The Badger Divide

Camped there in summer 2021

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There is also the Blackburn Bothy on the other side of the pass if you want to stop before going over

There’s a field of sheep at the very south end of Loch Ness, just outside Fort Augustus and before the climb up the Corrieyairack that is just perfect camping.

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All of this makes me want to go back and ride it again

Or push on past Melgarve bothy and sleep on this beach on the shore of Loch Laggan instead.

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I thought that was not possible, remember seeing a sign saying something. But yeah, that looked dreamy.

Bloody hell. That looks incredible. 2024 plans for sure.

We didn't camp there but we did cook there...

https://thehippy.net/blog/an-turas-mor-glasgow-to-cape-wrath-day-3/

Oh you did the whole of An Turas Mor! Nice. Not sure I'll get time away enough to do that, but can probably squeeze in the BD.

Cheers for the link. I'll enjoy reading that.

We did it in Oct so we didn't get to Cape Wrath but yeah most of it.

That could be a spot to aim for I reckon, cheers

Meant to reply to this - great read. Sounds like a mixed bag ride. Bit dreich. I do want to ride the Correyairack some time.

Yeah, driest summer in history broke when I fucking turned up didn't it :D #StormMagnet

We went into it not really knowing how the missus would go off-road so the plan was always to bail if it got shit and it did get shit and we would've bailed if it wasn't for our saviours at the Ossian hostel... and then the weather got better and it was stunning. So you do often get rewarded for sticking it out through shit (at least that's what I keep telling myself).

Successfully bailed at Corrour…

I rode from Inverness to the bottom of the corrieyairack pass in the one day - hoping to get further to Loch Laggan but I was toast. Granny gear of 40/42, 45mm tyres, and short/steep gravel bike did not imbue me with the skill or strength needed to make it up and down lots of that first day with any real ease or speed. Key note here to save someone else a valuable learning experience - going up the climbs of this first day, you’re filled with hope that the descent will be worth the the effort, that you’ll fly down easy peasy. More often than not, steep switchbacks, big loose chunky rock sections, water bars, and stream crossings mean that your speed isn’t as free as you’d like.

Was definitely undergeared and underskilled (we’ll call it underbiked for my ego) for more of the route than expected. I knew the corrieyairack pass would be a hike-a-bike job before turning up in Inverness, but I naively didn’t expect so much of the ride before the pass to also warrant some bike-pushing.

The second day (well, just the morning) was really nice. Loch Laggan to Corrour is some premium gravel riding - good hills, enough chunky bits to be interesting amongst the swathes of premium gravel, ridiculous views. Really good.

I’d just spent most of my beans on the first day and didn’t have the motivation to continue in a way that would be enjoyable so I sacked it off… possibly will regret this. ButI I guess I’ll have to come back next year with some better legs and do the whole shabang. It was my first time in Scotland, learnt a lot, found some micro adventure, had fun (i think).

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Scotlands great innit? Weather has been brutal for like 6 weeks but unreal for all cycling.

Got an XC bike recently (Scott Spark) and a large part of the reason was getting this skelped in one sitting...mostly because I despise camping. I'm hoping for a bit of a warm September...but might already be running out of time for such an effort this year.

Im convinced that it's an XC route that is just about manageable on a burly gravel bike if you enjoy a little extra discomfort.

Nicely done. Any idiot can stick things out. It takes a true expert to quit.

Yeah man it’s insane, definitely will be back.

And yeah I mean it’s a great route, I’ll be back next year with some silly low gearing setup - or an an mtb haha. I definitely think it’s a route that would be the most fun on something burlier just so you can repay the rock crawling with being able to give it some beans on the way down. Good luck with the one-hitter-quitter on the new bike! Let us know how it goes!

@Belagerent thanks man, these are the words I needed to hear.

There’s also an apparently a good goat ice cream place just off route called Achrey Farm but I’ve never been.

Achray farm, just incase anyone is googling it. Well worth a visit, just be warned, the goats ain't shy!

Good effort for getting stuck in.

The first part until you’re past the Corrieyairack is 100% the hardest and most technical.

I had read that and it did make the decision to be a wuss a bit harder to make, especially as the 60km from Melgarve Bothy to Corrour was fun and smooth sailing (slow up the hills mind), but I was kinda at the point in self-doubt and motivation where if I was to discover that bikepacking.com or some such blog was stretching the definition of ‘rideable’, then I thought I wouldn’t have enough in the tank to finish - as in, if I had to do the first day three times over I’d be minced meat haha.

Also - the midges! A slight inconvenience more than a massive world ending pest, but fk me, stop for two seconds and they’re everywhere. I think my elbow saw about 15 seconds of exposure to open air the whole trip and got destroyed with about 15 bites, my forehead nicely peppered with roughly the same amount from riding through clouds early in the morning. They don’t fk around haha.

The midges are a proper issue....its the main reason the Romans never conquered Scotland.

Imagine those idiots just camping in moist fields for weeks, never stood a chance.

Yeah I had gone through Corrour and Ben Alder just 2.5 weeks ago and it was fine, now in the Cairngorms they're out with a vengeance

Any moment of self care / eating + drinking / socks off for river crossings / breath - and their cloud would descend, had to just keep pushing through Glen Derry for a very miserable day!

Did Badger Divide over 4ish days last weekend - It's a great route - would highly recommend it.
Got a train to Glasgow on the Thursday afternoon, stayed at a friend's place, then started Friday. I changed my (seated) sleeper train back from Inverness to the Tuesday night so had an early finish on Monday, then added in a detour to Glen Affric on the Tuesday - did part of this on the Affric-Kintail way, which looks like it would be a great route. But my back brake pads wore out at this stage and having already used my spare pair on the front I decided road was probably safer with only one working brake.
Almost completely midge free but that might be on account of the rain, which was pretty intense. Going over the Corrieyairack Pass in heavy rain (but with a strong tailwind) was an experience. Definitely better going North over Corrieyairack - imagine the descent would have been no fun the other way.
I took a gravel bike, my friend did it on an mtb. If I did it again I'd probably go mtb just because while I was able to go quite a bit faster on the gravelly/road bits, it would have been a lot more fun to have been able to bomb down some of the rougher offroad descents. Plus wasn't really in a hurry.
Camped the first couple of nights, stayed in the bothy just North of Corrieyairack on the third night, got a hostel in Drumnadrochit for the last night just because I wanted a shower and to try and dry stuff out.
At a relaxed pace it all felt pretty easy - hardest part of the trip was probably after doing a supermarket sweep in Killin and both massively overeating, which made the next hour of so of cycling quite uncomfortable. Would definitely take at least two sets of spare brake pads next time. Plus afterwards I discovered I'd done the whole thing with a snapped rear axle, but fortunately the thru-axle had held it altogether and because I'd not removed the back wheel I hadn't noticed. Which is just as well as imagine I'd have got quite stressed about it.

Highlights were definitely Corrieyairack and the stretch after Corrour station. But basically it was all pretty great almost from the edge of Glasgow onwards. I thought the offroad stretch round the back of Loch Rannoch was a bit pointless - did get a nice camping spot out of it, but other than that was mostly deep rutted tracks that meant constant pedal strike + a lot of very heavily logged forests. Would have been nicer just to camp down by Loch Rannoch I think.

A few photos -

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Great photos.

I thought the offroad stretch round the back of Loch Rannoch was a bit pointless

Partially agree, the traverse between Carie and Innerwick is nice imho

Great photos.

Thanks - I took far too many, despite the damp which I'm surprised hasn't killed my camera. No longer trust the waterproofing on most of my bags - had to make heavy use of sandwich bags which then meant loads of condensation, etc.

traverse between Carie and Innerwick

Is that the second bit where the last photo directly above is? That bit was actually really nice, just the ruts on the track kept catching my pedals. 'A bit pointless' was probably overly harsh - it's still better than 99% of my offroad rides in Kent. It was more misjuding timing as had planned to camp on Rannoch Moor but hadn't realised quite how much of a detour that whole stretch was - I didn't look at the route properly beforehand so had just assumed it went along the road south of Loch Rannoch at that point (which I remember being a really nice road on a previous trip).

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