[Closed] Highland Trail 550 2015

He'll be a one pot screamer after all that toil and exertion. 🙂

Under 4 miles to go, and 85 miles ahead of the next rider. That's awesome.

Edit, too hasty, oops.

Javier Simon could be in a spot of bother - hasn't moved for 2 hours and just been over taken by Steven Sloof ...

Might have got his beard caught in his rear sprocket. Lovely guy with the BEST bikepacking beard ever

Non confirmed time - but looks like Tom has finished.

Superb! Massive respect to him and all participants.
Thanks for a truly weird but compelling spectator experience for yet another year.

Honked the horn and waved as I passed the pipz near contin earlier this morning. Sorry for putting you off if you thought it was just another aggressive anti bike driver!

Did they give you the forks.... Minipips is well trained.

Fantastic effort Tom (other Tom). Hope you and your Missus to be have a great day.

Unconfirmed finish time 8.19pm.

Brilliant effort.

Jenny is still going. Good Lass!

I was talking to her about the HTR just a couple of weeks ago and she was really excited about it. I did have to show her how to start Tracking on her SPOT though!

Well done Tom!

Awesome work Tom. Congratulations!

Jenny is doing an awesome effort.

Just spoke to Rich & Tom - the weather has been awful. Rain and headwinds all day. They are going to try to get to Tyndrum tomorrow to see the end of the 3rd place race. Hopefully the blackhole of Strathcarron lets some of the riders escape.....

Honked the horn and waved as I passed the pipz near contin earlier this morning. Sorry for putting you off if you thought it was just another aggressive anti bike driver!

No they didn't think that you were anti cysclist - they have had quite a few honk and waves over the last few days.

Ahh,good! They seemed to be motoring on pretty well.

Great ride Tom, well done!
Real shame about Josh's bike letting him down, he was flying up until then. Seems to be a high toll on bikes and riders this year. Fingers crossed for everything holding together for Mike Toyn to bag second later today.

Scratch Updates:

Steve Field - Got really cold fixing puncture just out of Poolewe, only to get another one 30min later. Thought of spending time with wife won!

Phil FT - Hub SS freehub failure (again) lack of toenails not helping....eew.

Pretty sure this is the most up to date list of scratched riders:

Karl Booth
Steve Field
Phil FT
Rich and Tom Siepp
Ilan Rubenstien
Jonathan Edwards
Bryan Singleton
Josh Ibbet
Steve Heading
Bert Platzer
Mark McPhillips
Darreb Kosliki
Amanda Brooks
Tom Gibbs
Alasdair McClean
Chris Alder
Giacomo Maltman
Ed Procter
Ashraf Kame
Kristan Rivers
Dave Barter
Steve Robbins
Andrew Hutchenson
Fabien Frohlicher
Nicolas Senie
Jean-Louis Doridot

Well done Mike Toyn, Staveley rider I deliver his post 🙂

Scratch Update:

Scott McGill - no reason given (@scottmcgillsr)

Looks like Jenny is struggling with the river crossing in Fisherfield. Given recent rainfall it must be pretty deep by now.

Looks like Jenny is struggling with the river crossing in Fisherfield. Given recent rainfall it must be pretty deep by now.

Yes, looks like she's taking the safe option. That must be pretty demoralising at this stage.

Looks like Jenny has been turned back by the river - back at Shenavall now...

I'm at home in Edinburgh and eating a giant cookie and drinking endless mugs of tea. Doing some catching up on this thread!

Thanks for the support all!

Yes, looks like she's taking the safe option. That must be pretty [s]demoralising [/s] SMART at this stage.

FTFY

She's made the right choice. If it's high, she can wait for it to drop in a nice big dry bothy with firewood.

Fond memories 😕 of crossing those rivers, in gentle times, wouldn't fancy it at others. Bothy sounds like a winner to me.

FTFY

She's made the right choice. If it's high, she can wait for it to drop in a nice big dry bothy with firewood.

Totally agree with you. Still can't be the nicest feeling.

Well done Tom, looked tough conditions for much of the ride. Must be slightly weird sat at home watching the event you've just finished but is still going on.

Any pics of the finish Tom?

[quote=GregMay ]She's made the right choice. If it's high, she can wait for it to drop in a nice big dry bothy with firewood.Thing is, how much food is she carrying at this point? You can only wait so long.

I don't have any pictures of the finish but Alan Goldsmith's friend Sarah took some, so will hopefully get them in due course.

That'll be Mike Toyn finished now.

Fraser MacBeath looks safe for third if he can stay awake.

And Jenny is still pacing the banks of the Abhainn Strath na Sealga looking for a way across. In hindsight, she'd have been wise to have taken the permitted detour via the coast road. Easy to say that in retrospect of course.

The diversion is only permitted after you've been to the loch and decided not to cross. But, yes, she could have backtracked earlier in the day, and been well round the coast by now. She'd even have seen Ilan, which would have been good for morale.

Hope she is OK. Where is the nearest bothy?

Right next to her - Sheneval 😆

Looks like she didn't go far out enough into the loch. I believe it gets shallower the further out you go, to a point.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/ @57.7813684,-5.2739742,808m/data=!3m1!1e3

I think it's running high by anyones measure, Nik.

Alan G's text from yesterday morning: https://twitter.com/ht_550/status/603499126072946691

But I agree, best chance nearer the mouth, though it looks a lot wider and therefore "worse".

Scratch Update:

Steve Large - Bad food last night and now vomiting. Hitting the road back to Tyndrum.

I'm loving following this and am feeling for Jenny now who must have been searching for a safe place to cross the river for such a long time. I'm in awe of these guys (and boy and ladies).

We're so inspired that we're looking at some mini bike packing. Do****cher: I saw mini pips is using a half bag. Do you know where you can get one from and how long are they? I'm probably a similar height and am limited to what I can carry. God knows how I'd cross a stream without some sort of biblical water-parting help.

Got a guy from our club (hackney gt) still out there James Stephens - jj Stephens on live tracker

I've just done some analysis of routes taken to cross the loch mouth using the replay function on Trackleaders.

It seems all the other riders made the Fisherfield crossing nearer the loch mouth than Jenny has.
This is what it looks like: https://www.flickr.com/photos/reizkultur/14154646477/

With recent rain, the beach may be submerged, forcing Jenny upstream, so what appears to be her "crossing too early" may the closest she can physically get in the current conditions.

The beach/ shore must be submerged for a proportion of the time, otherwise it would be vegetated. Plus, if the level is up to that extent, it'll look dead wide. Factor in strong wind, waves coming up the loch etc, I bet it looks practically impossible without a boat.

Do you know where you can get one from and how long are they?

Alpit did all of the bags - they will be back tommorrow night so one I have scraped the mud off I will get a measuring tape out. Tom is only 135cm or so.

Got a guy from our club (hackney gt) still out there James Stephens - jj Stephens on live tracker

James is an absolutely top bloke. I rode with him quite a lot and he gently tried to persuade me to keep going when I met him after deciding to bin it.

He's 12cm shorter than me. It looks like they've finished? Or are they cycling home? 🙂

They are back in Tyndrum having done 405miles. He sounds so tired. I could hear him shutting down transmission as I was talking to him.

Glad to hear Jenny has somewhere dry(ish) to spend tonight.

I can't think of a better way to spend half term!

Neither can he 😀

Fraser MacBeath at top of the Devil's Staircase. 20 miles to go. Remember Fraser has been riding since 5:30am YESTERDAY. 40 hrs straight!

C'mon Fraser!

I've just done some analysis of routes taken to cross the loch mouth using the replay function on Trackleaders.

It seems all the other riders made the Fisherfield crossing nearer the loch mouth than Jenny has.
This is what it looks like: https://www.flickr.com/photos/reizkultur/14154646477/

With recent rain, the beach may be submerged, forcing Jenny upstream, so what appears to be her "crossing too early" may the closest she can physically get in the current conditions.

The beach/ shore must be submerged for a proportion of the time, otherwise it would be vegetated. Plus, if the level is up to that extent, it'll look dead wide. Factor in strong wind, waves coming up the loch etc, I bet it looks practically impossible without a boat.

Thing is, when you are at the mouth, you are at loch height for the water. That is a big loch, and it would take a heck of a water to raise the level. As soon as you move upstream though, the river will back up and will get higher much faster.

On the boat topic, I have a plan to do that. Plan is to start at Ullapool, cross right at the town in my packraft with bike, then over the hill to Scoraig, cross Little Loch Broom in that, then down the road, and into Fisherfield on the HTR route, and have a play about in Loch na Selga and the river in the packraft, before going on to Poolewe, then back on the road (or some other route).

7 mile gap, though Andy Williamson still has to climb the Devils Staircase

Last year I took a route across the river out in a delta, really just following the sand delta you can see on the Google Earth shot. It was bottom bracket height at most. I think this might be the safest option as the wider crossing means the river current is at its slowest.

Here are the tracks.[img] [/img]
The pink one is Jenny. The blue one apparently crossing far upstream is just a data collection error.

That is a big loch, and it would take a heck of a water to raise the level

During the flash floods in Cumbria a couple of years ago the level of Windermere rose by several metres causing a number of boats that were moored too tightly to sink. Yes it takes a lot of rain but it can happen. Also a strong wind blowing down the length of the loch could cause the river and the area around the mouth to back up

I want to do this next year. It looks like the sort of challange i will love and hate all at the same time. Good luck to all doing it. Got a call from steve large. Shame he is ill.

I'll need another bike though unless i can adapt ond of my current steeds for the challange.

Outstanding ride by MikeToyn. Fantastic. That's two 2nd places for Team Wheelbase this month in these crazy type of events although this far outweighs my efforts in the Cairngorms.

Well done fella, Chapeau!

Fraser MacBeath finished early hours of the morning
3rd place in total time of 5 days 17 hrs 38 mins. He rode the last 46 hrs without sleep. Outstanding effort!!

Andy Williamson has just gone across the line for 4th place in 5 days 22 hours 33 mins. Well done Andy!

Jenny is on the move again. Crosses fingers xx

Poor Jenny - thought that she had found a place to cross, but she is having to backtrack again.

Overnight Scratch Update:

No one.

OK Jenny is backtracking.

Now, a question that my wife raised last night...

"If she backtracks, takes the road, then backtracks the course to the river, THEN continues on the course, would you DQ her?"

I opted to say " Alans call. Personally, no. But it's a two day diversion"

Now, a question that my wife raised last night...

"If she backtracks, takes the road, then backtracks the course to the river, THEN continues on the course, would you DQ her?"

I opted to say " Alans call. Personally, no. But it's a two day diversion"

I'd give her a medal!

If we give her a medal they'll all want one... what about a pie?

Looks like she may have found a spot actually...

Totally impressed by the efforts of these guys.
Quick question on the crossing at the loch - are they not allowed to head towards Achneigie bothy on the singletrack north side of the river and cross somewhere there? It is many years since I had to do that in high water when on foot, but it got me across.

The crossing needs to be made, then they have to backtrack to the point where it crosses the loch.
So technically yes, but you have to make a B-line from your crossing point to the route.

Looks like she's on her way again. Good stuff.

Really happy to see that. Danger moment, over..except for the other river.

I bet it all feels quite (very!) committing, there can't be many people around at the moment perhaps a walker or two in Shenevall bothy that you could ask to keep watch then give them a wave when you are across. But quite what they could do if you didn't appear again ...

Just for ideas sake I found this photo from 2013 when I was racing:

[img] [/img]

Should give an idea how wide and high it can go.

[img] [/img]

This was me crossing the same river 5 years ago to the day. Was easy that day but still flipping cold and wide.

Three more finishers:Phil Clarke, Alan Goldsmith, and our first female Rickie Cotter.

So 8 finishers from 49 group start and ITT riders. 12 still on course. And Ilan.

So technically we could have 20 finishers...

Thanks for the pics, helps those of us who don't know the route.

Real biking, great stuff. I used to do a fair few trail quest series with the missus that Alan G raced (generally won) so I know how fast he is, must be epic up there.

So 8 finishers from 49 group start and ITT riders. 12 still on course. And Ilan.

So technically we could have 20 finishers...

This is proper mountain biking. 🙂

Just in case anyone is in any doubt about the current weather conditions, it's been between 4C and 8C today in Aviemore with heavy, prolonged showers and there is fresh snow on the mountains.

And now it's hail

Every time I see something about this event, I think I must give that s crack. Right, next year, it's on my to do list.

Hope ask the riders still going manage to finish. Epic.

Note that there are now "qualifying events" needed to ensure entry. Of course you can do it as an ITT at any time.

There was no unclimbable gate. All that way and no gate.....we was robbed. Brilliant creation of Alan's (and friends). Unforgettable experience.
Chapeau Fraser McBeast, the smiling perpetual motion machine!
Now who has a cure for 'Nana ankles'?