Home 2 Sea 2 Home

Tom's school holidays have started, and to celebrate the start, Tom wanted to do a big ride.

We picked a suitably distant destination, St Davids in Pembrokeshire, and let cyclestreets.net work out a route. Cyclestreets has three options for route planning - fastest, balanced and quietest. We opted for balanced.

We left later than planned, but there was no rush. Above, we stopped for a bite to eat near Crewe.

Below the view from Long Mountain which straddles the England / Wales border.

Quiet roads, disused railway tracks and canal towpaths made up our route.

At Newtown we stopped for a chicken kebab.

As the sun was setting we stopped and put up the tents. 113 miles done.

Day 2 and it was drizzling. We packed up quickly and rode to Llanidloes where we stopped for a bite to eat at the Great Oak Cafe where we met Phill from mtb.wales.

The first part of our ride through the Cheshire lanes was flat. In Wales though the terrain was distinctly lumpy.

At the bottom of the hill we sheltered from the rain to eat a snack.

At the Cwtch Cafe at Pont-rhyd-y-groes we stopped for more food. The home made pizza was excellent.

We left stuffed, but a few hours and hills later we stopped at a chippy for chips.

Day 3 and we were woken by the sun on our tents. It was going to be another scorcher.

As I was getting ready I found a tick in my leg which the campsite owner kindly removed for me.

We had a leisurely ride the last few miles to the seaside taking in the views.

Below Friend Wood's Tryane 2.

We spent the afternoon pottering around St. Davids, eating chips and ice cream.

That night we stayed at a campsite, and watched the sun setting over the sea.

Day 4, and it was time to head for home.

We changed a few bits of our route on the way back though. We followed Sustrans route 4 to Fishguard, and then the 82 to Aberteifi.

A refreshment spot on the way to Newport.

It's a good thing I had my Alpkit snapwire spoon to hand for that afternoon's ice cream.

Yes, more chips.

As the sun started to fade and we started to look for somewhere to put the tents we found a bird hide for shelter instead.

Day 5 and after a brief route diversion that nearly took us to Aberystwyth we breakfasted at the Cwtch Cafe.

Above heading into Cwmystwyth.

Then back over this brute of a climb.

Another century ride which took us back into England.

Day 6 we woke in the corner of a field near Whitchurch.

The sun was mostly out, but best of all there was a strong south westerly wind which assisted us the last 50ish miles home.

The route that Cyclestreets planned for us was excellent. Very little traffic for most of the route though it was quite hilly with 29,000' of climbing.

An excellent start to the holidays!

Highland Trail 550 2018 Index.

This is the index page to our Highland Trail 550 trials and tribulations for 2018.

Tom's 1st group depart, and his 2nd completion. Tom is 13.

Each opens in a new window I think, and I've published them backwards so  excepting the Intro page, if you start on Day 1, "older post" will take you to page 2 etc. Hopefully.

Intro.

Day 1.

Day 2.

Day 3.

Day 4.

Day 5.

Day 6.

Day 7.

Day 8.

Highland Trail 550 2018 - Day 1

Pre Start Happy People.

OK. So in the Intro I explained that our preparation for the HT550 in terms of fitness was less than ideal.

Let's add to that on the drive up the day before, and the morning of the depart, I was struggling to get any food down. I wasn't really ill, my stomach just wasn't interested in food.

Tom as you can see above was in good spirits.

Our one advantage, a pyschologocal one, was that we'd ridden the whole route before, forewarned, is forearmed. One niggle though would be on the first day last year we'd set off some 3 1/2 hours earlier, so we'd seem to be late arriving at places.

The lovely Jenny Graham sent us all on our way, and fairly quickly we were, as was expected riding  alone or occasionally with a couple of others.

Michelle Dulieu and Liam Landers

The weather as forecast was glorious, and we slathered the sun cream on. We stopped for a scone and a drink at Bridge of Balgie. I forced the scone down, but my stomach still wasn't wanting food. I did however make sure I drank plenty of water.

The riding conditions were excellent, our progress less so. Tom was slow up the hills, and I was only marginally quicker.

We both knew what needed to be done though. Heads down, we plodded on.

Loch Ericht in the distance meant we were not far from the first bit of hike a bike.

We stopped at the loch side and ate less than we should. Later we realised that Tom was used to eating when I did, and I wasn't. We were both in calorie deficit. 

Passing Ben Alder cottage we'd bumped into Michelle again minus one of her pedals which wasn't a problem in the hike a bike boggy tussocks. Later that day though she'd push her bike 9 miles straight on the usually rideable singletrack.

Tom and I though not fit had retained some bike handling skills, and we made reasonable time on the section to Loch Pattack. 

Our original goal for the day was to get over the Corrieyairack Pass, but that would have meant riding several hours longer. I was spent. At mile 62 we set up camp just short of Laggan.

We both fired up our stoves and ate a Firepot meal each. I still wasn't hungry, but I did force the much needed calories down.

Highland Trail 550 2018 - Day 2

Day 2 we awoke not particularly early as we were hoping to grab some food at Laggan.

A lack of fitness and a lack of food the previous day had left us tired.

On arrival at Laggan we heard Michelle who had already sourced a pair of replacement pedals, and was ordering coffee.

We also grabbed coffee and some bars to fuel the first climb of the day, the Corrieyairack Pass.

Above, we near the bothy which we've stayed at or passed on our 3 previous attempts on day 1.

Wow, we are slow.

We stop for chips and gravy in Fort Augustus, cake in Invermoriston, and generally get back on top of eating food.

It is hot, and we take plentiful breaks.

A bit of sightseeing. at Corrimony.

Yes, and more food.....

We were way behind were we wanted to be, but we were still making progress.

Camping just before Orrin Dam, we planned on hitting Contin Stores for a resupply of food and breakfast next morning.

Highland Trail 550 2018 - Day 3

Before we started we'd discussed at length where we could save time compared to our ride the previous year. There had been hopes of being at least a day quicker.

It was Day 3 and we were looking that we were going to be slower rather than faster than last year. Outside 8 days maybe.

I guess I shouldn't have expected anything more, but I was on a bit of a downer.

Still the sun was shining.

There was no snow at our camping spot at Strathpuffer (pictured below).

Oh yes, and the views.

We cooked our supper at Croick Church after a quick look at the names on the windows.

Then on to Oykel Bridge Hotel for a drink before heading on to the Northern loop.

Past Rosehall and into Glen Cassley we ride. Tom's tired, so we start to look for somewhere to pitch the tents.

We were fussy at first for pitches, then, well, stupid.

A site sheltered by trees on both sides proved within 30 seconds to be just the place that the Scottish midge favours. We were covered in the wee beasties as we quickly pitched our tents. As we lay in our tents we could hear the little monsters over the sound of the river.

Highland Trail 550 2018 - Day 4

Morning, a reprise of the midge dance whilst trying to pack everything away back onto the bikes.

Then, the climb through the mist then down to Loch Shin where we cooked ourselves some breakfast.

Mid morning, it was hot as we climbed up through Glen Golly and on towards Bealach Horn.

A tough few hours of pushing, but we had made it to the top of the North loop.

Steady away we rode down the hill.

Some food and then the Achfary climb. Always drinking water.

At Kylesku there was only one course of action after such a tough day.

A few miles further down the road, up a hill, and a nice windy campsite to avoid the dreaded midge.