After being away the last few weekends with family and freind commitments I thought it might be nice to get a good ride in on Sunday so gave Brian (epicyclo) a ring and we decided that 1: a road ride was needed and 2: that we should go and climb Bealach na Ba climb from the Strath Carron side and head to Heathers ancesteral homelands of Applecross, a quick cuppa and then back over the mountain from the easy side. What could go wrong with such a simple plan, executed by, well yes, simple men
The weather wasn't exactly summer but after heading south after an early start and picking up Brian we arrived at the turn off to the start of the climb just before midday. the wind had certainly picked up and the was rain blowing in and then blowing away pretty quickly. We were more than likely going to get a bit wet so the rain jacket went in the back pocket and the longs were on as well as a thermal top under my jersey as it was sitting about 10 degrees and felt cold so it would be a bit colder up top. Brian was on his Ragley TD1 with big apples and unbelievably he had a 4 speed hub gear onboard. I dont think he's ever changed a gear before so I dont know how much use it was
I did have my gps thing on but from memory the climb was about 11 kilometres and rose from sealevel to about 2230feet/626m. I think the switchbacks are about 20% or so.
It was long and it was long which of course at these gradients it was hard. The road surface of the singletrack road was brocken up in quite a few places but generally pretty decent, narrow but decent.
Not far up we spotted a dirt track going of to the right behind a gate and up into the next valley. Brian had a look on his gps map and said it headed a short way up to a dam. We took this slight detour up the dirt track despite me being on my Merckx with very narrow tyres. It was a good move as it led to a very picturesque little dam with more track to be explored at a later date.
Onwards and upwards we went with what was basically a slow, steep, relentless climb with occasional stop for picture taking, letting cars past etc. There was also a strong headwind blowing down the valley for the last half. Towards the top on the last long open stretch you think 'it doesn't look too far now' only to realise that the 4x4 that went round you now looks like a tiny ant on the landscape. I stopped before the switchbacks near the top and ate my banana and refilled my bottle from a waterfall while Brian and I watched several vehicles having to make two or three goes at a hairpin. As we got to the top of the switchbacks there was cloud blowing around us more often than not and an occaisional bit of rain. Once up the top and to the lookout just at the start of the descent to Applecross we decided to actually just head back down the way we came. This descision was taken in part due to the time it would take us to get to Applecross and back but mainly due to the rain that we could see blowing in from Skye and the north west. It was a magnificent view from the lookout even with the bleak weather. It looks right across the mountains on Skye to the west with the mountains to north, some of which were still showing snow lying. This descision was proven to be the right one as we ventured about 300 metres down the road towards Applecross and it started, what I was sure was sleet, not just heavy rain. With this justification we decided to turn and head back past our starting piont to a new cafe along the road.
It was a deceptively quick ride down the 11 or 12 klm. The road was wet as the rain was coming in and the brakes were getting a good workout just trying to moderate the speed. It was one of those balancing acts with wet slippery road with rough surface, trying to keep things steady in case a car came up round a bend, not let the speed build too quickly and certainly on the secondhalf, to try and keep the crazy strong gusting crosswind from blowing me off the road. At one piont I thought ' these newish Mavic wheels are not as stable as my old open pro's with Ultegra hubs' as everything just felt a bit skittish over the rough patches of road and then I thought I had a puncture, only to realise I was actually OK, it was just that I was doing about 53klmh over a broken surface with the wind trying to take out my wheel and push me off the edge. I didn't realise the speed as I had been keeping the brakes steadily on but was riding on the rough section to minimise sliding on the wet tyre tracks that were smooth hotmix. The last 1/3 was dry and so we could go with more confidence in braking for the cars coming up. The majority of corners were blind and the steepness and vegetation meant you didn't get any warning on a lot of the corners.
It was certainly a great descent and to have a steep run for 11klm is crazy fun and more than made up for missing out on doing the full run.
It was then into the cafe and coffee and cake before heading back to Brians to a very welcomed dinner before I headed back up the road.
I've put a couple of pics below, a couple are Brians and a couple are mine. I was really p'ed off as my camera ran out of battery at the start of the ride, despite checking before I left home. I obviously read the battery check wrong. I did get a couple of pics near the top before it died again.
Anyway I hope everyone else had a good weekend.
Jamie
Driving towards the climb, thats it straight ahead
Brian - a bit underdressed at the start
Not far to go?
almost in the cloud
Brians Ragley
