Highland trail 550 – The northern bit (part 2)

Part 2 - Where the weather got better (and also worse)

(This follows from part 1)
Day 4 Kylesku – Suilven

In the morning the sun is actually shining. I filter some water and have a wash in the river, then as I sit down to make coffee, I notice a tiny tic on my leg then another and another. No word of a lie, I pull sixteen (16!) tics out of my leg while making coffee- gross!

Blue Skies- West Coast

The suns out though and I’m in a good mood because today, after 3 days in the wilderness, there will be cafés. In fact there is a high potential that today will be a two café day – these are the best days. We roll along to Drumbeg stores and do a quick supermarket sweep to gather snacks for the day. Then it’s into the Secret Garden tea room for coffee cake and sandwich. Yum.

Cafe 1: I'd basically eaten it all before I thought to take a photo

First views of Suilven

From there it’s on towards Lochinver, the route takes us over the coast path and we get some stunning views overlooking west coast beaches. (Note to self – must return soon). We also get our first glimpses of Suliven pushing up into the distant horizon. Soon we drop in to Lochinver; I know it’s a heresy but I don’t really like pie and Caroline’s a vegan so we bypass the famous pie shop and head to a café near the outdoor store at the other end of town. Feeling so deficient in vegetables I actually order a salad (and a hot chocolate obvs).

West coast beaches in the sun...

We stock up on dehydrated meals and pop to the spar where Caroline buys all the avocados in sight. As we’re leaving Lochinver the sun disappears behind a cloud and yet again we find ourselves being pelted by hail.

Suilven, its getting closer

I’ve been excited to ride the next section since we started planning this trip. The road past Suilven. This crazy, not-quite-munro, ridge rises straight up out of the ground, like a sort of Jurassic Park landscape.  The track in proves to be much more ride-able than expected, we’re zooming along past walkers finishing their hike in the other direction. We are making great time, perhaps we’ll camp near Oykell Bridge to catch breakfast in the hotel (second time lucky).

About where the good path ended

We pass the turn off to climb the ridge, and continue on the path use by walkers approaching from the (less popular) eastern route. The path quickly detoriates. We’re about 10km from the road but our pace slows to 3kph, and the path shows no sign of improving. For about 3 hours we push the bikes. Eventually we reach Cam Loch and pedal along the loch shore. We’ve been going almost 10 hours and we’re not going to get to Oykell tonight after all, but we do have a pretty epic view from our camp spot.

Cam loch - Eventually

Sunset over Suilven

Day 5 Suilven – Ullapool

I wake up feeling like I didn’t sleep at all. Turns out any time I was sleeping, I was also snoring and Caroline hasn’t slept either. Oops. I’m a bit embarrassed, normally I’m the one moaning at the snorers!

View from my tent

We ride the path from the loch down to the road, but the time we hit the road it’s raining again and the wind has picked up. Always with the head wind. Seriously.

We ride alternating peloton again for about an hour to get ourselves back to Oykell Bridge.  The bar isn’t technically open, but some bedraggled cape wrath walkers have arrived just before us. We shuffle in behind them. I huddle against the radiator and snaffle a bacon roll.

Schoolhouse Bothy 

Pretty confident we’re going to get to Ullapool this afternoon, we use the wifi to book into a B&B. We’ll need to stock up on supplies there anyway, so we’ll treat our selves to real beds and dry everything out. We’re excited about the café potential in Ulapool – Caroline starts to fantasize about avocado sandwiches. I tell her this is a terrible idea, if you get exited about a specific meal, it won’t be on the menu…

Steep drop to the left not a place to fall off.

Climbing out of Oykell bridge it’s raining again (no- really?) and we stop in at Schoolhouse bothy chat to walkers sheltering in there. On we ride, passing the Corriemulzie estate lodge. We bump into a guided group, lead by one of the estate rangers. He confidently, tells us there is absolutely definitely no way through to Ullapool on this track. He’s wrong. I know this, but it doesn’t stop me worrying, just a little bit.

"No more hills between us an Ullapool"

Carloine’s done the next bit before as a coast-to-coast ride. she’s confident that we’ve  it’s basically flat to Ullapool from here. Of course when she did it before, it wasn’t on the HT550 route, which never misses a chance to go up a hill if at all possible. Sure enough shortly before Ullapool the route sends us off the main track and onto a short steep climb up hill overlooking the village.

Single track above Ullapool - worth the climb

It’s stopped raining (ish), the clouds lift and we get a view into Ullapool. Beds, cafes, and showers await – how exciting. We drop into town through a nice single track descent, it’s a hidden gem flowing through the gorse bushes.

Ullapool. There it is!

We pull up at the first café we find. Caroline’s been talking all morning about the avocado sandwich she’s going to order. Of course there’s no avocado on the café menu.  A bigger person wouldn’t say ‘I told you so’, I’m not a big person.

Mmmm real food

We find our B&B stuff our shoes with newspaper, hang everything on the radiators and head to Tescos. After 5 days of limited choice, the selection is a bit overwhelming. True to form, at the checkout I have a basket of chocolate and sweets, and Caroline has a basket of avocados and nuts. It’s then off to the pub for a real meal (the joy!) and back to the B&B for a proper sleep (more joy!).

Day 6 Ullapool -Fisherfield

Leavng Ullapool

After a delicious breakfast, we’re off cycling down the A835 out of Ullapool, this is likely to be A Big Day. The views down Loch Broom behind us are spectacular, the views of mountains  ahead tell us we’re probably going too be climbing again soon.

To the coffin road!

At the end of Loch Broom, we spy a sign for the coffin road. This is another notoriously difficult section but the sun is out and I’m feeling ready. The path essential travels  400m straight up and shoots us out onto a plateau. Those coffin carriers treading this path must surely have dropped a coffin or two!

The Coffin Road- up up up

Loch Broom views

The weather closes in and we drop into Dundonnel through a steep descent.  I’d hoped for a café on this short stretch of road, but alas no. The An Teallach massif rises ahead, and I feel like there ought to be some sort of dramatic music to frame the scene.  The up and over ride is just lovely, although ominous storm clouds are gathering behind us. We’re dropping into the valley with the Shenavall bothy though, and if we time this just right we’ll hit the bothy just as rain comes.

Looking out to An Teallach

Dropping in to Strath na Sealga valley

We pedal on. I can see the bothy ahead just as the first few drops hit my helmet. We’re going to be able to shelter out the storm, I feel a bit smug. I ride quickly to the building, it’s got a sign outside ‘Danger Unsafe Building’. With a sinking feeling I read the sign underneath ‘Shenevall Bothy 3km’ **** !! We alternately push and ride our bikes into the driving rain. The path becomes part bog, part river. Just as we finally reach Shenevall the rain eases off, typical.

Not the Shenevall Bothy.

Next up is the Strath na Sealga river crossing, it’s the biggest river crossing on the route. We cross right at the loch shore, it’s maybe 20m across. While we’ve had several days of rain it’s been an unusually dry winter so river levels are mercifully low, we manage to keep our knees dry.

Strath na Sealga crossing

3 weeks of continuous rain later, the racers will pass through to waist deep levels (hardcore).

Conditions on the HT550 race. Yikes!
📷jprobertson

River crossing safely negotiated, we begin the up and over through Clach na Frithealsidg, the ascent is so sharp not all the contours are marked on the OS. I push the bike up, hold  the brakes and take a couple of steps forward. I repeat this for process many times over in worsening weather. The cloud closes in and visibility drops. I keep my Garmin running to make sure I don’t miss the path. We’re pretty close to the furthest point in the UK from a road – this would be a bad time to get lost.

Climbing up into the rain

Just as I crest the top Caroline pops out from behind a rock- in poor visibility, best stick together. We’re soaked through and shivering. In fact I’m wearing the same clothes I rode for the Strathpuffer, 5 months earlier, but feeling much much colder than I did in Janurary!

And then freaking snow!

Pretty soon, the rain becomes snow and then a bit more snow. We hurriedly pedal across the top, thank goodness it’s ride-able, the sooner we can descend out of the weather the better.  I want to stop an take some photos of the blizzard, but we need to focus on keeping moving. After what feels like an ages (but is actually about 20 mins) of riding in snow, we reach the edge of the plateau.  It’s a steep steep path down, on another day it would be a nice descent but with frozen fingers and no dropper post, we run/skip/walk down the first part.

Views into Fisherfield - stunning

Soon we drop out of the clouds and the Fisherfield causeway stretches out beneath us. A solid minute of wooping ensues. We can see the cause way is easily passable and we can see the route down to it is ride-able and we can see the bothy at the bottom where we’ll stay tonight.

Carnmore Bothy sign a welcome sight!
📷 Caroline

The bothy is pretty basic it’s a dirt floor and dry stone walls, but it’s dry and considerably warmer than outside. There’s a small group of munro baggers prepping for a big day in the hills tomorrow. I attempt to discreetly change out of my soaking clothes. While we exchange chatter about how wrong all the weather forecasts have been.

Grateful to be sleeping in the dirt

In the evening the weather clears up and I'm treated to a glorious sunset as I nip out to for a cheeky nature poo.  I make up my hot water bottle and climb into my sleeping bag. The bothy might be basic but we’re out of the weather and I’ve never been more grateful to sleep on the dirt.

Sunset at Fisherfield - lovely

Fisherfield mountains

Day 7 Fisherfield – Kinlochewe

Creepy bothy skull, (Caroline made
me move this outside last night)

I wake up and stretch, the walkers have long gone presumably heading off at sunrise like they planned. After yesterday we deserve a leisurely morning. I stick my head outside the bothy and the sun is shining and it’s a blue sky. Yes. After a week of miserable weather finally some summer!

Dry All the Things.

We lay out all the wet stuff outside in the sun in the vain hope of drying things out a bit. Eventually we set off, our first action is crossing the causeway, we faff about taking photos. 

Fisherfield photo ops

Caroline on the causeway

I’m a bit nervous about the next bit, we’re heading on to the infamous ‘postmans path’, If my reading is right we should be in for a day of moving at 1mph carrying our bikes over fallen trees and generally having a tough time.

So I’m a little bit confused that we’re peddling along some fairly lovely single track. It’s mostly quite flowy and with beautiful views. We double and triple check the Garmin, we’re on the route. So where is the dreaded postmans path? As it turns out there are several variants on the HT550, and while the race route goes onto the postmans path, the route we downloaded detours round the other side of Loch Maree via Poolewe. 

Fun and Sun. Happy days

By the time we realise this it’s too late to turn around. The Postmans path will remain a mystery for another time. I’m a bit glad and a bit sad.  The path from Fisherfield to Poolewe is a really nice ride -when I come back to do the Fisherfield Munros I’ll probably bike in this way. It would have been nice to complete all the hardest sections though we could really use some easier riding.

Leaving the mountains

Another benefit of heading via Poolewe is *Café time*, If you find yourself up this way I can highly recommend the hot chocolate in Bridge Café. We now need to think about how we finish the trip. We have to get back to the van in Garve tomorrow, the next part of the route takes us onto the Slatterdale ride. We’ve both ridden this before although I don’t remember much about it. Caroline’s not very keen to ride it but I really want to and persuade her to continue.

Bridge cafe Chocolate 😋

We push our bikes up the Toille path and then mostly push them down again. Caroline was 100% right, this was not a good idea. We finished the Slatterdale ride and I feel really tired I stop and have a micro sleep on my handle bars and keep on the road ride to Kinlochewe.

Puncture fixing

Caroline arrives first and is greeted by a policeman closing the road due to a bad accident with a biker on the road. Just as she is starting to panic that I’m the biker, I pedal up to them.  Turns out there had been a bad crash with a motorcyclist. We drop in to the pub in Kinlochewe, there’s a big sign outside saying they’re fully booked for dinner, but we stop in for drinks anyway. As we eat all the crisps in the bar, the barman tells us they’ve had a cancellation and we can stop for dinner YASS!

Kinlochewe camp spot

After dinner we find an out of the way spot and camp for the night. I still wake up with frost on my tent, but the continuing clear skies mean it hasn’t rained in last 24 hours.

Day 8 Kinlochewe – Garve

Back to the van time

After a leisurely breakfast in the Kinlochewe café, (MMmm French toast and berries) we begin the 30mile road stretch back to Garve. The suns out and the winds died down, we roll gently back to the van reflecting on the epicness of the last week.

 

Our HT550 experience: wild wet but wonderful