The Great Glen Way RSF Summer Tour

One lassie, 8 blokes and 185 miles in the Highlands of Scotland. The Rough-Stuff Fellowship summer tour took us from the west coast to east coast and back again via The Great Glen Way and General Wades military road. Alas nobody saw Nessie.

The Great Glen Way follows the route of the Caledonian Canal and a series of lochs from Fort William to Inverness along tow paths and forest tracks, which meant the trip had plenty of undulations, although Brian assured us that the route is one of the easiest cycle routes in Scotland. 

Fort William lies at the foot of the Nevis Range and Ben Nevis. It's hard to believe you're at sea level when there are mountains all around and the open-sea is not visible.
The Great Glen Way follows the canal inland from here up over Neptune's Staircase  and onto forest fire roads as it reaches Loch Lochy.

We got really lucky with the weather, and with the midges (on the whole). As so much cycling was through the trees, as long as we kept moving there wasnt much of a problem, even when we were slowly pushing our laden bicycles up the steep slopes.

We met a group of German cyclists who kindly let us know we were heading for a heck of a climb. Not that news like that ever deters a RSF cyclist.  We enjoyed a leisurely lunch stop at Fort Augustus. Stephen found some haggis samosas, which he couldnt resist.


On the next stretch everyone's bike issues came to light... Stephen's second hand bike's front tyre started to delaminate, Phil's disk brakes had gone and Eric's saddle came right off when a bolt broke. It was a colourful afternoon that was further characterised by miles of climbing after Invermoriston that seemed never ending. How Stephen's tyre & inner tube survived the stony tracks, goodness knows.


Even in the drizzle, the view of Loch Ness was beautiful, we climbed further and further above it. 

After all that climbing, the final stretch on the tops and down to Drumnadrochit felt like it was over in no time. Alas Loch Ness Backpackers hostel was not the place we'd hoped for after a long day of riding, and nobody got much of a night's sleep.



Stephen & I did go for a walk to have a look at Urquhart Castle and enjoyed a nice sunset over the water.


We looked out for a bike shop as we set off in the morning, but it seemed that it had gone out of business. Yes, the bikes were still going and Phil had developed afew techniques for stopping his bike without brakes.

The last leg to the east coast started with more climbing and pushing. We were overtaken by some hikers, but we did eventually pass them as we neared out curious lunch stop in the wilds at an 'eco-cafe' in the middle of nowhere. The sun was shining, so sitting out whilst we were brought brews, toasties and other fare... we didnt order, we were just brought what they had in stock, but it did taste amazing. We lounged for quite a while before slowly heading off for Inverness, all full of food and in much brighter spirits following the lack of sleep we all had.

  
It wasn't long before the city of Inverness came into view below, and one last fun descent took us into civilisation... afew more mishaps where a pannier bag had come off that had to be hunted for... As well as a gust of wind that managed to blow a massive tree branch at me as I was passing it... it took me out completely, but I continued with bruises, lumps and grazes as we rejoined the canal towards the North Sea. After we'd seen the other side, we found a bike shop where Stephen bought a new tyre.


On the Thursday, afew of us did an option ride to the Black Isle whilst others got their bikes sorted out.

To say it was a rest day, we did some decent mileage, although our panniers remained at the hostel. 











The return to the west cost was mainly on road and we sped through the miles easily enjoying the quiet road to the south side of Loch Ness.

The gradual 25 miles of climbing, felt a cake walk after all the forest tracks. And as for the last few miles of descent into Fort Augustus, all I can say is 'WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'

The last day (the shortest) saw a hefty downpour, but since the trip was only a few hours, nobody really minded.
We finished the tour with a meal on the Eagle Barge pub & restaurant. Lovely company, amazing scenery and happy memories.

Thanks to Brian for arranging the tour (& kindly sharing his car with us). It was a fantastic time.

The club ride report can be read here. 

York hen party trip

This weekend I loaded my bike panniers up & set forth towards York to meet up with the hen party goers. Rather than trekking on the road, I'd planned to take the Leeds Liverpool Canal all the way to it's eastern end and then join some of the National Cycle Route.

I started on the familiar stretch of Route 68 that the RSF Family Friendly Group ride on a regular basis.  I had planned on doing the ride as a DIY 100k Audax, I set my gps to record.

Pendle Hill from Reedley Marina

I was making fantastic time and had reached Salterforth in an hour. This stretch was the easy part though. It's well surfaced until you reach East Marton.

A bumpy stretch of tow path slowed my progress significantly. With heavy panniers in tow, rutted ground made the rear of my bike a little unsteady and there were one or two hairy moments where I had to fight to stay out of the water. It made things interesting... pretty much all the way Bingley.

The pretty views kept my spirits up as I slogged on.

Looking at the ground, there were dozens of muddy tyre tracks all over the place, its very obvious that people want to cycle here & do cycle here, so why the local authorities in the area dont put some proper provision of a decent track down, goodness only knows. Improving the towpath quality would keep it in better condition for everyone to enjoy!

I was very pleased when some smoother surface was under my wheels again. Cycling on the canal when carrying a load means one thing; unrelenting peddling! Bingley's Five lock rise was pretty much the only bit of free-wheeling of the day. But I stopped to take a picture :-)
 

My progress was going guns again and I reached Shipley and onto Leeds without much effort.


I met a father & son who had cycled from Liverpool on the canal over the course of the week. I dont often see young teenagers touring, so it was refreshing to see this lad out & about with his dad. After chatting for a while, I sped off - I still had some miles to cover.

The ride towards Leeds had lovely open views before the cityscape appeared. In the bright sunshine, the modern high-rise buildings made the city look more American than British and the canal took me right into the heart of a newly developed area.

From here, I followed the Route 66 signs, which took me out of the city without fuss. One deprived area was a bit grim (probably more so because I was on my own in an unfamiliar place), but I quickly left that behind and found myself in the blubell lined woods leading to Temple Newsham, where I decided to have my lunch... at 3pm!

From here I'd planned to use various bridleways to take me to Tadcaster. I reached for my gps... it had glitched and was not recording my route. I was somewhat irritated that this meant I couldnt submit the ride as an Audax and I was making reasonable time on the route. Heyho.

I beetled round various interesting looking bridleways enjoying seeing what I could find now I didnt have a time limit to make.

fields of lovely smelling rape

I reached Saxton, where my b&b for the night was and called them up to check if I should turn left or right at the main road.
When I arrived, they were stoking a fire for me and I had a big pot of tea and a slice of cake waiting. It was certainly a warm welcome at the Old Presbytery b&b and I enjoyed relaxing in the chair listening to the clock tick and the fire crackle - after a day in the saddle, I could have fallen asleep there and then!
I wandered into the village for a pub tea and returning, the other guest had checked in for the night & we nattered for a few hours by the fire.

By morning, the rains had arrived, it was drizzling as I had breakfast, but by the time I was due to leave, it was torrential. I had a short ride into Church Fenton to get the train to York (I had planned on cycling, until I saw the forecast) & was sopping by the time I got on the train.

waiting to board

I dropped my bike off at the secure cycle parking and enjoyed a lovely weekend of hen-do festivities including a chocolate making workshop at the Cocoa House York followed by a lovely canal boat cruise with a bbq and dancing in the evening.  There was much singing, dancing & drinking!

River Ouze

 Thankfully we did not literally 'rock the boat'

York Minster

The train journey home

 I wasnt so rough that a ride home would have been tough, but I got the train home to enjoy the company and have a leisurely morning in York enjoying the sunshine and the spring flowers in the minster gardens.

More party fun when the wedding arrives. I might convince Stephen to cycle to the wedding - after all, it's not as far away as the hen do was!!

My legs are now feeling better prepared for the summer's 300+mile tour.  In fact, when I got off the train, I had a mile of uphill and even with a loaded bike and high heels, I managed to sail past a guy on a road bike (always a good feeling - tho I'm often overtaken by real speedsters).

And I'm now decided that I'll stick to organised Audax rides rather than faff around with technology that somehow always seems to let me down.