I had my Long Haul Trucker as even though I left home unsure of where or what we were riding, I knew I couldn't go wrong. It is a pretty versatile bike and I am always confident it can ride anything at all comfortably. I knew no matter where Brian thought might be good on the map, that the Trucker would get me there. Brian had his 1960's Dawes Windrush, which was the gravel type bike of it's day. Laterwausser bars, Sturmy archer 5 speed, Mafac Racers etc, usual Brian old school :)
After unloading and getting ready to ride we were still a bit undecided whether to head to Loch Einich or over the Ryovan Pass to Boat of Garten, opposite directions from where we were but we were unsure of the weather as well as it was noticeably darker and a few degrees cooler here. We did decide to get breakfast and then head into the hills. We rode the few miles of trail path up to Glenmore to the visitors centre and after a pancake and maple syrup breakfast decided that we would head to Loch Einich as the weather looked better from here.
The map was checked and a zig zagging cross country route was plotted rather than ride the miles back down the road to start nearer to where we parked. The first part was a mixture of bigger fire road type gravel that soon had us crossing the river onto narrow singletrack paths through the Scots Pine forest. Loosely surfaced but pretty fast rolling in the main and due to the recent decent weather was quite dry too. Once out of this heavily wooded section it was south on a rough large gravelled road/track that was really exposed as the trees slowly disappeared.
We then did a singletrack section was a walking track type width but was full of what we called baby head boulders and that couple of miles was slow going, picking a line long in advance of hitting anything. We were climbing all the time for many miles, sometimes noticeably and others only when you looked across the valley. If we weren't in high country before, we certainly were now.
This boulder section ended by joining onto what must be the rangers access road whish was a lot smoother, a relative term for sure, but smoother and quicker than the last few miles.
We crossed the four wheel drive bridge which has locked bars on it to stop any cars going any further, though they could if they wanted get through the river easy enough now it's drier.
From here we knew we only had a few miles further to go but were by now looking closer at the weather as the wind had picked up and the black clouds coming over the mountain just in front of us were starting to spit rain.
We decided we had come so far and were so close we may as well get to the Loch before turning round as even if we turned back now we would still likely get wet as the country up here is so exposed that there is nowhere to hide from it anyway.
So it was a short time later we rolled to a stop on the shore of Loch Einich. We placed the bikes against the cairn, took a couple of photos and ate a celebratory Snickers bar.
We could now vary the ride back as once back to the forest area we needed to go a different way to get back to the car. First variation came after crossing the river instead of going along the boulder path we climbed to four wheel drive road up the hill. Started to ride it, no traction at all as it was that steep, and could then barely walk it. The views from the top were worth it though, really nice now the worst of the clouds had passed over and it was brighter.
With the tracks being one extreme or the other, rough chewed up hardpack or smooth soft clay it was still a good ride back.
It was another great day out and while we have done this track on our fatbikes and 1 x 1s the LHT was just as enjoyable, maybe more so as I had to think about lines and be deliberate with my riding. It made it though with just a little mud on the undersides to hint at the days adventures. :)
