Testing times on new Affric Kintail Way
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Pushing my bike down a steep, rough path which is wet and slippery with the ongoing downpours that have been a feature of the last few hours, I know I am almost there.
This was always going to be the hardest section of an already testing ride. I’ve been in (and out of) the saddle since just after 8am and it’s pushing 4pm now, but as the tops of the Five Sisters of Kintail clear momentarily ahead of me I’m feeling full of energy.
There are moments during long days like this where the overwhelming joy of the experience veils the exhaustion and allows you to push further. I stop and look around me. The grandeur of the setting and the vast scale of the mountains are intoxicating; this is what I came for.
I’m following the Affric Kintail Way, a new long-distance trail which connects the Great Glen to the west coast at Morvich. Starting in Drumnadrochit, the route links the Great Glen Way with Kintail, passing through the beautiful Glen Affric and remote mountain territory beyond.
This is not an outing to take lightly. The Affric Kintail Way is promoted as being suitable for walkers, mountain bikers and horse riders, though in the past I’d considered this an impossible way to take a bike. I now have a different attitude to what’s possible.
Much of the route follows tracks of varying qualities, with the odd road section and bits of more technical singletrack, but beyond the youth hostel at Alltbeithe things get a little different.
I paused at the SYHA building – one of the most remote hostels in the country – and chatted to the warden for a while before heading west into the rain.
A new bridge makes one river crossing much easier than it used to be, and I was surprised just how much of the track-cum-path up the lower slopes of Beinn Fhada to Camban I was able to ride. There’s a bothy here which I’ve only ever run past while taking part in the Highland Cross, a 50-mile coast-to-coast duathlon held every midsummer, so today I had my first chance to stop and take a look inside.
It was welcome respite from the rain on a route with little shelter. The bothy itself is well cared for, with fairly new sleeping platforms and very tidy. Further on in my ride, I met a guy heading up from Gleann Lichd to stay there for the night ahead of some Munro-bagging the next day – he wouldn’t have been disappointed.
Beyond Camban I found I could ride a little further before things started to get too tricky for my limited technical abilities. I’d allowed plenty of time for this potentially slow part of the route so had no qualms about walking with the bike and going carefully down towards the impressive waterfall in the Allt Grannda.
Again it was nice to take in the awesome nature of the surroundings, something that’s difficult to do when you are trying to run up this steep path from west to east during the Highland Cross!
As I got nearer to Gleann Lichd and the house after the river, I was back on the bike knowing the difficulties were out of the way and it was a four- or five-mile spin along this flat valley to reach the information point at Morvich which marks the official end of the Affric Kintail Way.
The early part of the route is not easy going either, with a couple of miles of killer hills to kick-start the day before you get any serious distance under your belt. Soon enough, though, I was heading through the forest towards Shenval and Corrimony, where I detoured to visit the ancient burial cairn before returning to the main route, which follows the road from here into Cannich.
After that there’s a climb towards Glen Cannich before going left onto a long forestry road that eventually heads left to drop to Dog Falls on one of my favourite little sections of natural singletrack in the area.
The Affric Kintail Way has more than 6000ft of climbing and another chunk of that follows as you head upwards to a viewpoint before riding alongside Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin to Glen Affric.
The Yellow Brick Road leads all the way past Loch Affric on a decent track before reaching Strawberry Cottage at Athnamulloch, where a rougher track takes you into the heart of the mountains and, for me, the really interesting part of the route.
Route details: Affric Kintail Way
* Distance: 48 miles / 77 km
* Terrain: Forest tracks and natural singletrack in remote location with no mobile phone signal or refreshments for large parts. Bike portage required on steep terrain. Navigation and mountain biking skills required – this is a serious undertaking even for fit riders
* Start/finish: Drumnadrochit/Morvich
* Map: Harvey Affric Kintail Way
Exploring a new long-distance trail crossing the Highlands through mountain passes between Loch Ness and Kintail
The logistics
The start and finish of the route are quite a distance apart, so planning the return journey is a big help! I parked my car in Drumnadrochit at the free car park beside the information centre – the official start of the Affric Kintail Way – and booked a ticket for the CityLink bus from Ault a’ Chruinn at Morvich back to Drumnadrochit (£17).
CityLink’s policy on carrying bikes is rather vague, but I was advised that the only way to guarantee it being taken was to bag it up and treat it as luggage.
So once I got to the bus stop I took the wheels off, removed the handlebars and ziptied them to the forks and wrapped it as best I could in orange and black bags.
The bus driver was really good and made no fuss about taking my half wrapped mountain bike in the hold. Back at Drumnadrochit, I had to rebuild the bike to get it onto my car’s bike rack!
* Visit www.affrickintailway.com for more on the Affric Kintail Way
* Visit www.citylink.co.uk for bus times and prices
