Highland Ascent Weblog
Checking out the Strathpuffer
Checking Out The Strathpuffer
Yesterday Euan and I went out on the Strathpuffer trail for the first time in a wee while just to take a few photos and check out any changes.
I already kew about the improvements at the "Easy to Slip" section at the top of the hill. Just after enetring the woods you go down a sharp left and then right turn. At the last Strathpuffer that downhill right turn, turned into a mudhole and sent some folk including myself off into the bushes. There is now a really nice bearm which you can take with a bit more speed.
Also the "Trouble" section, which is the downhill bit after Loch Kinellan and the gate with rocks, has been done up. Insted of the water trench you get now a nice and smooth trail with a few steps. Ride the bike smooth and light over them or you end up with snake bites as the edges are pretty sharp. After where the trench used to be is all nice and smooth too which used to turn into mud of the consistancy of porrage in the past.
Hope they will never remove all the mudholes or otherwise it wouldn't be the puffer any longer.
River Kayaking
River Kayaking
After all year spending lot's of time mountain biking, canoeing and sea kayaking I managed to squeeze in some really good white water kayaking days. Was a bit of a strange feeling to sit in my playboat again and get thrown about, especially when probing the underside of Findhorn Gorge with my head.
Just over a month ago we went down the Upper Meig and in the last few weeks the trusty old Middle Findhorn. My usual practice roll at the start of the day starts getting quite nippy now. Time to do the lower Blackwater or other sections of the Findhorn again.
Luckily I got my drysuite from repairs back so I can pop into some grade 4 rivers again and next year onto my Level 3 assessment.
Sea Kayaking around Uist
Sea kayaking in the Outer Hebrides
First day saw us to paddle out to Bernary just a stone throw from the youth hostel. The second day we paddled to Ensay had a wee rest at the house on the island which is being done up by some of the owners. Then back towards Uist using some of the tide races to have fun in. We camped on a wee island with a sheltered bay just off Uist to wait for the next low to come in. Listeining to the weather forcast we decided to bail out instead of paddling against a force 6 to Lochmaddy.
Even though 4 of the 6 days paddling were pretty bad weather it was all worth it and we had a lot of great fun by using some of the sheltered features in the Lochmaddy area.
Trail Cycle Leader and Single Pitch Award
Just to add to the tension I had my Single Pitch Award assessment this week with Steve Spalding. Again it was only two who got assessed. The climbing day didn't feel like an assessment, thanks to Steve. Second day we went up to Kingussie to do the group work. Went pretty well apart from a bit of unusual faffing on my side. But hey doing it safe is the main thing and that justified the pass.
Just a few days later the first official SPA job. Nice one.
Trail Cycle Leader Training
What a Laugh
The first day was about skills, going up hill, down hill etc and fixing bikes at the road side. In the evening there was a lecture by Shaun about avalanche awareness. But what would you do if you get caught on a mountain bike in an avalanche? Well the chances are pretty slim though. After that off to the bar for some rehydration (in moderation).
Today we went to Inverness cycling around the hills near New Craigs. The tricky part here is that there are paths and tracks on the map which don't really exist. Nice one eh?