The crew wrapped up our Glasgow-to-Inverness bikepacking (or expedition biking as they call it here) trip this evening, although I made it here last evening via taxi for a quick visit to the ER to get a dislocated finger x-rayed and reset. The riding and weather has mostly been incredible, and we made friends with some great people along the way, including the members of the Scottish band North Sea Gas, Tour Divide fan/bikepacking enthusiast Iona (who tracked us down via our SPOT), a few colorful cyclotourists...the list goes on. We're spending the night at a hostel in Inverness before heading back to Glasgow tomorrow to continue on with this adventure. Also in town tonight are Simple Minds and Lance Armstrong. Imagine that.
Along the Great Glen Way
None with four leaves?
Enjoying a quick dose of mid-afternoon caffeine
Loch Lochy (and no, it doesn't mean Lakey Lake)
Iona rode with us for a bit on her Salsa Fargo (accompanied by her gopher friend) before continuing on with her own weekend bikepacking trip
Hunter days the afternoon's food supply
Uhrlach Castle on Loch Ness
Hmm. It looked worse than it was.
I managed to be crash-free on all the trails, but put us on a road through a town and accidents happen. Freak accidents. Like the webbing loop on the waist strap of Matthew's Osprey backpack waving in the wind on a descent and snaring my bar end as I rode next to him. I think we had 2 seconds to coordinate a solution before my front wheel got ripped out from beneath me. Hunter and Mike are quite pleased that they managed to catch all the aftermath on film, including the doctor getting the bone back in place, me screaming, and then me putting on a show while sucking down the laughing gas.
8 comments:
Gosh! Looks like the adventure really started after I left you all..hope it heals quickly and keep safe along the rest of that path.
Auww.. that's a real freaky accident.
Don't forget rule nr 1
"Keep the rubber side down" :-)!!
Ouch! I hope you heal as fast as you ride. Tell that guy you're riding with to cut off his pack straps. :-)
Whoa! Sounds like you *almost* gave Matthew the finger...
Ouch! Kinda surprised weight weenie Matt hadn't already cut the straps off! V cool you got to cycle in the UK, don't know if you knew but the West highland way 'double' has become a kind of holy grail to UK enduro folks, quite a few attempts (supported, unsupported, most hoping for sub 24 hours) and no finishers so far.
Ian (we met briefly for lunch on the AZT 700 in 2009)!
Another attempt on the WHW double last weekend and an excruciatingly near miss! (28 hrs, only a few hills and miles to go). You folks should head back to Scotland to make sure it ends up on the 'doable' list!
Ian
Aw, bummer, Ian! So close! I'd love to give the WHW Double a go. I also would love to see a loop race with WHW, GGW, and then wrapping back south around toward Aviemore and through the Cairngorms before returning to Milngavie. Put something like that together with some sweet mountain tracks and I'll figure out a way to get back over there ;-)
Should make it clear it wasn't my attempt!
I noticed you said the same thing to Steve about the WHW, GGW and Cairngorm loop! I think these things have to start small in the UK but will hopefully grow...
Ian
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