Nick's avatar
09 September, 2010
By Nick

Balloning over the Peak District

Lucky enough to go ballooning last week, the weather was amazing and views were awesome. As much as we have got used to being able to see ariel views of pretty much anywhere in ...

Colin's avatar
06 September, 2010
By Colin

Aiming towards The Tour Divide

Alex Baker has taken on the challenge of The Tour Divide next year, plenty of time to get himself into shape then! Here’s a bit about him and hopefully we’ll be following his ...

Colin's avatar
03 September, 2010
By Colin

Amazonia Calling.

Back in May James Vybiral headed into the Amazon and now we finally have had contact. So what has he been up to all that time deep in the rainforest?
James is a visual ...

Colin's avatar
23 August, 2010
By Colin

Team Antarctica

In a new series of reports, we will be following a small team of scientists as they head off down to Antarctica to do some sciency type stuff. I don’t know if they will be taking ...

Mtnx's avatar
23 August, 2010
By Mtnx

Going Long

Gentle summer cycle rides with friends or a sneaky lunch time run though the local woods to put a few miles in the legs are great for getting the endorphins flowing. However, if ...

Johnny's avatar
23 August, 2010
By Johnny

Johnny’s Big Night (and Day) out!

Although it’s maybe not the most daring, or the most recent of Daring Deeds, one thing that pushed me to my absolute limit (and a bit more) was my Bob Graham Round last July, so ...

Colin's avatar
20 August, 2010
By Colin

Bivvy fun in Kyrgyzstan, New Peak in Torugart-too

The sound of crunching snow under foot, not a cloud in the sky, virgin ground where no soul had previously tread. Sounds idyllic. Well Robert Taylor has just returned from a ...

Kenny's avatar
20 August, 2010
By Kenny

Welsh two peak challenge

K: The idea was really simple; climb two of the mountains that featured prominently in my childhood by bike and in the space of a weekend.

C: Indeed it did sound like a great ...

Nicola's avatar
11 August, 2010
By Nicola

Between trips

I have had 6 weeks back in the UK after coming back from Europe, the weeks have flown by. Most of my time has been spent at the water course in Nottingham, with a bit of work ...

Nicola's avatar
22 July, 2010
By Nicola

European Freestyle Kayak Championships 2010

Everyone finally arrived, but we were surprised that you could turn up at the hole and if timed correctly you could find it with you and about 3 others there, but you could also ...

Beth's avatar
06 July, 2010
By Beth

The search begins…

I’ve begun looking for new and exciting things to do in my spare time.

The Inter Spinal Unit Games!
I got a call last minute asking if I would like to go down to Stoke Mandeville ...

Nicola's avatar
14 June, 2010
By Nicola

Plattling World Cup

So… We left Nottingham at 5 on Tuesday to catch the ferry at midnight from Dover. We then drove through the night into Germany, finally stopping as it got light for a few hours ...

Paul Errington's avatar
10 June, 2010
By Paul Errington

A varied diet of trail and tar - The 3 Ways Saga

The internet is definitely the root evil for most of my epic adventures… I see a link or I stumble across a blog, a seed is sown and the text messages/emails go out to see if any ...

Nicola's avatar
02 June, 2010
By Nicola

Preparation for the Europeans

So the Europeans are only 2 weeks away now, not much time. I’ve had my last session on the course at Nottingham and I’m now nearly packed and ready to go. I’ve learnt so much over ...

Dan's avatar
14 May, 2010
By Dan

Albarracin and ash clouds

Albarracin is situated in Spain between Valencia and Zaragoza and offers an excellent bouldering venue. Grades are definitely holiday grades so a good place to go if you want to ...

Nicola's avatar
14 May, 2010
By Nicola

Skills refresher

Ok, so I haven’t done an update for a while, so here’s a little bit about what I’ve been up to recently. Due to recent events in the paddling world its brought to the front of all ...

Nicola's avatar
28 April, 2010
By Nicola

Pyranha – Freestyle, fun and Frolics

The sun shone and the skies were blue for the 1st British Freestyle league event of 2010. This was also the 1st of the events counting for selection for the 2010-2011 British ...

Kenny's avatar
20 April, 2010
By Kenny

Snowdon and Cadair Idris by foot, bike and bus

It was Friday afternoon and it looked like there was another great weekend on the cards. I didn’t have a plan, Nick had said that he would be around during the weekend but in the ...

Kenny's avatar
14 April, 2010
By Kenny

Welsh 3000ers

I have had tennis elbow since the summer and that has been getting me down. My bike, a 20 year old RockHopper is still in pieces. It was supposed to become a singlespeed ...

alpjim's avatar
01 April, 2010
By alpjim

Missing Milliseconds

Winter has been a cruel training partner. My wife thinks I suffer from S.A.D’s as I tend to hibernate in the winter these days. My only solace has been of the two wheeled variety, ...

Shaggy's avatar
26 March, 2010
By Shaggy

Iditarod kit list

The final competitor in this years Iditarod Invitational crossed the line on the 22nd March, 22 days 4 hours and 15 min from setting off. I will be making a presentation about my ...

Paul Errington's avatar
21 March, 2010
By Paul Errington

Yak Attack - Breathing thin air

After a rest day in Manang the following stage saw us head to the foot of the Thorong La Pass, Thorong Phedi.

After resting in Manang and having a good walk up a nearby hill my ...

Paul Errington's avatar
15 March, 2010
By Paul Errington

Yak Attack.. stages 3,4,5.. Catching up

With limited internet access for the last 3 days it’s not been possible to blog the race as it happened. Today we are in Manang at 3540m, a rest day to acclimatise before the next ...

Paul Errington's avatar
12 March, 2010
By Paul Errington

Yak Attack Stage 2-3 Spinning out

After a transition stage group ride yesterday of 50km with a healthy serving of both up and down we found ourselves in Gorka.. the old capital of Nepal.

Stage 2, Gorka to Besi ...

Paul Errington's avatar
09 March, 2010
By Paul Errington

Yak Day One - a glimpse of the pain to come.

I never viewed my participation in this event as a ‘race’, I knew the local guys had the event sewn up as although we can match them on the flat and the climbs when you limit ...

Nicola's avatar
09 March, 2010
By Nicola

Scotland February 2010

I’d had a trip planned in Scotland for several months, but had never been sure what the weather was going to do. So as it approached I checked the weather and typical as ever, ...

Nick's avatar
01 March, 2010
By Nick

Fontainebleau Dispatch

We arrived at the gîte at three in the morning. The door was unlocked but Ken thought it best that we spent at least one night dirtbag style. Driving on for another 30 minutes we ...

Paul Errington's avatar
17 February, 2010
By Paul Errington

Arrowhead postscript

Paul is fresh back from competing in the Arrowhead Ultra 135 which we featured in our February website feature. Paul is now preparing for the next challenge in his series of ...

Nicola's avatar
15 February, 2010
By Nicola

Snowboarding Jan 2010

With it being so cold in this country I decided the best thing to do was go somewhere where they make the best use of all the snow – France, Alpe-d-huez. A group of 4 of us ...

Paul Errington's avatar
13 February, 2010
By Paul Errington

Arrowhead 135 - the race

4.00am… I’m wide awake… I’ve never really suffered from jet lag but on this trip it had been killing me, its race morning and with a 7am start to the race I was kinda glad of it… ...

Mtnx's avatar
09 February, 2010
By Mtnx

Romping round the New Forest…

Well it’s a good start to the New Year with a 1st in the Dynamic Adventure Racing New Forest Challenge race. Two years before I competed in the 8 hour endurance race with two ...

Dan's avatar
04 February, 2010
By Dan

Majorca Deep water solo/accident epic

The last few years I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time in Majorca, in fact my last blog entry was in Majorca deep water soloing. It has lots going for it; it’s hot, has warm ...

Dan's avatar
01 February, 2010
By Dan

Ice ice baby

Well the annual Ice fest was on in L’Argentière la Bessée in the Ecrin. After last year’s antics I was keen to attempt to get down a ski slope mainly on my feet rather than ...

Paul Errington's avatar
01 February, 2010
By Paul Errington

It’s cold outside

I’m here… International Falls, Minnesota…. and its living up to its title of ‘Icebox of the Nation’.

The flight was overly long and jet lag has been hampering my eating and ...

Beth's avatar
29 January, 2010
By Beth

Sammy, Davey, Tommy and Jackie are cycling Lands End to John O’ Groats!

4 of Beth’s friends will be cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats aiming to raise the money needed to buy Beth a Boma offroad powered wheelchair.

Any excess cash will be ...

Bill's avatar
28 January, 2010
By Bill

A New Year

It’s been a while since my last blog post but the start of a New Year offers a good time to both reflect on the year past and to look forward to the year ahead.

2009 was a good ...

Nicola's avatar
20 January, 2010
By Nicola

The end of one year and the start of another!

2009 was a pretty good year for me, and it finished on a high getting selected for the GB freestyle kayak team. This has been my goal for the last couple of years so I’m pretty ...

Paul Errington's avatar
14 January, 2010
By Paul Errington

ICE 2010 - Testing Times

Less than a month to go till I will be lining up with 135 miles of the bitterly cold Arrowhead Trail ahead of me, i have spent hour after hour trawling websites for any little bit ...

Paul Errington's avatar
08 December, 2009
By Paul Errington

84km Bivvi Challenge

When winter approaches events become few and far between… as a sponsored rider exposure for the companies that give you love should never be restricted to just the racing season ...

Nicola's avatar
03 December, 2009
By Nicola

Hurley selection event and GB squad 2010

The last 2 months has seen the 3 selection events for the GB team 2010 for the European Championships which will be held in Leinz Austria June 2010. The 1st was the heat results ...

Mtnx's avatar
10 November, 2009
By Mtnx

Babies – the latest training aid

It’s time to reflect on the many ups of the 2009 season. With the main event being a beautiful (well I think so!) little baby girl born in June, my training was possibly going ...

Nicola's avatar
19 October, 2009
By Nicola

British Freestyle Championships 2009

So the 3rd and 4th of October saw the annual freestyle championships at HPP Nottingham. In the week leading up to the event the 2nd hole had been changed to give a nice retentive ...

Kenny's avatar
08 October, 2009
By Kenny

Old Dogs, New Tricks

We were at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham to support the British Freestyle Championships last weekend. It is a place where both Col and myself used to visit frequently when we ...

Dan's avatar
07 October, 2009
By Dan

Majorca DWS trip Sept 09

Well with summer coming to an end and not getting much sun it was a time for a trip away, the plan was a deep water soloing trip to Majorca for 7 days and 15 of us. We had planned ...

Paul Errington's avatar
24 September, 2009
By Paul Errington

A few days at the coast - Knoydart Penninsula

A few days at the coast - Knoydart Penninsula

Since being made redundant i have mostly just mooched about… looking for jobs.. discovering how little there is out there and ...

Dan's avatar
22 September, 2009
By Dan

Tattershall Castle gets new E10 6C

Sometime late in August a team of average climbers took up the challenge of putting a new route up on Tattershall castle. The route would take a direct line from the main door to ...

Kenny's avatar
16 September, 2009
By Kenny

Skye Ridge attempt

My dad has been working his way through the munros since way back when. He’s not going to set any records but he continues to plug away bagging 20 - 30 peaks each year.

When we ...

Paul Errington's avatar
08 September, 2009
By Paul Errington

Kielder 100 - a hard days work

Everything is bigger and better in America (apparently)... they drive bigger cars.. have bigger houses.. eat bigger burgers and until the people at sip-events got to work they had ...

Kenny's avatar
04 September, 2009
By Kenny

Old Salty Dog weekend

The past few weeks had been full on.. and then some. With six of us trapped in a cramped unit we just had to get out or something was going to blow..

Running a small company is ...

Paul Errington's avatar
10 August, 2009
By Paul Errington

One bike to rule them all

For what seems like the entire year to date I haven’t ridden a mountain bike with gears… this started as the racing that was initially available suited the singlespeed… then ...

Colin's avatar
04 August, 2009
By Colin

Alpkit and the FigFour hit TAB

Kenny and Pete have been away sunning themselves in L’Argentière la Bessée in the Pays des Ecrins region of France for this years Tout A Blocs bouldering festival. By all ...

Paul Errington's avatar
28 July, 2009
By Paul Errington

Salzkammergut 2009

I went.. I saw.. I did some riding.. I got very wet.. they stopped the race….

That’s the super edited highlights of the 2009 Salzkammergut Trophy race… we sorted this trip ...

Kenny's avatar
06 July, 2009
By Kenny

Bike wars

Thanks to the guys at Genesis the Alpkit bike shed has been transformed into a stable of thoroughbreds. The line up includes an iO single speed, Core 30 and Ti Altitude with ...

Bill's avatar
23 June, 2009
By Bill

California 2

Since my last California update, not much has happened. Water levels are poor at present so we seem to be spending half of our time searching out white water which is in ...

Bill's avatar
17 June, 2009
By Bill

California so far…

We arrived in San Francisco on a hot afternoon and I was glad to be off the plane and excited about my first time in North America. After sorting the hire car and bodging together ...

Nicola's avatar
17 June, 2009
By Nicola

Hawaii-Sur-Rhone

I’ve just returned from a weeks boating on Hawaii-Sur-Rhone. It was a last minute decision (that’s what happens when two girls try and decide on somewhere to go boating) so I set ...

Bill's avatar
08 June, 2009
By Bill

Off to California

After months of waiting I’m about to head off to California for 3 weeks to kayak in the Sierra Nevada mountains. A quick stop off to Alpkit on the way to LHR was required to pick ...

Kenny's avatar
03 June, 2009
By Kenny

The training starts here

It was something like 18 years ago when I was first drawn into the giddy world of climbing. Early trips to the Peak District with Andy Simpson and Long Road Sixth Form College ...

Paul Errington's avatar
28 May, 2009
By Paul Errington

SET 2 RISE 2009 : 12 hour enduro

With my race calendar looking decidedly thin on the ground and a few previous weeks of getting hammered at shorter distance events I decided it was time to get back to what I ...

Kenny's avatar
13 May, 2009
By Kenny

Back to Melloblocco

We arrived Friday afternoon and hiked over to the car hire booth. I hadn’t even had the chance to stutter a word of Italian before our Panda was upgraded to a Volvo C30. That ...

Dan's avatar
05 May, 2009
By Dan

Poorly!

Well I’ve been having an ongoing saga with my knees for quite some time! I had a fall at Stanage maybe three years ago where I broke a few things and since then I have been ...

Nicola's avatar
04 May, 2009
By Nicola

Source to Sea - The River Tees

The weekend started by being dropped off up at Cow Green reservoir by some very understanding friends (at 11 o’clock on Friday night), we then dragged our boats part way to the ...

Nick's avatar
01 May, 2009
By Nick

My Epic visit

The reason I am writing this is that Pete asked what we do on a trip like this, and couldn’t answer him immediately. That’s not because I didn’t know it’s just that it’s ...

Kenny's avatar
01 May, 2009
By Kenny

Alpkit Review

5 years ago we registered a website. We were so pleased with ourselves that we decided to take a holiday in Sardinia. Our flight bags were stuffed with some sample Tshirts that ...

Dan's avatar
29 April, 2009
By Dan

El Chorro

If you have never been or never even heard of El Chorro then this is definitely a venue worth checking out! It’s set in the south of Spain around 70km north of Malaga, a 4 hour ...

Nick's avatar
28 April, 2009
By Nick

Catch 22

Just arrived in Dubai and given that it’s 1.00 in the morning it’s pretty busy, in fact very busy. I have a free internet connection - but why in the UK do we insist on charging ...

Paul Errington's avatar
20 April, 2009
By Paul Errington

A fresh approach to training

This is possibly the only time of the year that the mountain bike season takes a break… the winter race series are done… the few early year races have happened and we are a month ...

Bill's avatar
17 April, 2009
By Bill

Bank holiday surfing in France

After no days off work since the new year the double bank holiday weekend was a good chance to get away and relax for a weekend. After a little searching about the internet for ...

Bill's avatar
17 April, 2009
By Bill

A weekend in the Fort

A flyer from work on Friday afternoon saw a group of us heading north to Fort William for a weekends boating and the Paddle Sports evening of this year’s Mountain Film Festival. ...

Beth's avatar
02 April, 2009
By Beth

Skymasters 2009!

Friday at the outdoor show with Alpkit consisted of breaking the till, adding money up wrong, staring at the big moving/spinning volumes in anxiety and anticipation, spicy curry ...

Bill's avatar
02 April, 2009
By Bill

A hectic weekend!

After picking Andi up in Nottingham we headed straight to the NEC to help on the Alpkit stall at this years Outdoors Show. The Friday is usually a quiet day but for some reason ...

Nicola's avatar
18 March, 2009
By Nicola

GBR Freestyle Selections 2009

On the 14th March 2009 paddlers from across the country gathered at Hurley for the selections for the GBR freestyle canoe and kayak team 2009. The levels at Hurley were far better ...

Mtnx's avatar
16 March, 2009
By Mtnx

Endurancelife Coastal Series Wins

It has been a while since Alpkit Adventure have been doing any blogging. This weekend saw the trio return to adventure racing action at the Endurance Life Coastal Series and ...

Dan's avatar
09 March, 2009
By Dan

Climbing Works International Festival

CWIF is an international bouldering competition held at the Climbing Works, it attracts some of the top boulder’s from around the world like Jerome Myer and Tyler Landman.

The ...

Nicola's avatar
04 March, 2009
By Nicola

Alpkit update

Well its been a busy few months, I’ve moved down to Nottingham and started a new job, I’ve finally got used to work and have got used to 15 mile round trip on my bike, for ...

Kenny's avatar
02 March, 2009
By Kenny

Outdoor Showtime

Power tools charged and primed, dungarees cleaned and pressed, blueprints rolled out on the drawing board.. with just a few days until this years Outdoors Show it goes a little ...

Dan's avatar
24 February, 2009
By Dan

Plastic Fantastic

Plastic Fantastic was held at the Nottingham Climbing Centre on Sunday 1st Feb, it was a mixed discipline competition and also a first for the climbing wall. It incorporated a ...

Kenny's avatar
13 February, 2009
By Kenny

Flurries and slurries

We have had our fair share of weather over the past week. I guess it started a week ago when we flew out for the ISPO trade fair in Munich. The snow had hit the south on the day ...

Dan's avatar
06 February, 2009
By Dan

Alps Massif trip!

Well this was to be one of the most action packed weekend I’ve had without falling off or injuring myself. Despite having a 20 hour drive at the start, with my friends fast asleep ...

Ashleigh's avatar
05 February, 2009
By Ashleigh

Alpine Adventure

The adventure in the Alps with Alpkit was an amazing experience. I got the chance to try many new things in a relatively small period of time. Thus making the trip to the Ice ...

Ashleigh's avatar
22 January, 2009
By Ashleigh

Team Training at the Westway

The weekend the 17th/ 18th January was the first British Climbing Team Training of the year. This is when everybody gets to meet this year’s team members for the first time and ...

alpjim's avatar
21 January, 2009
By alpjim

Providing for the Team

There comes a time in a mans life when he has to prove to himself he is a man. This happened to me at the ICE festival. For the past few years we have been the only people to ...

Jenni's avatar
19 January, 2009
By Jenni

Social Ice Climbing

When I casually mentioned to friends and family that Alpkit were taking me to the Ice Festival in January and that it would involve a bivvy at around -15 degrees the responses all ...

Colin's avatar
16 January, 2009
By Colin

ICE Fest - 2009

This trip was a true team bonding experience, while also giving my Supersofts a chance to come out of retirement for another shot at the big league. 5 of us hit the road early, in ...

Ashleigh's avatar
27 November, 2008
By Ashleigh

Sheffield Walls Bouldering League

A couple of Mondays ago was the first round of the Sheffield Walls Bouldering League, so some of the Nottingham Junior Team and I (and a few parents) took a trip up to The Foundry ...

Dan's avatar
20 November, 2008
By Dan

6 days and nights with Alex

So we popped out to Fontainebleau for a few days which proved to be a mistake…
It rains a lot there! All in all we had a day and a half of climbing, although I managed to get up ...

Bill's avatar
12 November, 2008
By Bill

Tyne Tour

The Tyne Tour is an event I have been attending for years. It’s an event that gets better and better every time and never disappoints. This year was no exception.

After a few ...

Mtnx's avatar
27 October, 2008
By Mtnx

The OMM

I guess you heard about the OMM. We started early, before the rain… so perhaps went for fast and light, rather than taking a bit more kit. It was very windy on the tops and we ...

Nick's avatar
08 October, 2008
By Nick

Fingers against Pessimism

Last sunday was a fingers up against pessimism day. I was desperate to go climbing this weekend. The weather report on Friday made Saturday look like a wash out, and a windy one ...

Jenni's avatar
01 October, 2008
By Jenni

The Isle of Man End 2 End Challenge 2008

For the last six months I have been riding to work (nearly) every day as training for the End 2 End.  I’d like to think that it was my dedication at getting fit and in ...

Ashleigh's avatar
01 October, 2008
By Ashleigh

British Team Training September 2008

Ahhhhh. How my stomach musles still ache- but, I shall be super strong with incredible core strength!
This weekend I attended the British Team Training weekend in Sheffield.
It ...

Bill's avatar
24 September, 2008
By Bill

The Mighty Nene

A sunny September weekend saw paddlers from all corners of the UK heading to Northampton for the ever popular Nene Freestyle event. The course and gazebos were set up, the sun was ...

Bill's avatar
18 September, 2008
By Bill

Monday Mission

At the Festival of Freestyle I was receiving phone calls the whole weekend from friends out on rivers throughout the country so I thought Id take the opportunity to catch the last ...

Bill's avatar
14 September, 2008
By Bill

Festival of Freestyle

After a summer travelling around Europe paddling on beautiful blue water with mostly nice sunshine getting back to the UK was a bit of a shock. We arrived back to miserable rain ...

Kenny's avatar
10 September, 2008
By Kenny

Hanging out in Yosemite

The weather is pretty tasty in Yosemite National Park right now, there is no way I am going to start complaining about clear blue skies and temperatures in the 30s after the ...

Beth's avatar
09 September, 2008
By Beth

Val di Mello - Italy

So the Monday after the BBC’s we were all packed up and off on the 21-hour journey to the well dreamt of Val di Mello. My Dad and Karl drove through the night with a couple of ...

Beth's avatar
02 September, 2008
By Beth

British Bouldering Championships 2008

The BBC’s feel like a distant memory now. A busy five weeks later and I’m going to try to remember it all.
The qualification round started and ended quickly. I felt strong and was ...

Dan's avatar
26 August, 2008
By Dan

A summer in the Alps

This was started with the Tout a Bloc climbing fest, a fest that was amazing not just for the competitor but for the spectator as well, with so many hunks and honeys and ...

Nick's avatar
26 August, 2008
By Nick

1st Old Salty Dog Weekend

It’s been a busy week for Alpkit over the last week or so. Ken and I went down to Devon for the 2nd Hard Rock Fest and Pete Dollman joined the company last Monday to help us out ...

Nick's avatar
20 August, 2008
By Nick

Hard Rock Festival

The Hard Rock Fest, now in it’s 2nd year is small, friendly and probably the best conceived climbing festival in the UK. It is the festival we want, it’s based somewhere we might ...

A varied diet of trail and tar - The 3 Ways Saga

image
there were no serious climbs and there was some awesome descents..

The internet is definitely the root evil for most of my epic adventures… I see a link or I stumble across a blog, a seed is sown and the text messages/emails go out to see if any victims can be found to partake.

In this instance it was finding a small article on some site about the new East Highland Way in Scotland… a linking piece of trail that joined the West Highland way with the Speyside Way allowing a pretty sizeable coast to coast off road experience… a quick estimate was 240ish miles of off road riding.

After the texts went out the only taker was Mike Mcfarlane, I had met Mike through working at Ride Cycles and he was now working at a local outdoor store but had taken a big chunk of time out so was free for the trip.

Amazingly Mike didn’t seemed phased by my optimistic time scale of 2 and a bit days.. after some shifting of dates we decided to get the train on Sunday morning to start riding about 3pm in afternoon, then a return train at 10am on the Wednesday… with trains and times booked we had a rigid time-scale to work with.

I decided to go very light.. or as light as I could as from past experience I always ended up taking a world of crap I didn’t need. With all the gear on the bike it still felt pretty rideable.

As I left home on Sunday morning and the sun was shining. It looked like it was going to be a pretty warm adventure despite the forecasts predicting showers. As I arrived at the station Mike, his Wife Susan and dog were waiting. We had chosen fully rigid singlespeeds and after the good-byes we were on a train filled with alcohol fuelled Scots.. we lucked out with seats booked in the quiet carriage. smile

After 3 hours on the train we arrived at Milngavie and the start of the West Highland Way. It wasn’t long before the WHW signage had us circling Mudock Castle and looking for the way out. The first section was easy undulating bridle way and Tarmac, navigation was easy and the sun was shining, it wasn’t long till we reached the shores of Loch Lomond.
image
We made good use of the pub on the shores of the Loch to sink some fluids as the weather was still amazing and showed no signs of letting up. When the singletrack trail started proper it wasn’t long before we were into the hike a bike section that all who have ridden the WHW will remember. Progress became very slow as we rode short sections and carried longer ones.. just as we were both looking forward to a good feed and the light was fading we rolled into a campsite with a bar and a restaurant which although was closing still rustled up some lasagnes!!

The night’s accommodation was the campsite in the bivvi bags with a tarp rigged up from a fence as the weather definitely looked a lot more overcast. We woke and were on our way by 7am with an estimated 40 miles done on the first day we looked to do 100 miles a day for the next 2 days to get the job done. We rode to the top of the first rise and enjoyed a breakfast trail-side with the sun warming the air around us.

The trail now was pretty variable, double track, jeep track, singletrack, grassy, rocky, dirt, every trail was undulating but at least for the first part of the day there were no serious climbs and there were some awesome descents.

After some decent pushing we got to the first real rideable sustained climb of the trip up onto Rannoch Moor with a pretty long wide dirt track. Luckily it was just about right for our singlespeed gearing although I chose to sit and grind it out while Mike chose to get out the saddle. The trail levelled out and then eventually we got our reward with a great rocky descent.

We spun into the car park of a hotel in time for some wild deer who were mooching looking for a feed smile As we finished the descent the trail hugged the road on a grassy trail so we cheated and bashed some tarmac for a few miles till we headed right and onto the Devils Staircase… a full on hike a bike which would take us up and over then down to Kinlocheven.

After a snack at the top we began the more down than up trail to Kinlocheven. One feature of most Scottish trails are the water brakes, nice channels running across the trails formed out of bits of rock. These have to be hopped or rolled and just as I was hefting my rear wheel over one I unclipped a foot and to avoid a headfirst fall I chose to throw my weight back over and ended up coming off to the side with a pedal square to the calf muscle!! ouch.. Luckily no more damage than this, but now with an aching calf muscle I couldn’t stand to pedal. To make make matters worse I punctured a mile or so later on another water brake!!

Now time was getting on.. it was 4ish and I had expected to be in Fort William by now but we were only in Kinlocheven with another sizeable up/over/down to get under our belts to finish the WHW. All the tales of how hard this route was were proving accurate, still we carried on but I had doubts of my time-scale creeping in and had already started formulating plan b, c and d in my head. Getting out of Kinlocheven was another push and carry and where we thought we would top out and be able to see Fort William all we could see was more double track stretching as far as we could see. :(

The double track continued and every crest of a rise just allowed us to see more double track stretching out beyond us. This was starting to wear thin as I really wanted to put the WHW behind us knowing even when this was done we still had 150 miles to go.

Finally we descended to a junction where the WHW met a military road and the signboard indicated that the military road was a 2 mile shorter route, so we took it to try and start clawing back some time. Although tarmac, the road delivered some very cheeky climbs until it finally gave up and spat us out into Fort William at around 5pm. It had been a long time getting here.

When faced with huge distances to cover and limited time to do it in the only thing a rider can do is… buy fish and chips and sit in the sun and ponder the situation.

We had looked at plans b, c and d and all involved multiple trains and expense neither us wanted to get involved with, so we turned back to finishing what we had started. From experience on the WHW we decided that an attempt on the East Highland Way at this point would probably leave us miles from our destination as our train departed on Wednesday morning so we decided to take to the tar, and at the end of a 60 mile off road ride we decided the best course of action would be a 40 mile singlespeed road ride!!

Strangely although my calf was still aching the road riding was quite pleasurable. We had spent so many hours riding and hiking to only make the smallest amount of progress and now the miles were flying by. The first 12 miles to Spean Bridge went quickly then we set our sites on Laggan as a spot to stop for the night. We pedalled on and as I had the better road gearing Mike sat in and basked in the wind free environment. We soon were at Laggan Wolftrax although we both thought better of a quick lap and after this Laggan.

I had hoped for a scenario similar to the previous night where we would roll up to a bar or restaurant, but unfortunately Laggan could only offer a disabled toilet, playground and a picnic area… none of which were very appealing at all. We pressed on a further few miles down the road and headed off the tarmac up a trail to where we found a good spot for a bivvi and while I set out my gear Mike took up the role of chef and we dined on dehydrated meals and cups of tea. We woke on Tuesday morning with a more optimistic outlook on the whole adventure…

I don’t think Mikes belief in what we were doing had wavered but I am known for large bouts of negativity in the face of adversity. smile The plan now sat at more road work to Aviemore… good breakfast.. visit Bothy Bikes find the Speyside Way and ride to Keiths where we would find a good spot to sleep and then train Wednesday morning.

The morning was really cold and it took a fair few miles for the feeling to come into my hands. When it did the miles passed easily, I had a figure of about 30-40 miles to Aviemore in my head so when we saw the 12 miles to Aviemore sign spirits were at an all time high and I pressed the pedals even harder with the thought of a good breakfast within my grasp.

Getting to Aviemore we went first to visit Bothy Bikes. What a great shop, I had heard of them as they are a Genesis dealer but that’s not all they sell. They had such a good selection of bikes and parts and the guys were very friendly and you got a sense that they just rode, rode and rode bikes. I look forward to getting back and doing some local rides. A quick ride via a cash point saw us sat in a cafe enjoying a huge cooked breakfast. We didn’t even give prices a second glance as we filled our boots with great cooked food, orange juice and lattes!! We even stocked up on a cake each for later.

The Speyside Way started behind Aviemore station and after riding through the back streets of Aviemore and quieter roads started out on a very wide well groomed trail, fast and flowing it then dived into some woodland for some singletrack before out onto a quiet country lane then onto a nice grassy disused railway.

We knew that this was going to be the easy section of the trip with not a great deal of elevation to it and mainly well groomed trails, all rideable. It was not without its surprises as we found ourselves first in a field with 2 bulls shortly followed by a wood with no trail in sight as the person that had signed the route had overlooked a 4 way junction with the SW being the less obvious of the trails to follow. They did however manage to place a number of signs mid track when there was no option but the direction you were going in… not so helpful.
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The route was punctuated by map boards indicating which section of the trail you were on and every time we stopped at one we had made much more progress than we had thought. Although I was not keen on giving up the idea of just going straight to the railway station to avoid any unnecessary missed trains… the alternative was ride to the beach then ride to the station but it is a little known fact I hate sand and therefore have no desire to be anywhere near it.

As we came off the official SW route we headed towards Keiths on the road again. This time a lot more hilly as we left our valley bottom behind and climbed out and over. Again progress was pretty quick and the ten miles on the road passed quickly with us arriving at Keiths around 6pm. We pedalled to where the campsite signs directed us but all we found was a park home site surrounded by some rather uninviting wastelands. We rode to the station and again nothing of worth there, we had never really planned any spots to sleep. I was getting a little fed up as I was ready for a pint and a good meal, Mike however was unfazed by my ever increasing bad mood and in a moment of extreme bravery suggested that we just ride to the beach and sleep there!!
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Amazingly I agreed but under protest and said I would be getting myself there as quickly as possible which Mike let me do, and as I tortured my legs in an insane ten mile singlespeed-fully-loaded-with-luggage time trial it started to rain. Luckily is stopped as quickly as it started and I arrived at Buckie, the end of the SW. Unfortunately Mike headed for Spey Bay… after a few phone calls we managed to find each other and settled into a spot on Spey Bay (only as it’s a shingle beach with no sand!!). Dinner was a less than appetising pot shot noodle thing, each with some beef jerky. We rigged the tarp and bivvied for the night. As the wind picked up the tarp took on the form of a sail and threatened to carry our bikes down the beach so Mike took it down.

Wednesday morning only required a 14 mile ride back to Keiths and luckily they let us catch our first train early… the dirty riding clothes were packed and I rewarded myself with a fresh long sleeve. Aberdeen station was less so accommodating with earlier trains so we settled into a Costa coffee marathon punctuated by charging of iPhones in the Apple store. smile

All in all a great trip… my calf is still sore… my bike a little unridden since getting back. I had a lot of doubts as to whether living on a diet of only singlespeeding is healthy so I have come back with a fresh desire to get some gears and see what has changed.

Big thank you to Mike as he endured all my various moods and still came out smiling and pedalling at the other end. smile

Credit for all images to Mike Mcfarlane.

10 June, 2010 by Paul Errington

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