Day 11 Fort William to Inverness

The stats for Day 11 where I ride in search of the Loch Ness monster are:

Miles: 70.2
Climbing: 2566 ft
Average Speed: 13.6 mph
Max Speed: 36.9 mph
Time Riding: 5 hr 09 mins
Total Duration: 7 hr 31 mins
Steepest Gradient: 8%

With less than 70 miles planned for the journey from Fort William to Inverness I had a really leisurely start not getting underway until after 9:30, by far the latest during the LEJOG.

Today's route was planned to head north out of Fort William taking a minor road for approx. 10 miles joining the A82 just west of Spean Bridge, then take the A82 to Fort Augustus, there climb up 1200ft on General Wade's Military road and head down the eastern side of Loch Ness all the way to Inverness.. This however was the day when I throw the route out. The initial half of the journey was almost as planned with the exception last 5 miles into Fort Augustus where I diverted from the A82 at Bridge of Oich and took the towpath on the Caledonian canal.



Feeling tired on arrival in Fort Augustus I stopped for a lengthy lunch break, enjoying fish and chips sat by the canal. After lunch the decision to be made was the climb up to General Wade's Military road and the fantastic views or stay on the A82 and travel along the west bank of Loch Ness. With the legs tired I opted for the A82, it was still a hard grind but that 1200ft climb was just not appealing.








I made steady progress towards Inverness but as I reached the top of the Loch it started to rain, requiring the maiden donning of the wet weather gear. The rain only lasted for 15 - 20 minutes and by the time I reached Inverness it was sunny and dry.