Fannichs, Fisherfield and Kintail

[fatbikephil]

Just did a three day trip starting at Strathpeffer. I headed roughly due west to Loch Fannich, picked up an interesting trail over to Loch a Bhraoin, then followed this to the track end. Next up a rather 'variable' single track into the back of the Strath na Sealga - nadge core Then it was through the wee burn that is Loch na Sealga and up the bump out of Larachantivore. Bivvied here then onwards down to Carnmore. I had a brief debate about which route to take out but thought 'f*** it, how bad can the bracken be on the postie path' - answer? no bad. The trail was ace and I rode (most) of the descent down to the footbridge. Thereafter large amounts of food and drink in Kinlochewe then the Coulin pass, a pint and scran at Loch Carron, the HT route over to Dornie, another pint and up Glen Ling.

I made it to the top of the climb for another high level bivvy but had a bizzare weather experience - wind drops, spins 180 degrees, goes to gale force (not quite) move tarp down hill to more sheltered spot, wind increases and nearly blows it flat, de-camp again, ride to Camban bothy at 4am, crash in bothy for 5 hours...

Out by Glen Affric and a bit of road bashing back to 'Peffer.

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From when Ieft the A832 at Lochluichart until I rejoined it at Kinlochewe was 53 miles continuous off road, 35 ish of which was single track.

Usual rambling tale on my blog....... https://philsbikepacking.blogspot.com/2 ... cking.html

[sean_iow]

I enjoyed that, I read the full version on the blog. The weather seems to have improved since the group start

I wonder if all the bothy books on the HT route have entries by riders for May each year? I wrote in the Corrimony one

[whitestone]

Nice one Phil. If the weather had been fine during the HT I'd planned something similar but head back to Contin via Craig and Gleann Fhiodhaig. Still on my radar Interesting to see that the Loch an Nid track is tougher than some comments indicate. I've walked the lower part of the path down to Loch a Bhraoin and thought it looked fine for biking.

The Sgurr Ban slabs do get ridden, here's a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUNkYyv6LLk. I think there are a couple of steps near the bottom that need a bit of down-climbing. Most walk/climb up the slabs first to figure out the line as they are pretty wide and don't look like they've a lot of distinguishable features.

[fatbikephil]

Nice one Phil. If the weather had been fine during the HT I'd planned something similar but head back to Contin via Craig and Gleann Fhiodhaig. Still on my radar Interesting to see that the Loch an Nid track is tougher than some comments indicate. I've walked the lower part of the path down to Loch a Bhraoin and thought it looked fine for biking.

The Sgurr Ban slabs do get ridden, here's a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUNkYyv6LLk. I think there are a couple of steps near the bottom that need a bit of down-climbing. Most walk/climb up the slabs first to figure out the line as they are pretty wide and don't look like they've a lot of distinguishable features.

That doesn't look too steep, must give it a shot next time I'm there
The Craig to Contin route was one of my bail out options - its a bit boggy apparently but goes OK