I am not able to stay here a second night as they are booked out, and the next leg of the official route to Fort Augustus is fairly short mountainous. I am pretty sure it is pushing the bike and constantly getting on and off that is causing my problem.
Fortunately there looks to be an easier if slightly longer route that follows the river Enrick west on the Affric-Kintail trail to Drumnadroicht then the Great Glen Cycle Route along the edge of Loch Ness all the way to Fort Augustus.
Starting and finishing near sea level and following a river and a loch, must be pretty flat, right?
Wrong!
I start off on a brand new section of trail that climbs out of Glen Glass into Glen Enrick, steep but all smooth and rideable. By launching carefully and keeping my feet well forward on the pedals I find I can nimble along without any pain or aggravation.
It's another cold and imposing day, though not actually raining. I don't think the temperature has gone over 10C yet and I've been up here nearly a week.
At Corrimony I take a small detour to see a chambered cairn, a 4000 year old burial site thought to have been for an important local lady.
From here it is nine miles of pleasant, well-signposted undulating forest trails to Drumnadroicht. But there was one signpost missing, as I overlooked the turnoff down into town and did a few extra hilly miles before realising.
Steep and excellent single track trails lead into the pretty Drumnadroicht where it's time for lunch.
After lunch, the first section of the Great Glen Way is a long steep climb up a tiny road to arrive high up above the loch. It becomes a single track through the woods but never really settles down, with constant ups and downs and many gates. Obviously this is not going to be as easy as I had hoped.
The track joins a forest road after a few miles, but this continues its rather perverse wandering, at one point meandering up to 1200' above the loch before plunging back down in annoying switchbacks. The going was very slow, and there was another large and pointless climb just before it reached Invermoriston where you have to descend to road level to cross the Moriston river.
There were occasional views of the beautiful Loch Ness though, and this odd little cave.
At Invermoriston I was tempted to revert to the main road, but it was fast and busy. The Great Glen trail does behave better in this section, although there is pleny of up and down. Eventually I come to a barrier where the trail has been uncerimoniously closed by the water board. A tiny path plunges off the side and I am in Fort Augustus at long last. My 'easy' day has somehow taken eight hours!
It is not just my ankles that demand a rest day now, but pretty much all of me! I book into Morag's Hostel for two nights, happily also avoiding what is forecast to be a horrible day on Friday. We will see how it goes with the recovery...
Miles today: 38. Total so far: 265. (More than one quarter!)
Feet climbed today: 5700 Total so far: 20430.
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