helluva long trip this one

[scotdavid63]

So, out for our second journey of the year to tidy up a few that we'd missed from previous trips. After this trip I'd be at 260 with a clear and simple plan involving fewer long car journeys and contributions to Rishi Sunak via fuel taxes.
This was Day 1 of three so didn't want a massive walk and thought the bikes would be a big help having seen the distance and other reports. One of our friends had used an e-bike and done this in 6hrs 8mins, but he also cracked two ribs falling off the bike.
Beautiful day - the previous few days were also nice but we could only get away Friday morning to to my son's shifts. The days and week after were also looking good so, as the lad said, Munro Gods smiling on us. Even better nae midge yet.
Drove up from Edinburgh, stopped at Harry Gow's bakery for a pit stop as normal if heading north past Inverness; got to Attadale 11.30am having left home at 7.50am, not bad given the average speed cameras on the A9 for much of the journey. At least cruise control makes that section just about acceptable.
Met a family with two flat coat retrievers - one black one liver so that was also a good sign as we'd left our liver version at home figuring the biking would be too much, even for a big dog. If you take a dog, go slow and let the mutt in and out of the river as much as it needs.

So, off we set and the folks who mention pushing bikes are clearly much better bikers than us because there is an effing lot of pushing, to get up to about 320m or so, before then coming back down to 180m at Bendronaig Lodge. That also applies on the way back although the return is obviously only 140m or so ascent so less pushing. We had decent hardtail mountain bikes and the one thing I could make very plain is that the track is rough, lots of pebble sized gravel so great care needed when braking and managing speed on the descents. The bike in to the stalkers' path that turns off the main track just after the Lodge is 13km, we parked up at a cairn after 150m or so from the fork. The good news of course is that it's a 12km walk, round trip.
We caught a couple who had e-bikes and a dog just after the Lodge, they were heading up the Corbett. Looking at their tyres (road bike set up) I think our equipment was better - if you bring an e-bike better making it an MTB e-bike and with at least front suspension.
The wee loch is lovely, clear clear water and if you follow the path you come to a sign "recommended route for Lurg Mhor" so off we went. In reality it's not really a route, there's no path and you have to decide what's best for you. We trotted up between a couple of the burns then headed over on a direct line up the front nose of Lurg Mhor rather than all the way to the col between the two hills and then doing an out and back. We'd also decided that we'd probably drop off the broad shoulder from Bidein to try to come off closer to where the bikes were, rather than trudging back on ourselves and retracing the path at the loch. So, the gpx/gps map attached is a rough drawing rather than an upload of the actual trip in detail. From Lurg Mhor we could see all the way across to the Cuillin Ridge - where we were heading the next day to finish the trip that we tried past year (a one day traverse) - and pretty much as far as the eye could see in all directions.
These mountains aren't awfully memorable except for a very sore bum with all the biking and jarring etc. Boy was I happy to get back to the car and not be eaten alive while packing up the bikes. Got to our friend's place on Skye for 7.30pm where my first beer did not touch the sides - grand day out !!