Strathconon - Glen Uaig
For those with an interest in maps there are several of the OS Landranger (1:50k) series up in Scotland that have very little in the way of human infrastructure, particularly paved roads. One such is sheet #25 “Glen Carron and Glen Affric”. There’s basically the main road from Achnasheen down to Strathcarron, the road down Glen Torridon and a tiny bit of the road to Skye at Inverinate. The rest is “wilderness” with the occasional estate track and stalker’s track. Most of these are unfortunately dead ends unless you’ve a packraft, the tracks leading to Pait Lodge being a good example. There’s a lot of: “Ooh, let’s follow this track, yes, over here, Ah 😧 maybe not“
The aforementioned map covers the massive glens of Affric, Mullardoch and Strathfarrar that push the Scottish watershed surprisingly close to the west coast, in fact the Glen Affric - Glen Lichd watershed is only 8km or so from the sea loch of Loch Duich. The general lay of the land being short steep glens in the west and long gently rising glens in the east.
I like perusing maps and had considered the Strathconon - Craig “pass” as a possible route for a while. I’d even come up with a route lying further to the north linking up the Fannaichs, Fisherfield and Torridon then using that as a return. I didn’t really know what it was like on the ground but a question did elicit the response that it was “OK ... from memory“. So, since we were going to be based in Cannich, I worked out a more southerly loop using parts of the HT550 to flesh things out. This came to 194km with 4400m of ascent. Decent enough in the Highlands for a three day tour.
Despite a good forecast we decided to take the tent rather than tarps and bivvies and given the midge situation on both nights that was a good choice.
The first bit was easy - the road down the glen from Cannich to Struy, then the fun began with the climb up to Erchless Forest and the “track of a thousand puddles”
There’s been very little rain in Scotland this year, all the burns and rivers are low and “thousand puddles” was out by a couple of orders of magnitude. We went a couple of km before we even saw a damp patch.
This is one of those curious gates you get in the Highlands. Out in the middle of nowhere with seemingly no point and the adjoining fence long since rotted away. And, yes, there at the foot of the shot is a puddle!
The track generally just undulates along until it drops to a small burn at the foot of the second main climb. Compare this shot with those from the 2019 HT550.
The climb is push for a hundred metres or so, ride a hundred metres, push, etc. until the angle eases and you can ride to the top. Mostly the pushing is down to loose surfaces combined with steepness.
As ever with Scotland, the top isn’t the top and you wander up and down until you finally get to the top and begin the descent, which has ups in it. Eventually you turn the corner and enter the next glen and come to a large concrete pipe! This is a collection pipe for Orrin dam several Km away and used to increase the catchment area. You just follow the service track alongside it as it connects water from the various burns on the hillside.
As we approached the site of the old Hydro bothy we happened to meet the SSE maintenance guy who looks after this system and seemingly most of the northern Highlands and had a long chat. He told us about the bothy’s demise … The bothy and the land on which it stood was owned by SSE and they did the majority of the maintenance and repairs. In recent years they’ve seen a big increase in anti social behaviour: the window would regularly be smashed even when it was replaced with Perspex; the door would be ripped ripped off and burned; litter; etc.
Then SSE wanted a piece of land next to the intake pipe so they bought that off the estate and sold them the Hydro land. The estate “hate walkers and cyclists” (his words) and within a week they had demolished the bothy and carted the remains to the tip. Let’s just say it doesn’t offer much shelter any more …
Our original route was to turn left after Fairburn House and head straight up the glen but we needed more snacks so continued on the HT route to Contin. Refreshed we kept on the A835 for a little while before turning off to rejoin the route. Most of the glen is on road but it’s very scenic so not really noticeable. The gradient is also very gentle, the end of the road is at 150m but you’ve ridden over 30km to gain that. The tarmac ends at Scardroy Lodge and continues as an estate track for a couple more kilometres before becoming a quad bike/Argocat track.
It was a pretty warm and muggy night and the wee blighters were still out in force in the morning :shock: The Argocat track continued up the glen getting ever fainter until it ended at another gate in the middle of nowhere.
From here the next kilometre or so (but it felt like a couple of km) is a mixture of short riding sections and pushing the rest. A fat bike would allow more to be ridden.
The pushing ends at a couple of ruins called Doirevaire where another Argocat track is picked up. This one belongs to a different estate, no joined up thinking of course.
The track was variously graded stone or bog. As we continued along the glen I heard deer barking and saw the herd a short way up the hillside. As it happened there was an Argocat heading towards us. Had a chat to the occupants, they were heading up to bag a deer or two, this is now stalking season but with the good weather the deer are still high up on the hills so things have been delayed a bit.
The Argocat track finished at Glenuaig Lodge. We’d taken over two hours to do just 8km, a good job that the hike-a-bike was short. This has a “bothy” next to it. If only we’d pushed on we could have had heated and lit accommodation.
Amazingly, and even though we had been in another estate for a good while, we weren’t at the watershed. That was about 2km further on. Now we were on the access track to the lodge and good progress could be made. Mostly it was downhill and we’d something like 300m of descent in just 8km.
Looking down to Achnashellach and the Coulin Forest.
The next bit was really just riding along the main road amongst NC500 traffic. Not pleasant but there’s no real alternative. We joined the HT route at Achnashellach and would be following it now until the foot of Glen Affric. We stopped for a bit of lunch at the Strathcarron Hotel - outdoor eating only and served up in takeaway boxes, a sign of the Covid times. Then it was on to Attadale with the annoying road climb and descent to get there, yup, rather than go round the flat bit it goes up a 20% climb to drop straight back down again. 🙄
At last we could turn off the road, though of course this meant the big climb out of Attadale to get over to Glen Ling. Hard work in the humidity and warmth.
I’d forgotten whole sections of the next bit so it was a while before we actually began the descent. Supposedly this has been “done up” and surfaced but I think what’s actually happened is that the soil on top has simply been bladed off so it’s now rocky, certainly not as nice as before. Again I’d forgotten quite a few bits of this. It was at this point we encountered some weird flying insects, you’d swat them and the wings would come off and what looked like a tick would scurry across your skin, horrid things.
Once in the valley floor the route went through bracken that I don’t remember but then the HT550 takes place in May before it has chance to grow. The lower section wasn’t as bad as I remembered, I was likely quite tired after four days on the go. About 100m before the end of the track my front tyre instantly deflates. I’ve somehow managed to unseat about a 1/4 of the bead from the rim, there’s no way it’s going back up tubeless out in the field. No idea how I did it as I was just about at a standstill and about to get off the bike. Remove any thorns (using the toilet paper trick) and put in a tube. Some CO2 gets a decent pressure. In our hurry to escape the midges I forget the tubeless valve and Cath leaves her sunglasses behind.
Once in Dornie we head to the pub and another meal and make the executive decision to skip the climb up to the Carr Brae viewpoint and just head along the main road. This isn’t as bad as it could be due to the late hour. More snacks bought at Inverinate filling station and we get to Glen Lichd as the light begins to fade and we set up camp.
After another warm night (this is Scotland in September!) and we decided to get going without breakfast to avoid the midges. It’s a bright day and hopefully we’ll be in the shade on the big climb up past the Allt Granda waterfalls.
My memory of the 2017 HT was of a steep push with one section that needed the bike to be manhandled up a rock step. Cath was quite worried about this but we got to the bowl with the waterfalls and it hadn’t materialised so more than likely my HT experiences were down to my tired state at that stage in the event.
It starts to get easier once Camban bothy is in sight and a few hundred metres before the bothy the path becomes a track. We head up to the bothy to have a late breakfast/early lunch and to dry out the tent fly.
The track to the Youth Hostel is quick, 35mins or so, and just as quick down to Strawberry Cottage. Some sections of the track have been washed out in the intervening four years since I was last here enforcing a push where previously you could ride easily.
Cath wanted a swim so went for a splash next to the bridge. Then it was the good track down the glen to the road head. Cruising down the road there’s a shout of “Bob!”, it’s Mike (Clarke) in his van who was heading up the way. So after a good natter, well, listening to Mike 😆 , we rolled back to Cannich and a well deserved meal in the Pub.
Now that 4400m of ascent. Due to Bikehike being down I used RideWithGPS and that’s the figure it came up with. My GPS and Strava give 2500m