On waking this morning a crazy idea just popped right into my head, "The Scottish Triple". In the same year enter and complete the group starts for the following, The Cairngorms Loop, The Highland Trail 550 and The Borders 350 then combine all three completion times to give an overall time. Well hard or what, so nightmare or dream?

You do it first Ray then we can follow on!

^
What he said.

Would you consider doing them in one big loop in a oner?

Now that's sounds like a far more interesting challenge than collecting adjacent grid squares. All we need is a large feature where you have to carry your bike on your back - although you could argue it's already there and called Fisherfield...

When is the 350 'event' this year?

ZeroDarkBivi wrote: collecting adjacent grid squares.

What are you on about?

As for the triple I recon it is doable, IF the weather is in your favour.....

I will be doing the easier two this year... weather dependant.

Justchris wrote:

ZeroDarkBivi wrote: collecting adjacent grid squares.

What are you on about?

See the Veloviewer Explorer thread

I had a similar idea a while ago and put all of the Scottish routes on selfsupporteduk into one place to get an idea of where they all went - result is here (may not be exactly right for all of them as I think some are old versions of gpx files but it's a good start) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BZICL ... sp=sharing.

I've been looking at putting together two routes, one in the Angus glens and one in Donside which should fill in the east coast. I think Markus Stitz is working on a route called the central belter to fill in from Edinburgh to the highlands so some pretty good coverage of Scotland after that.

I'd say doing any combination of routes over the course of the year wouldn't be too nightmare-ish but putting them together into one big loop definitely would!

I like it. Although I think 'just' completing them at any time in the calendar year would be enough

I'm not sure we need to have the whole of the country cross-crossed by named long-distance bikepacking routes. It would be nice to leave some sense of self-exploration for folk and to let them come up with their own ideas for longer routes.

ScotRoutes wrote:I'm not sure we need to have the whole of the country cross-crossed by named long-distance bikepacking routes. It would be nice to leave some sense of self-exploration for folk and to let them come up with their own ideas for longer routes.

It's like the trail centre network but on a much grander scale

Justchris wrote:
I will be doing the easier two this year... weather dependant.

You're doing the Highland Trail? ;-)

Ian wrote:

ScotRoutes wrote:I'm not sure we need to have the whole of the country cross-crossed by named long-distance bikepacking routes. It would be nice to leave some sense of self-exploration for folk and to let them come up with their own ideas for longer routes.

It's like the trail centre network but on a much grander scale

Indeed!

There was an idea a few years ago (in one of the endless stream of Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland strategy papers) that there should be some transitional routes to encourage folk to venture away from trail centres and start to explore further afield. This might have involved some very intermittent way marking, published routes and guides, maps etc. It never got off the ground, though it obviously exists in some form with official long distance "foot"paths.

There was an idea a few years ago (in one of the endless stream of Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland strategy papers) that there should be some transitional routes to encourage folk to venture away from trail centres and start time explore further afield. This might have involved some very intermittent way marking, published routes and guides, maps etc. It never got off the ground, though it obviously exists in some forms with official long distance "foot"paths.

I recall something similar in Wales with talk of linking some of the trail centres. Initially, it sounded like a sound idea but when given more thought, I couldn't help think that it appealed to two very different sectors of the cycling world and would likely be under-used by both.

ScotRoutes wrote:There was an idea a few years ago (in one of the endless stream of Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland strategy papers) that there should be some transitional routes to encourage folk to venture away from trail centres and start to explore further afield. This might have involved some very intermittent way marking, published routes and guides, maps etc. It never got off the ground, though it obviously exists in some form with official long distance "foot"paths.

There was a move a few years ago to introduce "wild" (for want of a better word) trail centres as a sort of halfway house between the full on hand holding with fully waymarked armoured trails you find at trail centres and the "take it as you find it" situation of natural bridleways. Sutton Bank near Thirsk is the only one I know of that actually came about but the trails around Swaledale with Dales Bike Centre as the "hub" were also talked about in the same manner.

Yeah, there's a suggestion that something like that could happen at Glenmore/Rothiemurchus.

ZeroDarkBivi wrote:When is the 350 'event' this year?

1st weekend of July each year.

ianfitz wrote:I like it. Although I think 'just' completing them at any time in the calendar year would be enough

Hi Ian, that would make it more accessible but give a less even playing field.

adamwwallace wrote: I think Markus Stitz is working on a route called the central belter to fill in from Edinburgh to the highlands so some pretty good coverage of Scotland after that.

I've actually worked out a route that starts and finishes in Dunfermline, covers the Forth and Tay catchments (well the north side of the Forth as you wouldn't want to venture south of the river!) with a wee hint of speyside. I've not done much work on it recently and need to ride the tayside bit but maybe later this year.....

Sorry Scotroutes

htrider wrote:

adamwwallace wrote: I think Markus Stitz is working on a route called the central belter to fill in from Edinburgh to the highlands so some pretty good coverage of Scotland after that.

I've actually worked out a route that starts and finishes in Dunfermline, covers the Forth and Tay catchments (well the north side of the Forth as you wouldn't want to venture south of the river!) with a wee hint of speyside. I've not done much work on it recently and need to ride the tayside bit but maybe later this year.....

Sorry Scotroutes

I'd be interested in this, I do a lot of riding in Fife, I'm only about an hours cycle from Dunfermline. Do you have a gpx I can steal?

Err - kind of - I would need to spend a bit of time on it to get into one file and worthy of advertising. I'll post it in the 'Routes' section in the not to distant future.

AlasdairMc wrote:

Justchris wrote:
I will be doing the easier two this year... weather dependant.

You're doing the Highland Trail? ;-)

Nope neither next year. Clashes with something else.... : )

Well I'm already doing the CL and HT. I want to do the Borders - but I've run out of Brownie points at home to get the time off, so it's for a future year.

Last year I did CL, HT and the Deeside Trail. So that's another triple. Does it count

Or should we be talking about the Quintet and include the CT as well? (Except that the group start for the CT is before I might have finished the HT - so that is also going to have to wait for another year...)

However, this is all getting a bit competitive.....

Howard wrote: Or should we be talking about the Quintet and include the CT as well?

The CT shouldn't make the list tbh - it's not hard enough. It's almost all rideable, something that cannot be said for any of the other three.

Ray Young wrote:On waking this morning a crazy idea just popped right into my head, "The Scottish Triple". In the same year enter and complete the group starts for the following, The Cairngorms Loop, The Highland Trail 550 and The Borders 350 then combine all three completion times to give an overall time. Well hard or what, so nightmare or dream?

Don't the Americans do something like this for their 'Big 3'
Not sure which are included might be, a quick google suggests ...
Tour Divide / Colorado trail race and Arizona Trail race