Day 18 - Fort William and Cow Hill

After a hearty and delicious breakfast at Myrtle Bank (I got the full Scottish breakfast - toast, fried eggs, black pudding, mushrooms, fried tomato and a sausage), the Bear planned to give us an easy recovery ride in the morning, to allow us a respite from the previous days' hard effort. The town of Fort William is located on the west coast of Scotland alongside Loch Linnhe (one of Scotland's longest sea lochs) and the skyline is dominated by the surrounding mountains (when it's not inundated with clouds), the chief of which is Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain at 4400 feet. Our destination for the morning ride is Cow Hill, where we will circumnavigate the peak that obscures views of Ben Nevis in Fort William. We start the ride from the Braveheart car park, so named because it was a production site for the movie. Despite the Bear's promise of an "easy" day, we start the ride with a steady, but taxing ascent in multiple stages that take about an hour for us to complete. Once at the top, we enjoyed a nice rolling descent with vistas of wind swept mountains all around us.Read more