (FA to INV)

[Moder-dye]

Scotroutes that gpx would be great. I did want to get through to Fort Augustus for better pies and fodder bit couldn't see an obvious way over the top, I'll have a closer look.

One issue of the earlier start is not sure if my 2 season down bag will be enough. My 3 season bag is a bulky synthetic. May just have to compensate with a sol escape bivy over my bag, I put a zip in it so it can be opened up or vented some what

[ScotRoutes]

Should be here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-ROW ... XJfM3k5TUU

As for the snow question; difficult to say. Pretty unlikely, but not unheard of is the best I'll commit to (I've been snowed on in the Fannaichs in mid June)

[Moder-dye]

Mmm.... I'm getting something saying SSL connection error. Any ideas? I'll see if I can have a look tomorrow evening and check out the route over from Torgyle.

No, I know you can get snow at pretty much any time, just didn't know if it was an area that was prone to it staying around. Last Easter I was in the cairngorms and other than right up on the tops it was OK, though we did get some falling at a low level over night.

Cheers

[ScotRoutes]

Try this (probably right-click...save as)

http://www.scotroutes.com/Routes/MTB/FAtoINV_High.gpx

[Moder-dye]

Cheers that works

And I've seen the old road route over from Torgyle brig now, looks good and better than the road into Invermoriston.

Only issue is my mate has now scared himself looking at the profile of the route LOL! He's working on a ship off Dubai just now and had only looked at the routes on his phone, he opened them up on the ships computer and said 'Oh dear!' (or owrds to that effect) I hope he's got a turbo trainer in the freezer on the ship to get him acclimatised!

Thanks again

[Moder-dye]

So, here's what I hope is the final version taking people's comments into account. 182km with camp at Camban Bothy and somewhere near Fort Augustus (possibly the campsite )
https://www.strava.com/routes/4325887

BTW my spell checker suggests Sadomasochist for Drumnadrochit, which reminds me have rough is the HAB up to Camban bothy?

Train is booked and I was very impressed at only £14 from Aberdeen to Kyle of Lochalsh with a table window seat

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[Trail-rat]

HAB from glenlicht house all the way to camban - its hard pack decent walking but rocky preventing much more than a few minutes riding in every 20 minutes or so shoving, some spectacular scenary when you get up to the waterfalls

[Moder-dye]

Plenty of views that need admiring on the way up then!

Cheers

[Trail-rat]

heads up - sheilbridge garage shop is pish.

and theres a good cafe at dundreggan. you come off the hill and turn right to torgyle bridge - turn left towards dundregan and theres a red wooden hut that does good food :D

[Moder-dye]

Cheers.

I'd seen the red café when I was looking to go along to Invermoriston originally instead of over to Fort Augustus.

Plans were to fill our bellies at KOL when we get off the train, so Sheil bridge shop shouldn't be a real issue, but I'm sure we'll find some goodies if nothing else at the garage shop.

I don't suppose there are any other under the radar bothies on route from Fort Augustus that anyone wants to share are there, or good camp spots?

[Gari]

If the weather plays ball I plan to ride the GGW from Inverness to Gairlochy on Mon. I shall keep an eye out for a suitable campsite.