First Bike Packing Trip - Two Mamil's, Two Bikes, One Adventure

In between everything else, as mentioned in my last post, I'm thinking about thinking about biking packing. In reality, I'm a bit out of shape, so I won't be signing up for any Ironman triathlons anytime soon. My main thought then, when planning this first outing, is not to bite off more than I can chew! But it still needs to be enticing enough to appeal to my sense of adventure. I've got the desire to go, and I've managed to carve out some time. I just need to get planning/booking, and then I'm off!

I'm leaving, on a bike.

After some thought, my ideal scenario is to leave home on the bike. Pack everything at home (more on that later), and just go out the door. The alternative is to take the car and then repack when you get there, but the romantic in me wants to do the packing/prepping at home and then head off. I'm using public transport in the form of a train, but that's it. I'm not looking to go far, so for this time, this fits.

I guess, one of the benefits of living in Scotland is that you are never far from the countryside; most places are pretty close to the countryside.

The Goal: Cape Wrath

So, after much messing around with Google maps, and watching all eighteen bike packing videos on Youtube (only kidding, but there aren't many- we're looking at you Girl Outdoors - great content from this YouTuber, hiker, bike racer extraordinaire). I've chosen to cycle from the Highland City of Inverness to Cape Wrath, the UK's most north-westerly point (John O'Groats is the most northerly, but everyone does that, right?).

This means I can take a train from our home in Glasgow to Inverness and then pedal the 120 miles or so to the Cape. The adventure lies in the fact that when you are nearly there, you have to get a 'ferry' to take you to the final road. An 11-mile-long military-style road, that was built to help with the building of the Cape Lighthouse. If you are lucky enough to get the ferry and make it to the lighthouse, not only are you part of a select club, but there is a coffee shop at the end for a rest and well deserved brew. But of course, you then have to cycle back down the military road (hopefully avoiding punctures) to catch the boat back to Durness. Every silver lining has a cloud..

The catch is that due to the weather that the ferry isn't always on, so you may not to get to complete your journey, it's basically a 120 mile coin flip. What can I say, I like the idea. What's left of this ancient path is supposed to be brutal on a bike, but I'm hoping that it adds to the sense of adventure/achievement and the scenery, both there and back should be top notch. 

I hope to break this up into three days cycling, and to camp at small campsites (or wild camping) along the way. In truth, I've not researched all that much, so don't know if the road or route is any good. I do know it's not one of the more popular routes or named paths that exist up North. When I've hit the end of the road, the idea is to get the bus back from Durness (where you get the boat from), to Inverness for the train back home to Glasgow.

Bring the Bants

I figured that for the first journey, it might be better not to go alone. Bike packing is all about minimalism, so having two bikes to store gear, is better than one, at least to figure out what's what. In addition, when doing all of these things, or at least, thinking about them, I think accountability is good to have, as it helps you commit and not look to excuses (like my aforementioned lack of fitness for example!). 

Clint and I have done a fair bit of cycling and completed the Coast to Coast challenge together last year. The event that caused us get most of the kit for this kind of adventure. Clint said yes to coming along before I'd finished explaining what it was I was planning to do. The Kiwi in him is strong! We're roughly the same age, and both new to bike packing, what could possibly go wrong!?

Keeping it real

As we're not trying to kill ourselves and going to actually try and enjoy this trip, I've kept the miles purposefully low. We'll be transporting all our camping gear and this is new to us so no point in overkill. And as it's the first foray into it, I think the odd campsite or two is probably a good idea.

We have a couple of options, varying in length, to reach Cape Wrath from Inverness. We're going to camp just outside Inverness on the first night. My thinking here is that it's a good way to test the camping kit and packing, and we'll have time to tweak set up and learn about any new kit. Then, it's time to hit the road the next morning.

Day 1

Inverness To Lairg - 55 Miles

Day 2

Lairg To Kyle Of Tongue - 38.6 Miles

Day 3

Kyle Of Tongue To Durness - 28 Miles

If the ferry is on to Cape Wrath, then another 11 Miles along the old military road. And back. 

This will give us around 122 Miles of cycling, maybe 144 if the ferry is on. The main thing is that the days distances don't look too extreme.

To fail to prepare is to fail!

Plan, then plan some more. This bit has been quite fun, what to take, what not to, where to stay and how to get there and just how much of your life can you fit into a 14-litre saddle bag (more than you would guess).

When you look into available kit, you can get dizzy with the options. I do have a few bike bags (from doing last year's coast-to-coast challenge), but not enough to carry the clothing and all the necessary camping gear required for a 3-day bike ride. I had planned to write more about this in this post, but I'm still working my way through my choices. The current dilemma is how much camera gear do I take, I'd like to document this wee trip well, but at the same time, not worry to much about space, weight and  enjoy the cycle.

As I'm still finalising this stuff, I'll do my next post on the kit, and that all-important 'kit list' - really, this will be me just checking that I have everything I need. Wish me luck.