Highland trail 550 – The northern bit (part 1)

The Highland Trail 550 – This 550 mile mtb route through the north of Scotland has a fearsome reputation. One of the hardest bikepacking routes in the UK, and raced every year at the end of May. Our mission for this adventure was to recce the infamous northern loop to find out just how hard it really is. We weren’t disappointed…

Remote, tough and incredible  HT500

Some quick stats on our the trip…

1            little meltdown

-2°C       Overnight temperatures

3°C        Minimum rating on my sleeping bag

6            Days of hail

75          Chocolate brownie bites consumed

441        Kilometres biked/pushed

7,700    Meters climbed

Day 1 (drive shop drive) then Garve – Oykell Bridge

The day starts early with a long drive north. With any trip there is an element of last minute panic buying… not wanting to do anything by halves, we stop at two Tiso’s and a bike shop on our drive North.  The forecast is to be colder than you’d expect for early May so we buy extra layers in a panic.

Setting off - so excited, (the only photo where every thing is dry)

Happily the forecast is not too rainy, however we will quickly find out the forecast is a lie.

Setting off from Garve we’re on fast gravel tracks through the forest, super excited about setting off on this long planned adventure. Pretty soon we bump into a couple of riders coming to the end of their exploration of the Highland Trail. We exchange notes and truck on, little did we know these will be the only other riders we see all week. As we climb the mountains close in on both sides and it begins to rain, and then to hail…

weather on the horizon

Waterproofs on we arrive at our first river crossing, it looks a bit deep to just roll through. After some deliberation we cross a little up stream of the track on some ’sort of’ stepping stones. Feet still dry – Success.

First river crossing - not too hairy

Up and over again and we’re suddenly loch side and the valley opens out. We’ve made good progress today. We find a wild camp spot just South of Oykell bridge, hoping we can roll in there for second breakfast tomorrow.

Day 2 Oykell Bridge – Gobernuisgach Lodge

I wake up and it’s raining. I go back to sleep. When I wake up it’s raining again. Peering out of the tent I can see the rain clouds as they wash through the valley. We pack in a ‘break’ in the weather, unfortunately we’re not fast enough, the next rain shower rolls in and everything is soaked.

Camp #1 during a break in the rain

In Oykell Bridge we find the hotel bar closed, no second breakfast here. Happily the lovely hotel leaves the door open to the loos. Finding a tiny bit of mobile internet I start googling seat post information on my bike, the saddle has been slipping down all morning. It seems a vital piece is missing. By a stroke of luck, I turn the bike upside-down and the missing bit falls out frame. Phew! (seriously Giant why don’t you use a normal clamp like everyone else?)

Bike back in working order

We ride on in the rain to Rosehall, the hotel is open and we tuck in to a baked potato feast. It’s raining when we leave and a headwind has picked up, wonderful. The next section is road so we ride peloton for about half an hour; 2minutes on, 2 minutes off. Incidentally this is pretty close to my gym routine, (if that routine included someone lobbing buckets of water over my head). As the rain got heavier we spy a giant pipe by the side of the road.  We shelter in this until the rain go off a bit.

Sheltering from the rain

The next stretch is a steep road climb up switchbacks, with alternating headwind, tailwind, headwind. Caroline is faster than me on the climb, and soon out of sight. In an unspoken agreement, I know she’ll wait for me at the bottom of the following descent. Hanging around at the top, in the wind and rain is a recipe for hypothermia. I crest the climb into a face full of hail and begin cruising downhill, pretty soon I spy an ATV by the side of the road. There’s someone in the vehicle. Then I see the loaded bike in front of it.

Best. Shelter. Ever

I pull up, unzip the tarp and climb into the driver seat. Caroline is chuckling in the passenger seat. Best. Wind-shelter. Ever. There are driving instructions on the dashboard and the keys are in the ignition…. I did think about it.

Just so excited to be out of the weather

Before long we reach the turning that will take up into Glen Golly, we pause take a quick photo, and consult the map. The track to Gobernuisgach should be fairly rideable, so we’ll aim to camp there and tackle the infamous Glen Golly section tomorrow. The ride up the valley is probably quite picturesque, but we can’t see anything in the clouds. We pass a rider in the opposite direction, he was planning to bike+hike Ben Hope today, but the weather is too awful and he’s turned around.

Literally everything is soaking.

We reach Gobernuisgach lodge at about 7pm, it’s a big creepy estate house in the middle of nowhere, only accessible by Landover track. It’s still raining, so we try the doors to the outbuildings but they’re all locked, apart from the door to the meat hanging shed. We are cold, wet and tired, but not desperate enough to stay there!

Trying to dry everything (Caroline burns her shoe)

We ride on a little and pitch by the side of a forest track. There’s a break in the rain so we build a fire to dry our shoes and gloves. Of course, the only paper we have to start the fire are the pages of map I printed out. Desperate times.

Day 3 Gobernuisgach – Kylesku

 Ben Hope in the Background, (Rockin the lycra in the foreground)

In the morning the rain has eased off. This is good because if my research was right we’re about to start one of the hardest sections. I pull on my damp socks and we set off up Glen Golly, it starts out ridable but quickly we’re pushing our bikes up the bealach. The weather is intermittently hail and sunshine, which is relatively speaking rather nice. Hail at least bounces off. When the clouds clear we can even see Ben Hope in the background.

Peat hags, not fun

We descend through peat hags to our next river crossing.  A few of these are rather large and it take two of us to man-handle (lady-handle?) our bikes down.  Down by the river the sun comes out – lovely – because this is a shoes-and-socks-off sort of river crossing. Flip flops on we cross the river. On the other side we sit down for a spot of lunch.

river crossing fun

And then the hail.

Just as we finish eating a hail storm rolls in and we get moving again, it’s another push to the top of Bealach Horn, but the descent was one of my favourites of the trip. Clean swoopy track down to Loch Stack.

Descent from Bealach Horn

Here I realise I’ve made a mental mistake, I thought we had 2 big pushes today, and we were done climbing. There is another 400m climb to get us over to Kylesku – dammit. I eat a few more brownie bites summon up some energy and think about the hot meal I will eat at the Kylesku hotel. It feels like a long push to the top, the map marks a shieling at the high point, as shelters go it’s rather disappointing.

Views across to Kylesku

We roll down the descent into Kylesku, stopping en-route to chat to a guy on the cape wrath trail, he’d been on the go for 4 weeks! We take a few photos at the Kylesku bridge and cross over to find the hotel, I’m so excited for my first proper meal in a few days.

Kylesku bridge so close to food (and yet so far)

We enter the bar, the staff tell us they are fully booked for dinner and we can sit down for 10 mins for a coffee, but then they need the table. I am cold and wet and tired and hungry. To say I was unhappy would be an understatement at this point. 

Caroline looks at the map and then looks at me “do you think you can ride another 10km, that’s the next point with decent wildcamp potential”. I’m feeling miserable, however there isn’t really an alternative, so I say yes and we set off. In fact, While Caroline goes to the loo, I even check to see if there are any B&Bs nearby – all fully booked.  We ride up and down the coast road to find the turn off where we’ll camp. Feeling a bit sorry for myself, I may have had a tiny cry on the journey. (Don’t feeling sorry for me though- I chose to be here after all). As we ride the sun comes out and the wind dies down, it doesn’t make everything better, but I stop feeling quite so miserable (and feel a bit silly for having a meltdown).

Ace campspot and it's dry!

Caroline locates an ace wild camp spot, flat grass, beside a river, and sunset views over a loch. I ruefully eat my dehydrated meal (sigh), get some water on the boil for my hot water bottle (never used one camping before but, so grateful I carried one!)

bringing a hot water bottle - the best decision

Tomorrow things will look up because whatever happens there are a least two cafes on the horizon...
Part 2