I’ve been planning a bit of an epic ride with a couple of friends and we’ve finally come down to a concrete plan. Scotland – east to west, coast to coast on a mountain bike in 4 and a bit days. Can’t wait!
It was Will that first came up with the idea after finding a site detailing a few epic rides in the UK. Other options included the England coast to coast, from the Lake district over to County Durham, and a pretty big loop around Wales but since we’ve never done any of them the local Scottish option seemed the best place to start!
The exact logistics have still to be decided but it’s looking like we’ll be following the schedule below.
Day 1. Arrive at Kyle of Lochalsh on the west coast in the evening and take a leisurely ride down to Ratagan Hostel at Glenshiel. Only 20 km the first day.
Day 2. Glenshiel to Fort Augustus via Glen Garry. This’ll include plenty of elevation and a lot of sweating on my part…
Day 3. Fort Augustus to Aviemore via Corrieyairack Pass and perhaps Laggan. Quite keen to revisit the Laggan Wolftrax on the way but I suspect I might be gasping for some of Aviemore’s finest ale by this point, and, probably more likely, one of it’s finest hostel beds…
Day 4. Aviemore to Braemar via Rothiemurchus, Tomintoul and Glen Builg. Plenty more off-road in this section, although over 100 miles in I may not be glad of it!
Day 5. Braemar to Montrose via Jock’s Road, Glen Doll, Glen Clova. The final drag to the East coast which involves a fair bit of road near the end but plenty of Glens leading up to it. No doubt my bike will be shedding parts by this stage and I’ll be just about hanging off the back…
We’ve more or less planned the route on the map but exact paths could change a lot at the time depending on conditions. Because of that I wont post a map until we’re done, but I’ll keep a wee journal as we’re going and put a decent report on here afterwards, along with a map to guide future trekkers.
The main thing that isn’t going to plan at the moment is the training, but hey, when does that ever go to plan? Due to various work and leisure things I’ve barely been out in the last couple of weeks so the trip is going to be interesting. I’m totally looking forward to it though and I’ll let you all know how it went when we get back!
[tags]coast to coast, scotland, mountain bike, biking, epic ride [/tags]
Image: Mrpattersonsir
Sounds fantastic. I have done some cycling in that western area but some years ago now. fantastic. Mixed weather… but what else!