A big day out over the Corrieyairack and back via the Great Glen and Fersit.

Just a quickie having finally sorted out all my photos (and realised most of them were no good, d'oh!) from my first off road 100 miler (wasn't really a target distance, just a satisfying almost round number by the end).

I had planned to meet up with ex-forumite and Strava acquaintance David for a big loop from Arrochar but travel logisitics got in the way and at David's suggestion we settled on a loop from Dalwhinnie. Initially I wasn't 100% keen as this felt like well trodden territory but David suggested going over the Corrieyairack which I haven't done in years, back down the GGW then turning at Spean Bridge and returning via fairly well trodden tracks up the south bank of the River Spean to Fersit then classic gravel territory from there via Lochans na h-Earba and Loch Pattack (just before the final boggy bit got resurfaced! And it felt particularly boggy and slow with 150km in our legs).

Route looked like this:

A wee sneaky bonus was checking out the good gravel track on the north side of the Spey Reservoir, perhaps this is better known by others but I've always taken the tarmac on the south bank.

From there we passed Melgarve and headed up the pass. At this point I was already very glad I was on the 29er and not my gravel bike, it's chunky going and as part of an 'endurance block' training plan I was trying to keep the HR low. Probably not very easy getting thumped about on narrow gravel tyres. David wasn't struggling though.

Again, whilst trying to somehow keep HR nice and low we tackled the zig-zags. Ironically as my 29er was a bit of a frankenbike it was actually a bit over-geared and I wished I had my gravel bike for the climbing at least. David gradually pulled away although we both ended up pushing near the top, my GPS track even captures the moment perfectly when I let my front wheel get a bit light and suddenly wobbled sideways and unclipped. 

The descent was an absolute belter, I sort of envied David's accomplishment in holding on and making it down in one piece and un-punctured on the gravel bike, but I had loved surfing down at my leisure on a very average 100mm hardtail with 2.35" tyres. I did miss the drop bars for the fast straights though, the hands felt a bit redundant out on the end of big wide flat bars, not like I was wrestling through rock gardens or anything. Still though, something like 800m elevation loss on fast and twisting loose rocky landrover track, great fun.

We were on a bit of a schedule and I wasn't confident how quickly we would cover the remaining ground (again, I didn't really want to push on too hard as had three more days riding to come) but of course the tow path heading south from Ft Augustus was ridiculously fast going although we were taking turns into the headwind. The next section was surprisingly good fun, I had remembered this all as forest road or towpath but the stuff alongside Loch Oich was nice, purpose built 'almost' singletrack. After this we got higher up onto the hillside where I think the trail is again purpose built for stretch due to hydro works taking over the 'low' or original route. 

We were getting a bit weary at this stage and skipped a section of the GGW coming into Gairlochy, it looked fun (David reported loose shingly singletrack beside the loch) but I think at this point we just wanted to maintain some momentum. We did however detour down to see the remains of High Bridge as we came into Spean Bridge which was very cool (I realised later I had swam in the gorge below the bridge a few years ago).

We followed the road up the south bank of the River Spean as if towards Monessie Gorge, then continued on along rougher and wetter (in places) farm tracks including a very short hike-a-bike across one small river before picking up an almost overgrown singletrack climb to connect with the forest road network towards Fersit. From here it was fast going all the way to the sand trap at Lochan na h-Earba.

I still absolutely love this section, beautiful views and scenery and fast rolling tracks (we were enjoying a pretty helpful tailwind at this point). No sign of the hydro works yet but I still feel I need to get back and ride this again before it is lost.

We picked up the climb up and over to Loch Pattack and past the slightly less new hydro works on the River Pattack. The famous 'boggy bit' reared its head here, and to be honest I used to think people made too big a deal out of a short section of muddy wheel ruts, but either we were tired, had turned back into a headwind, or it has gotten boggier. Either way I'm not particularly sorry it has now all been surfaced over! 😂

Finally we turned back north along the shores of Loch Ericht. I was expecting something akin to the Three Brethren on the shores of Loch Etive as you head south from Glen Kinglas here, but apart from one wee punchy climb it was pretty fast and easy rolling (tailwind again) back to the Apiary where we had breakfasted that morning. 

This was a fantastic and relatively straight-forward big day out for me, has certainly given me a huge amount of confidence that big days out in the mountains needen't be a struggle-fest if you eat, drink (2 litres of Skratch electolyte + carb in the hydration pack, 1.5l of Torq in the bottles, the whole gamut of sweet and savoury in the frame bags) and pace right (basically try to keep it in Z2 unless you absolutely can't). I only took the 29er at the last minute for this route as I'd torn the rear tyre on my gravel bike but I don't think I missed the gravel bike once. This isn't exactly a fresh or original observation but it was good to shake my idea that the MTB would somehow be an impediment on anything but the roughest terrain, at no point other than tiredly honking up climbs out of the saddle did it feel in any way slower or less enjoyable to ride than the gravel bike, and I can fix that if I stick the pop-loc back on.

Roll on 200km of Lochaber!