Yesterday had me driving down to Brians for the second part of our Black Isle history tour of Forts, Duns, Brochs etc.
I had an early start as I had to meet a gentleman in Tesco's carpark first thing to exchange cash for a couple of rims, all above board, just convenient. This all worked out nicely organised to head out on the Trucker again with Brian on one of his 'road' rides. I do use the term loosely as I have come to realise that when Brian says road, well, road means anything from tarmac to the actual road to an iron age fort that was last used when the fort was, and hence you find yourself in some strange places and situations. All good fun and regardless what bike we are on we seem to have the same mindset of exploring the unknown track just to see where it goes.
The weather was brilliant as most people experienced this weekend and while I had a long sleeve on this weekend I was still only riding with 3/4 shorts.
We decided to follow a circular route round the shoreline where we could. Running roughly from Dingwall along the shore to Conon Bridge over some hills and a few off road short cuts that looked good on the OS map near Spittle Wood. These held us up a bit as they were muddy to start with and then really rough towards the end. This led us down near the Beauly end of the forth and then we ran along the shore for a quick lunch at the North Kessock Hotel. From there it was up hill all the way, first up and under the dual carriage way along to the woods then a good steep climb up the hills on the red tracks, with a few deviations to the vitrified fort at the top. Such a cool place when you find it, signage is non existant and its thanks to Brians OS maps being on his gps he can pinpoint where it and we are. A really beautiful spot that is easy to appreciate its strategic significance when looking down from such a height to the Cromarty Forth on one side and the water and hills to the north and west.
From here it was down, down, down, on a track that was last used by goats, crazy goats at that. No flash downhill riding for us, no we were sliding down a mountain with bikes dragged, sliding sideways, man and machine at the mercy of gravity on a dark couple of hundred metre landslide to a small dirt road about 2/3rds down.
A bit more dirt roads and we were back on the tarmac, luckily Brian had lights and a spare set for me as mine were still sitting on the desk back home. By the time we got to the main road it was well dark so after a few kilometres we hooked up with the bike path for most of the run back to Dingwall.
Another great ride and as Brian says ' it was about 38 odd miles, some odder than others'
Quite a bit of off road this time but all good fun, bit like an adventure into the unknown.
We need to organise to get a few more to join us next time.
Jamie
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