Thursday 29 May 2008

NH 455 583 (expansion)



saturday
a lazy morning sorting crap out. tent, sleeping bag, camping mat, cooking kit (msr pocket rocket, lighter, optimus terra solo, msr mugmate), spork, riceforteainapacket, bottleofwineinacamelbottle, coffee, camera, wee bike fixing kit, book (wh murray: mountaineering in scotland), ipod, headtorch, os26 and some clothes crammed into a 25l sac. plus a pile of other stuff for later in the weekend rammed into a nf duffle and courier bag.

off up the a9 as far as pitlochry to see the new DS. CD is busy on the wheels of steel, so i have a superfine cup of joe in Kev's shop and finger the merch to let my hr drop back to acceptable levels. they were gearing up for the fun bit of their open day with slabs of booze arriving by the minute. before hitting the a9 again i dropped in to the shop next door to pick up a wee camping knife.

more north - over the kessock bridge (my grandad's least favourite bridge) and we're in easter ross. get changed into riding kit and dump the car outside square wheels in strathpeffer. sac on, saddle up and start climbing.

i'd decided on the campsite before leaving home - in the trees by loch an crann, just off the contin xc/strathpuffer course. eventually found a flat (enough) spot by the boathouse and set up camp.

once the wine was cooling in the loch, i set off on the bike for a lap or so of the race course. quite a few changes from the last time i was round, but all good. dropped down to the bogs at torrachilty for a pre-emptive jobbie and a refill of bottles, then back up and over to the campsite to fix my quickening puncture and a bite to eat.

pinto bean chilli rice was disappointing - you could count the pinto beans on the tines of the spork. noodles next time.

wine
book
bed.

was surprised and a wee bit (ed: a big bit) spooked by the activity in the forest later on. cars, trail bikes and a strange rhythmic drumming which i eventually worked out was a pipe band somewhere below. various things went splash, thump and squeak in the night. fresh tracks in mud showed that some deer had passed close by too.

sunday
up fresh and breezy in the morning for a breakfast of pre-prepared melon and a good strong cup of coffee ahead of a hard day's commissairing. broke camp and rode back to the car, spotting a couple of interesting bits of trail on the way (bah!). quick attempt to shake the public toilet doors open, then off in the direction of dingwall to find bogs (twitch). a 24 hour tesco that opens at 9am was a worrying start. fortunately the public bogs are open, so it's all systems go and a quick armpit freshen to boot.

pitch up at the race site to find all on the go. bit of a worry about how many laps to set, but stuck with the original plan of 5 laps for elite men (despite some start line porkies from racers who should know better...). a cracking course by all accounts and top classes well won with impressive displays by Ross and Ruth.

back in car and a hour south to aviemore to meet chris and chipps at the lovely rothiemurchus campsite. curry and a bottle of wine in the majority of the pubs and we're wobbling off up the road to tents.

monday
chris heads off to pick up jac and emily after their epic adventure, chipps and i head to the mountain cafe for an extended breakfast. we eventually peel ourselves away to go for a scoot - steam train to boat of garten, then a ride back to the cake stop at Inchriach and a gentle loop back by loch an eilean to the cars. the others head off for pizza and i boot down the road to pick up new team kit from the DS.

just yer average weekend really...

this weekend - 10 under the ben.