Mountain Bike Expedition - Great Glen Way

Doug Little and the HOL Great Glen Mountain Bike Exped Team

Over the weekend the Higher Outdoor Leadership team from the WHC in Fort William set off on their Mountain Bike expedition, to finish their mountain bike module. I was with the team setting off on the Great Glen Way, working alongside Doug. We were lucky with the weather on Sunday - we didn't have a single drop of rain all day, even though we heard there were showers in the mountains. As we started down the Glen we could see Ben Nevis, and at that time the snow line was at about 750-800m.

On the bank of Loch Lochy

As we moved down Loch Lochy, we got to the Fairy Glen, and so we took some time out to explore. I walked through 3 times and each time found something new. The group loved it and it was difficult to get them to leave and carry on theirt exped.. but on we must..

Inside the Fairy Glen

Smurf Tree in Fairy Glen

Stuffed toy circle

The group did all the navigation, leadership, and kept the pace up. We were lucky during the day to have no mechanical failures, or punctures, but there were a couple of small falls, but everybody did pretty well considering the descents and climbs we had to do. After a smooth 55km we arrived in Fort Augustus, and the team had to make a 3 course meal for all 14 of us. Here they excelled, providing 2 choices for everybody for all 3 courses. Everybody finished the day happily tired and went to bed knowing that Monday and Tuesday would be wet!

I couldn't be with them on the last 2 days of the exped, but I met some of them today and they were happily proud of all completing their exped of over 110km through the Great Glen up to Inverness - through 2 days of wet weather and up some punishing climbs - congratulations to everybody involved.

Next you have your mountain module ...