2020
JOURNAL Furthlines In the wake of Storm Dennis, we explore the roads, gravel tracks and infrastructure lines of Snowdonia N.P.’s Carneddau Mountains. As we ride through dam walls and across spillways up into the snow-sprinkled shadows of two Furth peaks - Carnedd Llewelyn (1065m) and Foel Grach (976m) - we slowly unearth a very humbling story of human influence in the mountains... pannier.cc/journal
photo jeff liu
JOURNAL EXTRAORDINARY WORLds // the Silk road mountain race In the early hours of August 30th, Pannier Pair - Stef & Dave crossed the finish line of the 2019 Silk Road Mountain Race: a 1710km bikepacking race through the remote, high-altitude Tian Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Stef shares his experience of the extraordinary worlds of Kyrgyzstan and ‘Racing’ - riding as a pair, kit lists and bike setups, as well as a few key stats from Dave’s Garmin watch... pannier.cc/journal
Desert of waleS day three En-route to our wild swim and tourer’s lunch location, on the banks of the RIVER irfon
uk tours
ROUTE BEER RAMBLE
desert of wales
solstice social
When? March Where? London Bristol Nights? One Distance? 230km Group? 50-70 Join? £59
When? June Where? Cambrian Mountains Nights? Three Distance? 170km Group? 10-17 Join? £345
When? June Where? Peak District National Park Nights? One Distance? 110KM Group? 30-50 Join? £79
Peakland Ramble
highland drover
LAKELAND PASS STORMER
When? September Where? Manchester - Sheffield Nights? One Distance? 160KM Group? 20-30 Join? £89
When? September Where? Scotland’s Central Highlands Nights? Four Distance? 300KM Group? 10-14 Join? £545
When? September Where? Lake District National Park Nights? Two Distance? 130KM Group? 10-14 Join £305
More detail and inspiration at pannier.cc/bikepacking-tours-expeditions
international tours
expedition I: NEPAL
BOSNIA HOPE ROUTE
DOLOMITI RONDA
When? May 2020 Where Annapurna Region, Nepal Nights? Thirteen Distance? 320km Group? 8-15 Join? £1795
When? June/July Where Bjelasnica Mountains, Bosnia Nights? Four Distance? 200km Group? 10-14 Join £660
When? July Where? Dolomites Mountains, Italy Nights? Four / Six Distance? 330KM Group 7-13 Join £745 / £895
coming soon
picos traverse
expedition II: ?
expedition IIi: ?
When? 2021 Where? Picos de Europa, Spain Nights? Three-Four Distance? Group? 8-15 Join?
When? 2021 Where?
When? 2021 Where?
Nights? 10-14 Distance? Group? 8-15 Join?
Nights? 7-10 Distance? Group? 8-15 Join?
More detail and inspiration at pannier.cc/bikepacking-tours-expeditions
bosnia hope route day three leaving the bjelasnica mountains behind, en-route to mostar
lakeland pass stormer day two A GLORIOUS SLITHER OF TARMAC - THE FIRST PAVED PASS - FOLLOWING A DAY OF ROUGHSTUFF AND HIKE-A-BIKE IN THE ENGLISH ALPS
Tours faq What do you need to join one of our bikepacking tours or expeditions? We ride through the bike requirements, recommended kit list(s) and what is available to hire from us. 1 Adventure Bike 2 Bike Bags 3 Basic Tools & Spares 4 Riding Kit 5 Off-The-Bike Kit 6 Mug & Spork 7 Shelter (Trip Dependant) 8 Wash Kit 9 Electricals & Accessories 10 Passport & Money See the full list and FAQs at pannier.cc/ tour-expedition-kit-lists
rainspotting An 84-hour bikepacking ramble through Scotland’s gloomy Grampian Mountains. Six of us alight the sleeper train at Corrour to track the old-established north-south drove roads and, in true drover style, explore the alluring voids in between...
Our untouched white ribbon of track meandered across the frozen moorland moonscape from the platform at Corrour – the West Highland Line’s summit station – where the six of us stood chilling, lace-deep in fresh powder. At 408M+, Corrour is the highest, remotest station in the UK and it didn’t-half-feel an outlier. There are no roads here, just an alluring dot on the map – “the pimple on the bum of the universe” – lost in a sea of contours, dotted paths and estate tracks which, importantly for us, included The Road
to the Isles – an old-established Drove Road that we would ride south. Beneath our fresh tyre tracks, amongst the snow-capped Munro and Corbett peaks, were the foot and hoof-prints of the thousands of drovers and cattle that once journeyed from the Highlands and Islands to the markets (trysts) in Falkirk, across this once trackless wild land. Stunning surroundings, and serene riding but for six loaded bikes crunching through frozen peat-water puddles. Our dash to Dalwhinnie Distillery across, through
and over the Grampians was set to be a challenging 84 Hours… Six of us met at Cloud 9 Cycles in Central London, one Sunday in late November, to prep all of our bikes, bags, clothing, kit-lists and supplies before boarding the 12-hour Sleeper Train to Scotland’s Central Highlands at 21.00. Wintry bikepacking trips pose enough challenges and restrictions – adverse weather, slow-going terrain, restricted daylight hours and resupply – to require sensible planning, especially in the void we were heading to. There was nothing. Zilch. Diddlysquat. Where sporadic cafes or shops were dotted, they were a vast detour or shut – out-of-season, out-ofsupplies – and where the remote, cosy bunkhouses were sited, there was nowhere to find food. However, the planning is all part of the fun: route, back-up and ‘shortcut’ options; emergency shelter; escape and one-pot meal plans. It’s a case of carrying-in everything you need for long days in the mountains and we were used to
it by now, happy to stuff packs full of oats and nutella, mackerel and parsley, gnocchi and pesto, coffee, single-malt, and a couple of emergencydehydrated meal packs. For this trip, I’d settled on meals like traditional Scottish cullen skink, stovies and cranachan from an old Highland cookbook; visualising where we might group-cook each dish whilst jotting ingredients down in my tour journal… Our plan was to ‘go for a walk ride’ through the wintry, gloomy Grampian Mountains of Scotland. To track the old-established north-south drove roads and, in true drover style, explore the alluring voids in between. After alighting the Sleeper Train at Corrour 09.00 on Monday morning, we then had a Sleeper Train booked back from Bridge of Orchy at 21.00 on Thursday evening: 84 hours to roam the moorlands, mountains and gravel tracks of this remote region of the Central Highlands. Our squad of six was made up of Brother Cycles’ Will,
Drover [n.] – a person whose occupation it is to drive cattle and sheep, namely to market. – o nce a vivid and vital part of the life of Scotland, peaking in the 150 years between 1700 and 1850, droving often meant long, slow journeys through the remotest, untracked area of the Highlands.
CULLEN SKINK A local speciality, from the town of Cullen on the Moray Firth Traditional Recipe Finnan Haddie, Onion, Potato, Butter, Milk, Pepper & Salt Skin a Finnan Haddie, and place in a pan with sufficient water to cover it. Bring to the boil and add a chopped onion. Flake the cooked fish and return bones to the stock. Boil for one hour. Strain the stock. Boil a pint of milk separately and add it to the stock with the flaked fish and salt to taste. Boil for a few minutes. Add enough mashed potato to make the soup a nice consistency, with butter, and pepper to taste... One-Pot Bikepacking Recipe Smoked Mackerel, Onions, Oil, Powdered Milk, Pepper & Salt, Sweetcorn, Kale, Bay Leaves, Parsley. Cheddar, Bread Rolls Fry off the chopped onions, then mackerel, before adding everything (and a splash of water, if too thick) and simmering for as long as possible. Garnish with grated cheddar and parsley...”
“ Many a water hazard lay between the drovers and the trysts. The absence of bridges over the rivers of the Highlands was one of the main obstacles to inland communication in Scotland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries … difficult as the crossing of larger rivers might be, the smaller ones and many a hill stream would at times present almost greater problems. Too shallow to swim and to rapid to ford…”
friends Jordan and Taylor, Filmmaker Luke, Pannier Dave and I. Four of our original Beulah group that boarded a sleeper train to Scotland three years ago. Our aim was to test some route options for our new Highland Drover bikepacking tour, put Brother Cycles’ new Mehteh all-road/gravel bike to the test proper, and ultimately make a film of our exploits. As with all our Pannier Tours this journey wasn’t about kilometre-krushing, we were keen to embrace both the spirit of both Vacilando – an untranslatable Spanish term for the act of wandering
when the experience of travel is more important than reaching the specific destination, and the Highland Drover – a person whose occupation it is to drive cattle and sheep, namely to market. Once a vivid and vital part of the life of Scotland, peaking in the 150 years between 1700 and 1850, droving often meant long, slow journeys through the remotest, untracked area of the Highlands. Drove roads are widely known as the oldest thoroughfares and route network in Britain. “At their height between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, the roads
linked the wild corners of Britain – with the growing demands of towns and cities, where livestock could be brought to market.” The Road to The Isles, which we started out riding from Corrour, was once an integral route given that the best supply of cattle came from The Isle of Skye, outer Islands and remote north-west, largely due to their coastal climate and availability of grass in the abundant verdant glens. Skye became the main gathering point for cattle “where [the beasts] were collected into droves of 100, 200 or 300, with one drover to each 50-60 beasts … before the
drove would creep slowly southward day-after-day … plodding slowly on towards Falkirk and their unknown fate.” The Falkirk Tryst (market), just south of Stirling, was “where the roads leading by the shortest course from every quarter of the Highlands towards England naturally unite … and here came dealers from Yorkshire, the North of England and the Borders to meet the drovers of Uist, Skye, Lochaber, Ross-shire, Angus and Argyll” to trade and sell their cattle and sheep. A typical daily drove would cover 10-12 miles, with journeys to Falkirk taking up to a month. Our plan didn’t quite, well, go to plan. We blamed Mercury being in retrograde which, on a positive note, actually made for three nights of fantastic full-moon light – majestically
lighting the snow-capped Grampian peaks. But, that’s typical of the reconnaissance (recce) trips we do: every one km was two; every hour flew by in half-an-hour; every track we thought might be rideable wasn’t; every one metre of peat bog was actually ten. Our Dalwhinnie Distillery dream was over by about 15.00 on day one, once the light started to fade, the rain drove from all angles, the peat bog route around Loch Ericht lengthened by the minute and Benalder Cottage bothy, beneath the imposing dusky silhouette of Ben Alder, was too wellplaced by the time darkness fell to not take shelter and start the loch-side cullen skink bubbling. The ornate bridge over the raging Alder Burn was our last hurdle. A tiny engraved sign on a rock, told me the bridge was erected in 1987 by “Tim Winter, Alec Cunningham and the Mountain Service of Ranch School boys, in memory of David Donald and his daughter who both died in 1980. Made possible by the RAF Lossiemouth, who air-lifted the materials into this remote site”. Integral interventions in these remote landscapes leave a lot for us overlanders to be grateful for; a backcountry river
LEUM UILLEIM [909M] “stands with a lesser neighbour in isolation overlooking the Moor of Rannoch and the West Highland Railway. The lonely Corrour Station is in its evening shadow”
Grampian [n.] – Gaelic portmanteau of “Gruiam” (Gloomy) and “Beinn” (Mountains) after the mist and cloud that shroud the mountains.
“ The drover life was a tough one – needing to know perfectly the routes which lie over the wildest tracts of country and to conquer ‘natural barriers of sea, mountain and river on their journeys from Highlands to Lowlands’ … There are few glens, even few easy routes leading to the South over moor or upland country, which have not known the tread of driven cattle on the way to the Tryst”
that the drovers of old would have often forded and swum with their herds to avoid the turnpike fees on main routes and bridges. Re-checking the OS map under down-hood and headtorch-light, Loch Ericht’s western shore was still 30km long and after trying the next morning to skirt along the path, things weren’t looking great for our onward journey: steep, sketchy cliffs and overgrown, less-than singletrack. A retrospective read of my Central Highlands Mountaineering book said “a path, theoretical in places, leads along the loch-side towards Dalwhinnie … but in planning for this it is perhaps worth remembering the lochs considerable length, and the fact that its steep-sided narrowness is apt to make it at times a funnel for the wind which, according to one description, ‘would blow the boots off a guardsman’”. A number of years’ experience, and visualising a track from a sprawled, stitched set of OS maps at Pannier HQ tends to be good for gauging potential, but it’s only once you’re immersed in the map, amongst the mountains, wringing socks, drying gloves, laughing about certain sections that it’s possible to really picture the next kilometres. There is no way the group could have conquered the continuing loch-edge track during the
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day, let alone the previous night as per our original plan. Alder Burn would be our dead end. We made the decision to head back to the sanctuary of the Corrour Estate, and Loch Ossian SYHA – a “convenient centre for the neighbouring hills and starting-point for long cross-country expeditions”. From there, we’d cross the bleak expanse of Rannoch Moor known of old as “that thorofare of thieves”, overnight at one of the most historical drover and traveller intersections – Kingshouse Inn, Glencoe – before heading south on the stunning West Highland Way gravel tracks to Bridge of Orchy station: our ticket back to civilisation. The drover life was a tough one – needing to know perfectly the routes which lie over the wildest tracts of country and to conquer “natural barriers of sea, mountain and river which [they] faced on their journeys from Highlands to Lowlands”. Their remote route choices were for a number of reasons: freedom of passage and avoiding the increasing fees of the Turnpikes, bridges and infrastructure; the availability of wayside grazing and shelter; and the need to avoid political instability nearer the towns. Their “knowledge of the country had to be extensive and intimate, while endurance and ability to face great hardships were essential – most of the drovers did the whole journey on foot … resource and enterprise were called for … knowledge of cattle was needed … finally, honesty and reliability were needed for the responsible work entrusted to him.” Given the lack of availability of maps at the time, a drover had to rely on knowledge gained from former journeys or perhaps from other drovers – “it was not until at
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RAINSPOTTING kit list 1 tissues 2 shovel 3 wooly hat 4 Gore insulated jacket 5 sleeping Mat 6 sleeping bag 7 pillow 8 Down Jacket 9 towel 10 group cookware 11 STOVE(S) 12 Gas canisters 13 spork
14 WATER bottles/carriers 15 pannier mug 16 teabags 17 snack bars 18 filter 19 coffee-maker(S) 20 themed-aperitifs 21 coffee & basic supplies 22 washbag 23 stem snack pack 24 backpack 25 frame pack 26 seat Pack
27 handleBar pack 28 accessory pack 29 SKetchbook & Pens 30 headtorch 31 navigation watch/phone 32 USB BATTERY PACK 33 Musical instrument 34 Spare batteries 35 warm leggings 36 riding & BIG shorts 37 riding Jersey 38 gloves 39 helmet
40 riding shoes 41 off-the-bike sandals 42 overshoes 43 riding socks 44 off-the-bike warm socks 45 riding cap 46 first aid kit 47 spares 48 lights 49 tools & Pump 50 umbrella 51 Brother cycles - meHteh 52 Stool (Stef is short)
“ Kingshouse … a key point on the drove roads ... at the meeting place of Glen Etive and Glencoe, an inn has stood for centuries, offering such poor shelter or refreshment as it could afford to drovers, pedlars, soldiers and travellers of every sort about face the bleak stage southward - skirting the western edge of ‘that throrofare of thieves’ the Moor of Rannoch…” least 1750 that drovers traversing the hills of … Rannoch could do so with confidence and security” for example. Somewhat ironically, General Wade and Telford’s improved road networks as part of the Military Road and Commissioners for Highland Roads and Bridge programs during the eighteenth century, which “previous to 1742, were merely the tracks of black cattle and horses”, were affecting the drover movements for the worst. Less places to roam unrestricted, less places to find wayside grazing, more tolls to avoid, higher fees at Inns and … importantly “the gravel of the new roads, they said, hurt the feet of the cattle and wore down their hooves”. From the mid-nineteenth century, it was also increasingly apparent that social mobility and conditions in the remote areas of the Highlands were an issue – transport was seen as a pressing need – and so the idea for a 167 mile
line from Glasgow to Inverness by way of Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe and Fort William was first aired in 1883. In January 1889, seven men planned a reconnaissance trip, from Spean Bridge on a 40 mile expedition across this once wilder terrain we were exploring by bike (and where Corrour now sits) to Rannoch Lodge, in the depths of winter, to assess the possibility of the current line. According to one account, “in driving sleat, the men set out on their crossing, seemingly their most useful piece of equipment being an umbrella. Only one of the seven had any previous experience of the Moor and it was not long before they were separated and in grave difficulties”. This perilous event was apparently used to illustrate the remoteness of the proposed route, and the authorisation for the line, and in 1894 the ‘West highland Line’ we, and thousands of others each year, used
Cranachan “…it’s basically a Scottish Tiramisu” A very old dish, commonly served in farmhouses on festive occasions. Traditional Recipe Oatmeal, cream, sugar and flavouring to taste “Toast some coarse oatmeal lightly before the fire. Beat some cream to a stiff froth and stir in the oatmeal. Do not make it too substantial. It may be sweetened and flavoured to taste. The toasted oatmeal gives an agreeable, somewhat nutty, flavour to the dish. A few handfuls of raspberries buried in a bowl of cranachan makes an excellent sweet…” Bikepacking Recipe Oatmeal, canned whipped cream, whisky, forest fruits, glace cherries
to arrive in the heart of the Grampian Mountains was opened. Not without complexity: the solution to cross the 20 mile section across Rannoch Moor – “an inconceivable solitude; a dreary and joyless land of bogs, a land of desolation and grey darkness” – was to float the railway line using substantial foundations of turf, brushwood, soil, mountain till from the cuttings, and tons of ash. Corrour, originally the private station for Sir J S Maxwell’s shooting estate, opened for public use in September 1934. The development of the railways, like the West Highland Line, in addition to the rise of the road network and sea transport, and access restrictions from land-uses like deer stalking which meant “the conflict of interest between the proprietor of a Highland deer forest and a drover who sought to cross the hills with his beasts”, were all “making inroads on the drovers’ trade.” Buyers and sellers, that would have previously all met at the Falkirk Tryst were now travelling north to buy cattle direct, and making the most of “the growing practise of sending beasts south by rail from the Highlands and the grazing areas of the North” to the extent that “the closing years of the nineteenth century saw the last of the cattle and sheep droves passing over Wade’s old
road … and about 1906 the last of the Skye droves”. Looking back, it was somewhat of a kick-in-the-teeth that we arrived to these drove-lands by train; that we were riding some kilometres of Wade and Telford’s roads and tracks. “In glacial times the Moor was ice-covered and fed by glaciers that streamed down from ice-caps of the surrounding heights … [now] innumerable burns, which rise in the heart of the Black Mount unite to form the River Ba – the ‘river of cattle’ – doubtless from old droving days” “The Scots droving trade reached its peak about 1835, and its descent was short, sudden and complete… the very existence of the trade depended above all else on freedom of passage, freedom
of wayside grazing and freedom of nightly stances … as the years went on, increasing population, a rising network of Wade and Telford’s roads, rising standards of knowledge and growing skill in the management and cultivation of land, encroached more and more on these essential freedoms.” Connecting-up un-connectable places – those alluring voids on the map – had once again laid the foundations for an incredible 84 hours in the mountains. There is a reason that more established tracks, and now often bigger roads, exist through the mountains today – tried and tested routes across once wild, remote trackless lands resulting from the adventures and hardships of folk
like the drovers over the last millennia – “throughout the Highlands, in hill pass, moorland and upland valley, as in the minds of men, the passing years increasingly dim and obscure the mark and the memory of the men and the beasts that once travelled the drove roads of Scotland…” The most memorable adventures are always found taking the tracks-lesstravelled. That’s why they’re called push bikes, after all…
Sound like a cool trip? join us on the actual HIGHLAND DROVER tour. we can’t promise that it won’t rain, but we know all the best gravel routes now // pannier.cc/tours-expeditions watch the film // vimeo.com/pannierbrother
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gear of the year
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1 // Voilestraps “Support, fix or dangle anything. I always have a couple, at least, amongst my bikepacking bike setup, whether strapping dry bags to fork bags, extras to frames, or kettles and Tunnocks to seat packs. Always carry a spare strap, kids…” Stef
2 // ELWHA HIP/ BAR PACK, SWIFT INDUSTRIES “Since I’ve had the rugged Elwha pack we’ve been joined at the hip - enough space for all my grab-ables, plus a load of external mounts to strap extra layers, guide walkie-talkie all within easy reach. It also mounts to your handlebars – win win…” Dave
3 // ORTLIEB bags “These bags have proved invaluable for us – used on pretty much every trip, and as our standard hire setup for our tourers. The Accessory Pack holds plenty of smaller items, or bulkier items like a camera and the super practical Seatpack holds tons too, made even better with the compression valve” Stef
4 // BEDROCK SANDALS “Once you Bedrock bikepack, it’s hard to go back. As they say. Ride in them on hot sunny days, or strap the lightweight sandals to your bike and have them for the good times off-the bike - lightweight, packable, comfy, practical, and a breath of fresh air … for your tootsies.” Stef
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discover the full Journal at pannier.cc
5 // EXPLORE SHOES, RAPHA
6 // OCTAL HELMET, POC
7 // INFLATABLE PILLOW, EXPED
8 // F15 MULTI-TOOL crankbrothers
“The Rough Stuff Fellowship’s ‘I never go for a walk without my bike’ saying has effectively been our motto this year, too. As comfy riding, as they are hanging around off-the-bike, as they are in cold and warm weather, as they are crossing chunky Kyrgyz landslides at 4000m+” Stef
“Lightweight, super comfy, the somewhatcasual look, and resistance to the rough life of a bikepacking guide means the Octal spends equal time on my head as it does strapped to a luggage bag or in the back of the van. And, it is still going strong - a no-brainer” Dave
“A pillow, wtf? Yes, this inflatable pillow has ensured a good night’s sleep in the bivvy bag, bothy, or tent for me these last few months. It packs down to the size of two small chocolate bars sod sleeping on a pile of wet cycling kit, an inflated dry bag, or peaty seatpack…” Stef
“I’ve taken this tool everywhere, from the mountains of Kyrgyzstan to the Scottish Highlands. Lightweight and compact, the F15 has just what I need and nothing I don’t. Plus, it all fits into a nice alloy case which doubles up as a lever arm, chain tool and bottle opener…” Dave
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food from the road Ingredients 1 / potato 2 / carbs 3 / Thyme 4 / parsley 5 / olive oil 6 / black pepper 7 / carrots 8 / stock cubes 9 / Chilli 10 / salt 11 / welsh cheese 12 / leeks 13 / onions Not pictured, water
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Welsh Cawl - Soup, pottage, broth; gruel; mixture; hodgepodge; mess – traditional Welsh soup, typically made with salted bacon or beef with potatoes, swedes, carrots and other seasonal vegetables – borrowed from Latin ‘caulis’: “stick or stem of a plant, cabbage-stalk, cabbage” There are reasons Cawl has been a staple on Welsh menus since time began(ish?) and it’s for the same reasons that it makes an ace bikepacking evening meal option: one-pot, tasty, full of simple ingredients, and nutritious. Cawl is regarded as one of the Welsh national dishes. The longer it simmers, the better. Traditionally, cast-iron cauldrons full of cawl would have hung over rural fireplaces for hours-on-end during the winter months, with meat and vegetables chucked in as-and-when, ready for workers to come and devour. As with the majority of our Pannier outdoor cooking, we’ve kept this vegetarian and added some carbs.
JOURNAL dashed lines // THE ROAD TO DOLOMITI SUPERBIKE ...we bikepack through the Zillertal Alps, and into the heart of The Dolomites, to ride the 25th Edition of the Dolomiti Superbike Italy’s biggest mountain bike race. The plan? To overnight at one of the finest mountain huts in South Tirol en-route, and ride the same gravel bike (650b/47c) for both tour and race... pannier.cc/journal
JOURNAL Soca springlands bikepacking the mountain passes and gravel roads of Slovenia’s SoCa River Valley, Triglav National Park and Julian Alp lands, in the tracks of Slovene mountaineer/ traveloguer Julius Kugy... pannier.cc/journal
Pannier.cc Social @panniercc pictures Dave Sear & Duncan philpott words Stef Amato zine Ross presly #15kphclub