Fat (video) Tuesday – The Glen Tilt – by Illya Rudkin

This week’s film is from a weekend bikepacking ride along the full length of the magnificent Glen Tilt in the extreme north of Perthshire Scotland. The glen’s rock formations has long attracted the attention of geologists. We were attracted by the adventure to new places. One of the earliest was James Hutton, who visited the glen in 1785 and found boulders with granite penetrating older shist formations and so dismissing the long held belief that rocks were formed by precipitation out of water! Along the river running the length of the glen you can see prominently pink granite mixed with gray rock. I am not a geologist but I did find the various formations kept distracting me from navigating the rock strewn singletrack resulting in wobbly riding. Our intention was to ride its full length from Blair Atholl to the Corrour Bothy to the 35km north east. Our plan to start early did not happen but we were pretty relaxed about it. The track is a fair combination of double track and single track with a few river crossings. While we were looking forward to the singletrack it would make the journey slow going from previous experience. We did not reach Corrour Bothy having decided it was getting late with the prospect of further push a bike along an unknown track for another 8km. It was at this point we were conveniently by a good place to put a tent and so decided not to go further gambling we would not find such a good pitch later on. Apart from the beauty and isolation of the spot another reason for choosing this spot was it was exposed to brisk wind which would keep the evil midges away (wee flying creatures a mere 2mm in length but can bite for England). We settled in with snacks, whisky and thai chicken curry. It was so tempting to take a dip in the crystal clear water but decided otherwise. The next morning we retraced our route back to Blair Atholl but with the gradient more in our favour. The bike bags did well resisting the abuse of the bumpy trail. Finished with grins and chips. A great weekend away from it all.

All the best