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I did this exact section start of May - Ullapool southbound to Fisherfield then Loch Maree's north bank to Kinlochewe.
I expected it to take the better part of a long touring day (ie normal sleep patterns) and had no idea of the sections notoriety and difficulty. In hot weather too, luckily there were streams going but similarly lots of bog still about.
That plus singletrack that for me wasn't worth cycling, meant a long long hike a bike. The Postman's path in particular was extremely narrow, a bit off camber on a steep bank so I walked through the heather and dragged my bike through the narrow channel of a track. Worst is a bit gully that has 5x or so treefall, and about 15 steep metres of undulation.
In the end, I had to extricate myself from the Highlands via Kinlochewe to Achnasheen and train from there. If I had been on schedule I would have tackled the Correyairack pass.Fisherfield is very much worth a lot of ardour, I'm glad I entered it behind schedule and therefore to a golden sunset, but I'd be tempted to try the older west route out of Loch Maree,
my personal take homes are to pack lots of extra food and plan a lot of extra time - get more bars/gels from Ullapool than you think you'll need, 2-4L of water capacity unless you're filtering, and trim the niceties of touring.
I'd have also switched my 2.2" front and 2.0 rear for a 2.4-2.6" front and 2.3" rear. Too much getting off the bike. -
Ht550 now doesn't really take postman's, not for a good few years. It's shit but ok.
Happy to help with route info.
What bike you riding?
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Nerv
skinny
@Scrabble
I'm planning a much more sedate (but still intimidating to me) three dayer that takes in Fisherfield . I'm umming and ahhring on route out.
I see the HT550 no longer goes over Strathan Buidhe to Letterewe and then along the postman's path to Kinlochewe. I've read very mixed reports on that path - and that a key bridge was in an increasingly poor state between 2018 and 2020. We'd also be tackling it early July (I fear the midges and ticks) but also just concerned about the size of the ferns. They seem to be getting growing in May - so worried they will be massive by July.
So my question is - how passable do folks think the postman's path would be this July? Other option is the recent HT550 route out via Poolewe and then over the Tollie path and 17km along the road to Kinlochewe for a pint.