Skived off hostel duties today (with the wife’s permission of course!) and headed across the Corran Ferry to do the Garbh Bheinn horseshoe with Ian and Dylan the hostel Labrador.
It was hot and steep work under blue skies but plenty of lochans for Dyls to cool off in. The route was harder than I thought (I should have had more than a cursory glance at a map) it takes in two Grahams and a Corbett – five significant up sections, two of which are very steep.
The view across to Garbh Bheinn
Looking back to the summit just before the final descent.
View towards Glencoe
A great hill with great views, will be back one day for some scrambling or easy routes. Nice and quiet as well, we only saw a pair of climbers and a family walking….perfect when you’ve got an excitable Labrador with you.
–Matt
Every time I’m out on my bike I always have a great time and think I should do it more often…well, after biking and running in the Lake District last weekend I was keen to head out again. I decided to head out on a quick loop taking in Loch Lundie, new for me on a bike but I’ve run it a few times so I knew the route well enough.
The initial ascent is hard work on a bike… boggy sections and some steep loose sections…a real test, but thankfully short lived and it is the only real test on the route. The next 6 miles are on a good landrover track that heads out on to the open hill side, not particularly technical but is nice and fast with only a few sheep for obstacles.
The track eventually comes to an end at the Bridge of Oich, here you jump on the Great Glen Mountain Bike Route for 3 miles back to Invergarry with some nice swooping bits of singletrack. If you are used to routes at trail centres like Nevisrange and Wolftrax you may find it a bit tame but if you fancy a bit of good old fashioned cross country riding I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Once again I have been surprised by what’s on our doorstep, a great ride that I’ll definitely be doing again soon.
To help anyone looking for mountain biking routes around Invergarry, I’ve knocked up this quick google map that I’ll try to keep updated when I find something new.
View Bike Routes Invergarry in a larger map
–Matt
I’ve been craving a game of golf for a few months now, one of our regular dog walks goes along the caledonian canal right past the Fort Augustus golf course and it looks very inviting on a nice sunny day. I’m not sure where these cravings have come from, my golfing experience is limited to rounds of Pitch and Putt over 12 years ago, but that wasn’t going to put me off. My brother James is visiting from New Zealand, he was also up for the challenge.
Apparently it is one of the hardest nine hole courses in Scotland….my brother James and I, although we are no experts on the subject, agree…it beat us good and proper.
There was quite a lot of ball hunting going on (mainly from my brother you understand)
We also had a small trolley malfunction…
Anyway, I won’t embarrass ourselves by putting our score cards on here but needless to say it wasn’t pretty and the pros have nothing to worry about, although on the final green, right next to the club house, in front of other golfers and the the man in charge…..I played the hole of my life and managed par! Respectable!
£15 plus club hire for a round of 9 holes, £20 (I think) for the full 18 . Not a bad way to spend a few hours but don’t wear shorts if you expect to end up in the long stuff.
Matt
A couple of photos from my late afternoon hill bagging session down by Loch Quoich.
One of my favourite views…looking back across the loch to Gairich
It must have been hot work…not often you see Dylan sat still!
From Gleourich Summit looking along the ridge to Spidean Mialach
Looking north over the South Shiel ridge to the Brothers of Kintail
–Matt
A few photos from todays Highland games…a great day had by all by the looks of things.
We just sent Alby out to earn his keep trying to fill some last minute vacancies that we had tonight. He wasn’t too keen donning his sandwich board but a chocolate biscuit soon sorted him out.
Just for the record, this was a voluntary post and the chocolate biscuit in no way represented payment for this or any other services: this is not child labour, although we did get the idea from a Jeremy Vine phone in on slave labour.
Anyway, I better get out there and see how he is getting on. He’s been gone a while.
–Matt
My friend Ian and I enjoyed our first Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon this weekend. It’s pretty exciting…you don’t find out where it is held until 36 hours before (this year Beinn Dearg near Ullapool) and you don’t find out the route until the clock has started on day 1. As first timers we entered class C (there are A,B,C,D,and Elite courses) which should be about 24Km and 1400m ascent on day one, and slightly less on day 2.
The terrain was tough (not as tough as my brother had in the elite category!), the weather was hot and the scenery stunning and we were pleased to find ourselves in 9th place out of 135 starters when we arrived at the midcamp on Saturday afternoon.
After a wet night in the tent it was time for Sunday’s chasing start (all the teams in the first 1.5 hours go in order so the first across the line is the winner). 8th place were only 12 seconds in front of us so we saw them at the beginning, by the time we’d made the 3rd checkpoint we’d overtaken 7th and 5th as well (team 6 seem to be without their numbers as nobody saw them all day!) so we were in 5th position but then it all went horribly wrong. We messed up a check point (couldn’t find it) and found ourselves back behind teams 10 and 11!.
We dug deep for the last 3 checkpoints but messed up slightly when we took a gamble on the last forest section and lost a place we’d just gained. We ended up in 7th, just 1min 16 seconds behind 6th, a great result.
Big thanks to Ian for stepping in at shortish notice when new to all this hill running stuff and for some great navigation during the race. Fancy another?
Who would have thought: 4 Ticks + 2 blisters +1 sore nipple+ 1 black toenail (and another one for Ian) = 1 great weekend.
–Matt
ps. Stopping to take this photo probably cost us a prize!
Last training session for the LAMM next week was a wee trip round the Creag Meggy trio. 16 miles, 1400 metres of ascent, three Munro ticks and better weather than forecast….all in 3 hours 20 minutes – what a great way to spend an afternoon.
Not much to say about it really, it follows a straight forward route (how far is it to the summit from window? Blimey!), we saw a few others on the plateau and the running was good. Anyway, a few pictures for your delectation….
–Matt
I headed up to Contin woods near Strathpeffer for a spot of mountain biking with Rick (for his birthday!). Things got off to a bad start when I found half my front wheel quick release was missing, after briefly considering wheelieing (is that a word?) the 11km route we headed to Square Wheels bike shop in Strathpeffer who gave me the part for free – top guys!
Anyway, back on the bikes in the forest and I was struggling to work why pedalling uphill was so hard – was it the 11 mile hill run the day before or that my pedalling muscles have packed up and left due to lack of use? I finally realised that it’s more likely because my bike is getting on a bit and doesn’t work in anything below 11th gear!
The route was great, some technical sections near the top but then some nice faster sections further down…and not too boggy considering all the rain we’ve had. Unfortunately I forgot to get the camera out until the end and I’m not ready to gaffer tape my new camera to the front of my bike for videos like I used to so we only have this one picture taken just near the car park.
Thanks again to the guys at Square Wheels for sorting me out with my missing part. Don’t forget to visit them for your trail maps.
-Matt
High winds? Hail stone? There’s nothing else for it except to don your shorts and go running in the hills. Ian and I where planning a lowish route (nothing over 600m) starting from near Glenfinnan but we ended up taking in Sgurr Ghiubhsachan at 849m. Although the name of the hill will mean little to most people, it is probably one of the most photographed hills in Scotland, it peeps up along the shores of Loch Shiel behind the popular Glenfinnan monument…
Anyway, apart from some hail as we set off, a dusting of fresh snow and some ferocious winds at the top the weather was pretty kind to us considering the forecast. The hill itself was great – rocky and rugged with great views of the surrounding area and not another person in sight!
The path on the way in was pretty wet and boggy but it proved to be nothing compared to what I found on the way down – I very nearly lost my shoes, thanks for help Ian!
–Matt
