2016 Highland Trail route.

[trail717]

Agreed wet shorts and grit are best minimized on a multi day.
The front neoguard concept is new to me, interesting.
I have 3/4 and full length rain pants but it sounds like 3/4 or shorter would be the best fit for 'almost always on' conditions the HT could dish out.

[fatbikephil]

Mudguards were a major cf to my successful ride this year. Looking at other folk with socks, shoes, shorts, shirts and faces full of highland grinding paste (and hearing them moan about the resulting damage to those parts) made me well smug I had me 'guards on. Minimal extra weight for maximum extra comfort.

[ianfitz]

Mudguards were a major cf to my successful ride this year. Looking at other folk with socks, shoes, shorts, shirts and faces full of highland grinding paste (and hearing them moan about the resulting damage to those parts) made me well smug I had me 'guards on. Minimal extra weight for maximum extra comfort.

I ride with front and rear guards all year. Id rather only put on water proof shorts or longs if it actually raining.

[fatbikephil]

Just discovered an alternative way of dealing with the midges - eat em! Currently watching a Beeb documentry on swarms and people in Africa catch lake flies - which swarm in such vast numbers they actually look like clouds - squidge them into fly burgers, fry them and eat them. Massive amounts of protein apparently.

[gairym]

We lived on the lake in Malawi for a year and we'd often sit and watch the lake fly clouds. Was fun when they came inland (in the billions) but I never got a chance to taste that particular delicacy (or the local favourite of 'mice on sticks' - think satay sticks with teeth, fur and a tail).

[AlanG]

Here's the up to date startlist.

Women
1. Jenny Graham (2015)
2. Amy Souter
3. Fiona Massey
4. Jill Libby, Canada
5. Marketa Marvanova, Czech Republic
6. Shona Oldfield

Men.
1. Phil Clarke (2014,2015)
2. Ian Barrington (2013,2014)
3. Paul Horabin
4. Eric DeJong, Canada
5. Dan Lockery, Canada
6. Martijn Boonman, Netherlands
7. Kenny Decker, U.S.A.
8. Rob Waller (2015)
9. John Fettis (2015)
10. Hal Loewen, Canada
11. Zbynek Simcik
12. Fraser MacBeath (2015)
13. Gian Liesch, Switzerland (2013)
14. Carl Hutchings (2015)
15. Javier Simon (2015)
16. James Stephens (2015)
17. Marshall Bird, U.S.A.
18. Huw Oliver
19. Keith Bremner (2014)
20. Karl Booth (2015)
21. Nik Kinloch (2013,2014)
22. Phil Fraser-Thomson (2014,2015)
23. Thomas Borst, Germany
24. Ian Fitz
25. Gabriel Mak
26. Alan Sheldon (2013)
27. Adam Zaviska, Czech Republic
28. Liam Glen
29. Scott Lindsay
30. Philip Addyman
31. Chris Purt
32. Andy Laycock
33. Stuart Cowperthwaite
34. Bryan Singleton (2015)
35. Mark Evans
36. Andy Lawrence
37. Steve Field (2015)
38. Alan Goldsmith (2013,2014.2015)
39. Lars Henning
40. Donald Nicolson
41. Neil Logan
42. John Baker
43. Adrian Baskerville
44. Ian Wilmshurst
45. Matt Orton
46. Ben Eardley
47. Forest Baker, U.S.A.
48. Zane Nelson, U.S.A.
49. Steve Heading (2014,2015)

[AlanG]

On the way through Fisherfield the HT route passes within a few hundred meters of the most remote point in mainland Britain. It is just to the south of the trail on the flank of Ruadh stac Beag and is a disappointingly small 6.48 miles as measured from the nearest tarmac road. Via the Highland Trail route it's 18 miles from there to Kinlochewe but only 3 miles to the "bothy" at Carnmore. Interesting article here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/desti ... itain.html

[padonbike]

Interesting article. Notwithstanding the shame of asking "the way to Carnmore".

[fatbikephil]

Am I missing something here? There are bits in the Cairngorms that are 15-20k from the nearest public road plus I seem to recall reading somehwere that the Cairngorms are the biggest wilderness in Europe i.e. the biggest area of land between habitation....

My bid is an Sgarsoch above the Geldie!

[ScotRoutes]

This is going to be an issue about the definition of "road".

FWIW, Maol Bhuidhe bothy

[whitestone]

Am I missing something here? There are bits in the Cairngorms that are 15-20k from the nearest public road plus I seem to recall reading somehwere that the Cairngorms are the biggest wilderness in Europe i.e. the biggest area of land between habitation....

My bid is an Sgarsoch above the Geldie!

Well A Mhaighdean and Ruadh Stac Mor are reckoned to be the remotest Munros and to be fair they are a bloody long way from anywhere!

The central Cairngorms aren't that big but the southern area (including an Sgarsoch) do look quite remote, I suppose it depends on whether the estate roads are regarded as publicly accessible.

[ScotRoutes]

It's Scotland. Anywhere is publically accessible, just not by motor vehicle.

Like I said, there's some weird definition of "road" being used that I don't recognise.

[AlanG]

It was me that added tarmac before road. It doesn't say that in the article, sorry. There is a very big road to Fealar Lodge which is definitely maintained but not tarmac. That is only 5 miles from an Sgarsoch.

[Ian]

Very amateur article in the Telegraph; think up a concept, obtain minimum of required info from only one source, take it entirely at face value seemingly without any other form of verification and then make a meal of supposedly getting to that point, in the middle of the stalking season, providing no evidence that he'd actually done so

[whitestone]

I did think it rather convenient that the point happened to be on the intersection of two grid lines Whatever the true location both the Fisherfield forest and the southern cairngorm area both "feel" remote.

Edit: An amateur article in the press - whoever wud hav thunk it? At least it wasn't the Daily Fail, they'd have put it in the centre of Hyde Park

[Alpinum]

Am I missing something here? There are bits in the Cairngorms that are 15-20k from the nearest public road plus I seem to recall reading somehwere that the Cairngorms are the biggest wilderness in Europe i.e. the biggest area of land between habitation....

My bid is an Sgarsoch above the Geldie!

There's no way the biggest wilderness in Europe is the Cairngorms. I spend my life visiting such places and hiked past the remotest point in Sweden, a mere 45-50 km in any direction to the next road (of any sorts). There are many similar places in Scandinavia and I'm sure the same goes for eastern Europe too.

In the article was a statement about the remotest point in the US outside Alaska. 32 miles from the next public road? Really? Very hard to believe...

[Fat tyre kicker]

I thought/read somewhere( could be wrong) that Knoydart had that
Claim to fame ......edit...as in the UK I mean.

[AlasdairMc]

They call Knoydart the most remote place on the mainland as Inverie doesn't connect to a road network.

[Scott L]

Hello all

New to the forum and new to the Highland Trail Race. Really looking forward to the event.

Now I have a question regarding navigation as I am new to gps navigation and have just acquired a Garmin Etrex 20 from the fleabay and it presently has base maps on it.

I am wondering what mapping everyone would recommend and what people use. Is the Garmin Discovery OS Scotland the best option? It's quite pricey! Or is there something else / any deals out there?

Thanks
Scott L.

[Chew]

Ask Mr Barter nicely and she should be able to help you out

[slarge]

Scott, OS maps on your etrex would be ideal, but if you search on this site you'll find a thread all about ITT maps that Dave Barter has created that would be free. My strong advice would be to carry paper map backups anyway (AlasdairMC published a link to his web space where he created 48 sheets of PDF for this).

Good luck

[Bearbonesnorm]

Ask Mr Barter nicely and she should be able to help you out

I'm confused. Has he had the surgery? Are we to call him Davina from now on?

[Dave Barter]

Ask Mr Barter nicely and she should be able to help you out

I'm confused. Has he had the surgery? Are we to call him Davina from now on?

Should do anyway after his/her prior performance on the HT550.

I'm redoing the maps shortly with the revised HT550 route and also the Borders 350 update.

[Ian]

Ask Mr Barter nicely and she should be able to help you out

I'm confused. Has he had the surgery? Are we to call him Davina from now on?

I once shared a house with a girl called Davina. We used to call her Dave

[Alpinum]

Got to love this thread. Happy new ears to all.

Dave/Davina, great work and highly appreciated