Tracey & I got settled in at a Hotel in fort William on Tuesday Evening after stomping around Edinburgh on Monday & I still haven't been up Aurther's Seat!!.
We spotted a weather window for today with Frost to start then sun with snow forcast for 4pm (Thursday & Friday looking crap ) so with a route in mind I puswaded Tracey that it was now or never & we'll be alright if we take all the gear inc lights.
This route is in the Guide book & also in MBR; a tour around Ben Nevis, 69km & 1700mt of ascent, three river crossings, 2 bothies & final 7km descent.
We woke up so-early that we had to switch the lights on in the resturant & with no cooked breakfast in sight we set off at 7am in the frost.
Heading off towards the West Highlands way we missed the sign post so added in a few extra miles to back-track. Difficult to describe but initially all fire road for the first 1/3 of the climb then all single track to Larigmor. From here a good pace can be made as the track become suitable for Landrovers but the Glen just goes on & on untill we reached the outskirts of Kinlochieven for the serious climbing 600 mt over 14 km to the Lairig Leacach,
This track passes the breataking Loch Eilde & Loch Eilde Beag before reaching the Bothie at Meannanach. To get this bothie requires a river crossing so I took my shoes & socks off before venturing across but Tracey just wadded in. Once inside the Bothie we had some well earned & needed lunch but the weather had turned nasty much earlier than forcast with snow blowing in hard horizontally (nice) all the views disappeared as did the visability but the GPS was working a treat as we pushed on to our max height of 600 meters.
With the summit in sight the sun reappeared but the clock was waiting for no one we still had some serious miles to do!
The descent towards Spean Bridge was all on double track with nothing too challenging except for the shear beauty of the Glens. With the track getting smoother & steeper good progress starts to cause confusion with the Hotel ETA & mileage estimation but we slog on into the massive Leanachan forest sticking to the route instead of fast-wheeling on the A82 back to Fort Bill.
This Forest was a real slog with hands & feet totally numb with the wet & cold, but we had to keep going as the sun was going down fast behind the rain clouds & the temperature dropping close to freezing, these conditions tested us mentally with bodies craving for energy & legs burning somehow we never cramped-out but atleast the backpacks were now manageable in weight but totally soddern wet-through.
Fire roads are shite at the best of times but with every corner & smmit it never ended well it went on for 14km which caused Tracey to well & truely throw her toys out with my gentle ears be the recipiant of all her frustrations/pain/frost-bite etc. Anyhow we eventually past the MTB centre & pushed on with a short forest link to get us onto the A82, really dark by now & the town seem to take an age to arrive but it is some 7 miles from the Bike centre.
We made it back to the hotel for 6;30pm with 50 miles on the GPS & a smidge under 1700mt of climbing; one seriously tough ride only 2 days after Glentress & Inners.
Tracey is a Star well a fast-a-sleep one as I type but I cant beleive I did this route so soon after the weekend away & on my 4o lbs Uzzi !!

Tracey will post the gps stats I hope as well as her link to flicker for the 133 photos we took.

Night nite, sleep well; we will

Paul & Tracey.