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It's been a while since I've stuck a ride up here so thought I'd share a wee jaunt from last weekend with you chaps. The plan was a large loop in the far North of Scotland, incorporating some nice dirt roads I thought would be perfect for the cross bikes loaded up with camping gear. After car camping nearby on Friday night, we set out from Lairg only about three hours later than planned...
Heading East from Lairg.
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A quick climb after turning off the main road left us with an easy cruise down the road to Brora.
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Next was a dash North along the A9 to Dunbeath, with a couple of coastal climbs to get the juices flowing.
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After a very welcome late lunch at the Bay Owl, we stocked up on food for the next day in the Spar and headed inland.
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The end of the tarmac was soon reached and tire pressures dropped for a long offroad stint to our camping spot for the night.
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The track was pretty much perfect terrain for the bikes as we cruised towards The Glutt.
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The sun was starting to set as we turned off towards Altnabreac station, a train stop to nowhere.
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It was freakishly mild without a breath of wind in the air, so I reluctantly passed on setting up the hammock in the dense patches of forest still inhabited by friendly midges and pushed on a bit in the dusk to find a nice patch of gravel for the night at 75 miles done. Not a bad view though.
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We were up as soon as daylight made an appearance in the morning, needing to make the most of it as we had 100 miles to cover.
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Autumnal colours abounded on the way to Forsinard.
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A quick stop to use the coffee machine in the RSPB centre at Forsinard station got us set for a long ride on a series of ever more isolated roads criss-crossing the far North.
Strathnaver.
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Gutted to find the Altnaharra hotel had closed for winter two days before, we brewed up next to a sign telling us our road North West was closed.
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Filled with rice pudding and hot chocolate we proceeded to the far coner of the route at Gobernuisgach Lodge.
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Time for some more offroad, past the lodge, up a tough bumpy climb and over the pass South West towards Loch Merkland.
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Nice speedy descent to the road.
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Now for the hard part! A short stretch got us to the top of Loch Shin where you have the option of using the hydroelectric road over the pass into Glen Cassley. I went this way in January and enjoyed 2 hours of wading through waist deep snow, so it would be nice to actually see the tarmac this time. We stopped at the head of the loch to fuel up and take some bike pics.
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It was tough going at the end of two days, but we were up and over pretty quickly.
Halfway up.
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Above the Cassley dam following a precipitous descent which nearly saw me take out a stag at high speed!
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Next up was a undulating stretch of gravel, followed by a looooong fast gradual downhill to the end of Glen Cassley in the dying light. Then it was one last road pass over to Lairg with our entirely insufficient headlights.
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Bit of a picture overload here, I'm afraid!
I'm loving that. Thanks for sharing
You can never have enough pics of scenery like that. Top notch.
jeepers - that's a great road / gravel trip there. off to my OS maps to plot the route..
Bravo!
Nice photos and write up thanks. Do you have gpx you could share for us lazy folks (and those with out extensive map collections!)
*Looks in vain for the "LIKE!" button*
🙂
Brilliant write up! Do you have a map pic? Just to get an idea of the route and where it went.
Excellent stuff. It's a part of Scotland I've not visited much - it's a long way from Edinburgh when you don't have a car. I'd like to see more of these type of posts. Thanks for sharing.
Great idea. I know most of those roads and tracks so I can see how that would work. Well done for working out a loop.
The good thing about this route is it passes plenty of train stations at least! I'll stick an image of the route up to help with visualisation and links to Endomondo or something for the GPX files?
josemctavish - Member
Wow, great trip report. I'm incredibly jealous (apart from the midges)
Here we go:
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[url= https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Fo6L_YsCVd35xU7re8hevujpcTXoYmLdxQdzZwWp2YE?feat=directlink ]Make big[/url]
Great post JoseM.
Your mate's saddle looks set up for a time trial in some of those pictures - obv works for him like.
Looks like a good adventure. The weather was a nice bonus!
Looks a great trip, thanks for sharing.
Love posts like this. Thanks.
thanks for the image. Ashamed to say I haven't *really* done much over there despite being in sight of some of it. Apart from a C-C traverse some years ago..
scotroutes - Member
Great idea. I know most of those roads and tracks so I can see how that would work. Well done for working out a loop.
Same here. Well done, nice loop.
Thanks, yes I've used the tracks beofre in various things like a C2C2C loop before, but was nice to link them up for a long two-dayer at faster speed!
Here's the gpx for the people of the electronic age:
[url= https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4ZczJIUZURwalZCWkRtLVhuZ1E/view?usp=sharing ]Far North CX Loop[/url]
Nice, my blood pressure feels lower just looking at them pics.
Nice 😛 Only been up that way a couple of times but not done any riding round there.
The bit from Gobernuisgach Lodge to Cassley is part of the HT550 but in reverse.
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Great looking trip!
Totally bookmarked. Fires off an email to Boblo. Bring on the spring ride.
josemctavish - Member
..Here's the gpx for the people of the electronic age:Far North CX Loop
That's a good idea.
Well done Jose, very inspirational.
Just the type of route I'm looking for.
Cheers.
Great thread. We're in Lairg right now at the tail end of a LEJOG on CX bikes. Wish I'd seen this route sooner as would have fitted in a bit more gravel on the way north. Next time
Lovely.
Looks like a reasonable excuse to get some black floyds for my fatbike 🙂
Looks a great loop, nice pics too. Used some of those roads/tracks on a couple of tours up there, this is inspiration for next year.
Really enjoyed that thanks. Great photos. Quite tempted to do it myself. Have been using my cross bike loads this year.
Looks amazing. GPX downloaded thanks.
Great stuff. Downloaded to have a closer look, thanks.