BIKEPACKING THE HIGHLAND TRAIL 550 - Until I get bored

Today I am jumping on a train for a long journey up to the Scottish Highlands for an epic adventure around the Highland Trail 550. 550 miles of epic gruelling trails. But with such a long journey just to get to the start of this adventure I would be arriving in King Ousey well after the sun had set meaning I would have to find a spot to camp before I'd even started just outside a place called Newtonmore and set off early the next morning to make my way onto this epic adventure. It's absolutely going to be not a lot of warming up on this first bit of this ride from where I'm starting. That is because the first thing I'm going to be doing is heading up to the highest point up to Coriakie Pass or however it's pronounced. Better get these legs in gear quick. Heading onto the route and onto the first trails of this adventure I would be heading up to the highest point and being still so early I'd be climbing my way up this epic pass completely alone. The only sound around me was the crunch of the rocky trails under my tyres and for November the weather was incredibly still. Definitely harder going this way. Definitely, definitely much harder getting up this side of this path. Coming over along the the ziggy zag part so it does mean it does mean I am quite close to the top. Once you get to the top of the zigzags you are at the top. I'm about 2000 feet currently and I cannot believe it. It's November and I am literally sweating. It's so hot. Just gonna keep hiking probably all the way to the top and a nice descent to the other side. At least the other side the descent is quite smooth. That is one benefit of coming up this side. Oh my god it's tough work and we haven't been on the bike for a little while. The first challenge of this epic trip. At the top now. Look at that road view. Absolutely beautiful and because this is the highest point on the ride we won't be getting any higher than this. Although this will definitely not be the hardest climbing trail I'm certain of that. From two and a half thousand feet to about 60 feet in just a couple of miles down to Fort Augustus. With Loch Ness in my sights this descent is always great fun and a much needed rest from the climb up here. A little rough for sure on the gravel bike but the further I descended the smoother the trails got and the easier the descending became. Should I follow the sign? Should I be rebellious? Or should I just use the road? Let's just use the road. I'm pretty sure I can rejoin the gravel section that I would have been on not too far along this road. I don't know quite what it is but pedaling around the perfect gravel around Loch Ness, taking in the impressive loch, the sheer size, the surrounding beauty always puts a grin on my face and today was no different. Much needed stop because I've been over these trails we're about to go now quite a few times but always coming in the opposite direction and I've always been glad to be going in the opposite direction so I'm reckoning the next 10-15 miles is going to be a bit of a slog. I've done 40 miles today although about 10 of them was just getting on to the actual route so about 30 miles into the route. I want to try and do around 60 miles a day however November barely any daylight it's darker like 4pm so I don't know if that's going to be possible. It might be possible some days might not be others some days I might ride into the night a little bit we'll see but right now it's uh it's quite warm and humid so I'm just like sweating up all the hills but had some lunch had some pizza now it's time to climb up there. It looks steep I know it's steep not where I thought it was going to be different trail or something I don't know where I am but it's still steep still a slog. I think the idea today is to get close to a place called Contin because this section of the route there really isn't that many shops. Contin is probably the last shop for a while. Oh god I unclipped. I'm just gonna keep turning these pedals and try to get to the top of this hill. Having over two and a half thousand feet of elevation gain in my legs already today definitely didn't help me up the next climb. My energy was severely lacking but at least the trails were nice and rideable well they were great up until the point the trail would just come to an end. Wow really in the middle of nowhere now just uh following a kind of trail you can kind of see where it goes it just literally follows this reservoir thing but it's mostly not rideable little sections are rideable and then you kind of lose the trail. I'm kind of hoping it won't take too long to get around here. We light for too much longer so I'm hoping this isn't going to take too long. It's currently 3 p.m so about an hour and a half just uh try and get around here as quick as possible and hopefully when I get past here we'll be back on another nice little gravel track. I feel very rough today just trying to take in some good fresh Scottish air. Right must move. Wow it's as you can see starting to get a bit dark and gloomy. I'm currently running away from a rain cloud and I've done about 50 miles so I need to start looking for somewhere to camp. I probably should have taken a spot back there but I thought I'd get a few extra miles in today while it's not raining. Well it is back there but it's not that way and that's the way I am going. Hopefully I can find, hopefully I'll be able to find somewhere pretty soon. Good morning, good morning. Can't really see me, the sun hasn't quite risen yet. It's about 7 a.m. I had to ride into the into the darkness a little bit last night and I didn't even set up my uh my tent because well I couldn't really find anywhere with great ground but I'm currently right next to a river, the river glass I think it is, and I am on a lovely, wow, lovely bench. Something you would often get to do in Scotland to be honest because when it's normally warm enough to do that you wouldn't want to be doing that in Scotland because the midge but it's so warm it's crazy. It's November, I feel like it should be a lot colder but yesterday I did about 60 miles in total so about 50 miles on the route and that should really in theory leave about 500 to go but I'm gonna get up, pack up the sleeping bag, easy pack up this morning and I've got about 30 miles until I get to a place called Contyn where I need to stock up on some supplies, have some breakfast and all that stuff but I do have one nice climb and one nice descent until I get there so the next 10 miles are pretty much all uphill but it's super nice to just be uh sleeping right by the river. It's so calm, there's no wind, the stars were out a bit last night, it's a bit cloudy now but it's warm. Right let's get packed up and on for our second day on the Highland Trail 550. After a night on a bench I'd normally expect to be quite tired but the clouds opening up to reveal the bright blue sky and the sun shining made me at least forget about the lack of sleep. This morning though would start similar to yesterday. Tough climbs, lots of stop and starting which was getting ever increasingly frustrating. Steep trails or just big boggy puddles. Another big boggy puddle to navigate. This is my descent, oh my god that just felt like such a slog this morning. I've done 28 miles so that's good and it's about half 11 but oh my god the first sort of 15 miles just it was very stop and start and very grindy. I'm so very glad to get to the shop and have a nice liquid orange breakfast with some iron brew, some piri piri chicken sandwiches. I've stocked up, I don't think there is a shop now for quite a while, probably a couple days of riding depending on how many miles I can do I guess but I want to try and get another 30 miles done today if possible. It's going to be a long slog uphill for the next 20 miles I think and then some downhill but yeah today has been a right old slog. Very frustrated, very stop and start, big boggy puddles. You get on right for 30 seconds, get off, navigate around the big boggy puddle, same again, same again. Did get a little nicer towards the end though. I cannot believe though it's sunny and it's actually hot, I'm sweating. The Contin store generously filled sandwiches always hit the spot and with the days so short I had to make a move. November it may have been but the weather felt closer to summer with great visibility and fast rolling trails it was looking like I would be able to hit my daily target of 60 miles all while enjoying the Scottish gravel in all its glory. I don't know if it's the iron brew, I don't know if it's the sun but it's been feeling good since I've left Contin. I have done just under 50 miles so it looks like I should be able to hit that daily target of 60 miles. I have just done about 50 miles so it looks like I should be able to get the 60 miles that I am hoping to do most days. It's just been good, it's just been nice, flowy, beautiful gravel and wow is it really November? Now I have an idea where I can camp tonight because I camped there on the Great North Trail, it just depends if I can get there or not but with the trails like this we might. Sun is about to set behind me you can kind of see but I think I've found the most perfect spot to camp. Perfect ground, perfect surroundings. It is getting a bit windy but I should be fine in the tent and the sky is so clear so if it stays like that and the clouds don't roll in tonight we are going to have some beautiful stars because well there's not much light pollution here so that is super good. I'm going to set up the tent, chill out, I did about 55 miles so a little bit under but you know as soon as it gets to about like half two, half three like oh I've only got like an hour or two until the sun sets but I've broken this route down on my Garmin into two sections and I've got 175 miles of this section to go so maybe we'll get close to the 100 mile mark tomorrow. Who knows, we will see. It's actually been a really good day once I got to Compton. I love this stretch, it is very beautiful but I am ready to get my tent set up and just enjoy this for the night. I'm going to have some meatballs and just enjoy that view and grab some water from the river down there. Nice, let's get this tent set up. Good morning, good morning. Wow what a night that that just turned out to be an absolute treat. I stoked my head out of the tent and I was like oh the stars are amazing. I went out for a wee and I turned around and the northern lights were on show. I could only see them a little bit because they were just sort of just hidden behind the uh the big hill in the distance but yeah what a night. Super comfortable, slept really well. I've got up nice and early this morning and uh on to day three of the Highland Trail 550. I was looking at the map yesterday and I was working out how far from Compton to the nearest shop which is, I don't can't remember where it is, something like Drum something um from there from Compton to there it was like I think 120 miles from where I camped last night it was around like 19.95. So hopefully I can get there by tomorrow. I do have enough food and stuff definitely for the day probably definitely for tomorrow as well to be honest then I could probably push a third day if I needed to but hopefully I don't have to do that. I'll let day three commence and let's see what this day has in store for us. It was very clear now I'm in a cloud. I had woken up with clear skies but I was soon plunged into thick fog. Today definitely felt closer to November than yesterday. The thick fog blocking the sun's heat but this morning was a magical morning. A cold but yet magical. What a morning. Turned into a bit of a bit of a whiteout. Not much to be seen. Done about 23 miles. Currently at a place called Rosehall. Got a nice gradual climb and then a bit of a kicker at the end and then on towards the uh the two the two big climbs of the day which is where I think it is. I hate going in this direction on this way because it's a bit of a grind to get to the top of the first one but we'll see. Making good progress. It's only about 10am. When the sun comes out, when you're quite high up it's quite nice. Right now definitely feels like November's finally arrived. I'm gonna have a good old chocolate bar but I'm not gonna stop too long. I'm gonna just keep going. I want to try and get as many miles out today until from like midday. While it's cold. While I can't see anything. Might as well just get my head down. Just keep getting the miles done. There's a blue sky over there and that is where we're going though so who knows. The further north I got the clearer the skies got today and the clearer the skies got the warmer it got. The further I pedaled today the more alone I felt. Just surrounded by these mountains. This endless landscape of emptiness. Over there it just looks like it's like the like the end of the world just between the water and the clouds. Just disappearing. I've done 45 miles just under so nearly at the 50 mile mark. I'm gonna do a couple more miles. Get to the foot of the next climb. If it's the one I'm thinking it is. It's a bit of a grind to get up there. It's a bit of a push. It's a bit of a hiker bike. So before we do that I'm gonna have some lunch. It's currently 1pm. About three hours of daylight left really. I'm trying to just get as far north as possible today because as you can see it's really bright. Every now and again there's clouds everywhere and they kind of descend into them but if I'm kind of high and it stays like this I might have another chance of the northern lights tonight. But it would be good if I can get a nice clear sky tonight again because that was just so good last night. But it's so quiet. No wind. Just perfect. Let's go and have some lunch. Just got to where I thought the climb that I wasn't looking forward towards. Turns out my memory's gone kaput because this isn't the the bit that I was thinking of. Don't know where that bit is. This bit isn't actually that bad. It's actually quite nice. Actually it's very beautiful. It is still a bit of a climb obviously but I mean just just look at this. And to get here because it was a nice downhill I've actually already broken the 50 mile barrier. I'm around like 51, 52 miles now. So to get that 60 miles pretty much just up here I do need to get up and down really because there isn't really anywhere to camp along this little bit. But I'm going to be going around and just in time now for a good old macaroni pie. Why don't you get these in England? These are good. I was happy that my memory had failed me today but it was starting to feel like a constant battle. A constant race with the sun in the sky. For every mile I managed to cover it felt like for as quick as the sun rose it was even faster to set. And I could not only see the sun starting to set behind me I could feel that temperature starting to drop too. This is not ideal. Currently about 4 p.m. I have done my 60 miles. I did that about I don't know half an hour ago. It's about 4 p.m. sun is setting and as you can see I'm just surrounded by bog. I'm climbing up this massive climb. Big ziggy zag climb. It's pretty steep. I haven't got much energy to even attempt to ride it. It's just too steep. It's a bit of a hiker bike. When I get to the top it's probably going to look more like this which is damn beautiful but not ideal because I need to find somewhere to camp. So it looks like I might be hiking into the darkness for a bit. I mean if I get right to the top and there's a perfect camp spot that would be amazing but the chances is more likely just going to look more like this. But oh my god it's just not ideal but we're going to keep moving on and hopefully find somewhere to camp soon. If I can get all the way across and back down to the road then there is a little bivvy spot but I don't think I'll make that. So I'll probably see you in the morning. Last night was crazy. I just kept hiking and hiking. I hiked for I think five hours until I finally found somewhere to camp. This little section of trees there was like this one layer of flat land that wasn't boggy like where I am now if it's boggy again. Oh it was crazy. I was following trails that weren't trails, boggy drop paths just to get down to little river crossings. It was honestly it was insane and no northern lights because I was just too concentrating on just surviving. But today I've got like one climb I'm really really hoping it's like a rideable climb and then we're going to drop down onto the road where I get like 30 miles of road and I cannot tell you enough I am so looking forward to just having 30 miles of rideable riding because last night was just ridiculous. I have no idea why I even have my bike when I'm doing stuff like that. Hike a bike for five hours and the descent was definitely not worth a five hour hike a bike. It was sketchy. Sure it was in the dark so it was a bit harder but it was just not fun. Right let's get on to day I think it's day four. I'm not sure. I don't know what day it is. Let's go into the Scottish wilderness some more. Last night had been a grueling long night. A night I did not ever want to repeat. I just hope the trails today would not continue like last night. Climbing the first climb of the day gave me a clear view of what I had made my way through all last night. Glorious glorious tarmac. This is going to be where I get most of my miles done today. About 30 miles of this. I believe there is a shop in around 15 or 20 miles I don't know. So hopefully going to stop there for lunch. A creaky bike again. Great views. It's been a right slog from last night and this morning. The downhill was quite nice but I'm just very very happy now to be on some nice tarmac. It's going to be a nice undulating 30 miles for sure but I should be able to keep pedaling and keep riding. Off to the shop we go. Getting to some tarmac section today was supposed to give me some relief, some easy miles and it did but my enthusiasm for this adventure was dwindling. The excitement of riding these trails was turning into boredom that I just couldn't shake. So incredibly bored right now. It just feels like since we've turned around to go back in the other way everything's just hiker bikey and boring. I just wanted to be able to get some miles, get to a shop, stock up. I'm just becoming very impatient and bored. Well I've had some good old iron brew. I've eaten loads of food and yet I still feel like I really can't be bothered. It's taken me all day and I've only done about 35 miles and it's currently about 3 p.m. So I only have like an hour left. I'm not going to get too many more miles left and I'm not going to get too many more miles. I'm very seriously considering just kind of scrapping the rest of the route because I just feel like it's just going to be lots and lots of hiker bike because pretty much since I've turned around the top of the route it's just been lots of hiker bike. There's been some road bits and then every time we run off road it's just kind of hikey and I'm just kind of at this point where I don't even entertain the idea of doing routes that when they're just hiker bike especially when they're hiker bike and there's like no reward and I feel like this one's going to be one of them routes. It's why I've put it off for so long. However, there's no way of just getting home from here so I am thinking to kind of scrap this route but kind of just go on a nice little road adventure around the coast up to Ullapool. Is it pronounced Ullapool or Ullapool? Who the hell knows? I don't know. I can't pronounce any names and then back down to Inverness. I don't know, I'm still just deciding. I'm going to sit here, enjoy this view for a little bit and then I will decide but I've only got an hour or so until sunset. I could continue following this route, it does go to Ullapool but it's going to go off road now for a while and I feel like I'm just going to be in the same situation as I was last night just hiking probably into the dark. I don't know what the trails are going to be like there and I really don't want to be doing that again tonight. Good morning, good morning. It's a bit misty, rainy today. A nice bit of Scottish shower to wash off. So the plan is to get pretty close to Inverness today because I've booked a train for tomorrow morning which does mean I have to do about 80 miles a day, just under really. I have an idea of where I want to get to, I can't remember what it's called, I'll put it on screen here because I think there'll be a pretty decent camp spot there looking over like the bridge into Inverness but I do have to do 80 miles. It's not quite sunrise yet, I don't know if there's going to be a sun today. It's going to be a bit cloudy, a bit rainy but once I get to Ullapool without a big climb and it is mostly downhill so I think I should be able to make it. It's just very humid, very, I don't know, not that nice or not that cold, not that warm. I can't really make up my mind if I want to coat on or off but we've got some nice flowy roads to Ullapool. Let's get on with it, get to Ullapool and have some breakfast or lunch, whatever time it'll be. Last night was just such a nice peaceful night, listening to the little river next to me and then just as I was about to get out of camp, just as about to pack up, obviously the drizzly rain started so now my tent's wet, that's always the way. Right, onto Ullapool we go. It's so, so nice, oh god that's so good, so nice. I made it to Ullapool, it's very miserable today, there is a slight chance of some sunshine. I was planning to sit here for a little bit, it's getting a bit windy and a bit cold so I probably won't sit here for too long, have a bit of breakfast, about 56 miles until we get to Inverness. Nice slog uphill and then a lovely downhill all the way though so it's all good, all good, beautiful morning even if it was wet, miserable and grey. It's so much nicer just here to enjoy your surroundings when you know you're not going to be hiking through boggy fields of mess and Ullapool, here we are. I do love me a good old Scottish road climb, it's just so nice, they're never really that steep, they have little steep sections that normally just pedal uphill gradually, enjoy the views and just slowly get your elevation gain and then slowly descend for like 20 miles. Well that's what I'm hoping, I know it is pretty much downhill once I get to the top, at least nice and flowy and downhill, nice and pedally downhill we'll call it. And as you can see the sun has decided to come back out and even better than that I've got a tailwind which has basically blown all the rain clouds away from me. For a while I was keeping up with the clouds and they kept raining, getting sunny, rain, sun, rain, sun but I seem to nicely overtaken now and just enjoy this nice pedal up here and enjoy this. This adventure might have taken a different turn than what I had initially had planned but that's precisely what I love about going on these kinds of adventures, there's freedom in not knowing what lies ahead, how I'll feel, what I'll encounter or where the trail may take me. Sometimes it's not about taking the hardest route, it's about finding the joy in the path you're on and today I took the easy path and I would enjoy the endless fast flowing Scottish roads. Now that descent literally did go on for what felt like forever, it was like 20 miles long, just went through Compton so we're nearly there now, less than 20 miles and up on to Ord Hill I think it's called. Hopefully we'll find a little spot to camp there, that's the plan, if not I do have another place in Inverness as backup but we'll see this one first. I want to look over Inverness for the night, it might be cool and the sun is still shining. Is it really November? And that is where my adventure would end, up on Ord Hill looking over the night lights of Inverness.