Two weeks pedalling the Surly ECR along track, trail, byway and bike route proved a blissful escape from my common routine.
The simple pleasure of riding for maybe eight hours a day and having the time to linger and follow my nose allowed me to break from tyranny of schedule while the physical challenge served as a deliciously singular focus.
Stories to come but you’ll note from the title of this post that I didn’t spend all my time in Scotland. The weather proved to be very challenging in the west and, with little prospect of improvement, I decided to head east instead and, ultimately, pedalled all the way to my front door.
I battled along a good chunk of the West Highland Way, tackled the surprisingly tough Great Glen Way before hitting Inverness and heading to Aviemore. A mixture of NCN routes and bridle paths conveyed me home through the lovely Borders, superb Northumberland and North Yorkshire, giving access to an unfamiliar yet wonderful section of the Pennine Bridleway north of Settle.
In all, I cycled 1,300 km and climbed 13,500 metres.
In addition to rain, hail and snow in Scotland, I enjoyed at least one warm day, mostly headwinds, endured a number of minor mechanical issues and was chased by one dog. More to come…
I look forward to the details!
Hope to get the first bit on here by the end of the week…
Looks like some more great Scotland backpacking routes!
Some… Weather conspired against me though. Still plenty to ride up there!
Waiting with baited breath….
Hmmm… I hope it meets such lofty expectations
I would love to see the route
Not that exciting I’m afraid. I had to divert quite markedly from the original plan and made most of it up as I went along.
What could be far better led run with the right set for a long journey. Your article inspires you to break into such a journey as soon as possible!
Thank you. Scotland is an amazing place and seeing it this way added to anew dimension to the familiar…