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Grahams: Carn na h-Easgainn.
Date: 29/06/2014.
Distance: 46.5km (all by bike)
Ascent: 850m
Time taken: 3 hours, 25 minutes.
Weather: Warm, slight breeze, mixture of overcast and sunny.
A lazy Sunday had been the order of the day, but by mid-afternoon I wanted to get out and do something. I set off toward Farr and Strathnairn on my bike without much of a plan, but with a vague idea of following some windfarm tracks up onto the edge of the Monadhliath.
A quick ride over to Farr was followed by taking the track across the River Nairn, which leaves the road opposite Farr primary school. This takes a cicturesque route through the woods and leads onto the main Farr windfarm haul road.
I went looking for this route last year and took a wrong turning, taking me to the substation then back onto the Garbole road. This time I took the correct left turning and pulled slowly up the back of the hill. There was a locked gate that I had to lift the bike over than that, but other than that it was a steady cycle in low gear.
Gleann Beag and Beinn Bhreac:
As the track passed between the summits of Carn Dearg and Beinn Bhreac, the view west opened up, and I could see from Streap to Beinn Dearg. I decided to ditch my bike at a corner and make the 2 minute ascent onto Beinn Bhreac for a better version of the view.
Looking back to the Strathfarrar hills:
Beinn nan Caillich:
Farr windfarm:
Cairngorms from Beinn Bhreac:
Western hills (Gulvain to Glen Affric) from Beinn Bhreac:
Strathfarrar and South Loch Ness area:
Carn na h-Easgainn from Beinn Bhreac:
Then I carried on into the windfarm. I didn't have a map, but I knew only some of the tracks were on it anyway, and I could see where I was headed. Years ago, I remember my friend Dave R saying he'd tried to approach Carn na h-Easgainn from this direction, and was defeated by the peat hags and wetness. More recently, I'd noticed a track heading off the summit of Carn na h-Easgainn in the windfarm direction. I could see it now, so I decided to try and pick it up.
Link road from the windfarm to Carn na h-Easgainn:
While I was headed in the right direction, the turbine roads weren't laid out to make crossing the area in a straight line easy, and I ended up at a dead end. I could reverse my route and cross the shoulder of Carn Dubh (more ascent), or I could carry and push the bike over 500m of heather and hag to the correct track. I chose the latter for some reason, and got my feet damp for the first time.
The estate track onto Carn na h-Easgainn was rougher and my chain fell off trying to rapidly change down gears to climb up a short ascent out of a burn crossing. Other than that, I was again able to pedal the whole way to the summit trig point, where the sun was now out.
West from Carn na h-Easgainn:
Bike at the summit, Loch Moy and Carn na Tri-tighearnn:
Cairngorms:
This was my umpteenth ascent of this hill, but first time on the bike, despite it having a network of tracks to the summit. It was quite satisfying, and rather like a shorter version of my mammoth
Monadhliath bike traverse a few years back.
Despite the descent track to Lynemore being pretty substantial, it is full of loose stones and pretty steep. I didn't really break any records coming down it (fortunately no bones either!), however it was certainly faster than my waist-deep snow wade of this route in 2010.
I decided that now I had got my feet wet, I might as well continue the offroad theme to get home. Just before Lynemore, I turned left onto the old military road and followed it back to the forest. The line was obvious but the surface has long since disintegrated into bog and water, so it was the slowest part of the journey. After crossing a rickety ladder stile and a burn, I was back on the windfarm haul road, which I followed to the Wester Lairgs turnoff.
Military road back to Inverness:
Meall Mor across the A9:
Then it was back onto the Farr road and back home. A bit further than I had intended, but a nice use of an afternoon directly from the house