Many years ago with a friend I did a really good winter walk from Fort William up in the Highlands of Scotland. We got the early morning train from Fort William to the remote Corrour Station on the edge of Rannoch Moor and set off walking westwards back to Fort William, following the Abhain Rath River and over the watershed to the head of Glen Nevis and through the gorge to the car park at the road head. luckily here we managed to hitch a ride back to Fort William. The reason i mention all this is that about half way through the walk we came across the Meanach Bothy and i was very impressed with it and i knew one day that I would come back to stay overnight in it, i never imagined that i would arrive back on a mountain bike though…..

I started this  2 day ride from Fort William,  where I was stopping at the Bank Street Lodge, a place I have stopped at many times in the winter when mountaineering around the West Highlands of Scotland, it’s a no frills well-run hostel in a good central location and a good place to meet people doing similar outdoor activities. I wanted to go as light as possible and in my small 20 litre rucsac I had my sleeping bag, a thin foam mat, a small stove and pot and lots of food as well as the usual bike essentials. I didn’t want to arrive at the bothy too early so set off riding up Glen Nevis just before noon and soon turned off on the broad trail for The West Highland Way and steadily climbed through the forest overlooking Glen Nevis. After passing the signs for the ancient Fort of Dun Deardail the trail got narrower and rocky and there were some stair sections to carry the bike over before continuing on the rocky old military road which is nearly all rideable. I followed the West Highland Way all the way to the turn off for Kinlochleven, the WHW turns right here and descends into the village but I carried on past the masts and past the derelict remains of The Mamore Lodge Hotel and climbed steadily up a good double width track. After a couple of hours seeing no one I suddenly started seeing lots of runners, its was the Salomon fell running weekend and today was the first of three days of running events, the first event was The Vertical Kilometer, a race from Kinlochleven to the top of Na Gruagaichean (1056m). Tomorrow would be a fell run round the Ring of Steall, then on Sunday the big one, the Glen Coe Skyline  (a 55km gruelling circular route over all the Glen Coe mountains, including Curved Ridge and the Aonach Eagach). Still on the same track the trail heads NW and the next landmarks are Loch Eilde Mor and Loch Eilde Beag with its lonely boat house, shortly after this the trail reaches a crest and in the distance you can see the ruin of Luibeilt and the Meanach Bothy.

The trail descends to cross the Abhain Rath river at the ruin of Luibeilt (more wet feet!) and 300 metres to the right is Meanach Bothy which has two rooms plus a loft accessible via a metal ladder if things get busy. I got there about 6.00pm which gave me a good hour to fill the water bottles, do the bothy book and generally get organised before the light faded. Then it was on with the stove and lots of food and drink, by 9.30pm it was pitch black outside and i was tucked up in my sleeping bag with only a flickering candle for company drinking a small bottle of Glenfiddich which my sister had given me for Christmas, i was keeping it for a special occasion and this seemed to fit the bill. The next morning I picked up the trail 350m west of the bothy, this heads north over the hill and eventually drops down to the Lairig Leacach valley about 5km away, a lot of this section is steep, rocky and unridable and involves quite a bit of bike pushing, however at the end there is a good descent down to the Lairig Leacach Bothy where the trail flattens out a bit. This bothy which is a lot smaller than the one I stopped at, had a group of people camping outside of it and they were getting ready to climb the nearby Munro of Stob Ban when I passed by. After the Lairig bothy the going is very easy, a wide stony track heading down towards Spean Bridge direction and through a forest for a while passing “The Wee Minister”, shortly after this I turned off left on a track sign posted to Spean Bridge and entered the Leanachan Forest. As usual in forests like this I got a little bit lost but eventually came across one of the Nevis Range man-made mountain bike trails (The Cour), so I followed this knowing it would bring me out at the Aonach Mor Ski Centre car park. It was a lovely sunny day now and there were lots of Mountain bikers out enjoying the man-made trails that start and finish from here, the braver ones doing the World Cup Downhill Course or the Red Giant XC course, both of which you can use the Gondola to get yourself and the bike to the top. I headed for the Pinemarten Cafe to put some calories back first. Suitably refreshed I tried a couple of the intermediate blue routes, Broomstick Blue followed by Blue Adder (which has a really good twisting descent)  both were good fun and then set off on the side road to Torlundy and picked up the cycle way that takes you most of the way into Fort William.