New on Sidetracked:

The Wild Outpost

Written by Duncan McCallum // Photography by Andy McCandlish
Produced in partnership with Bosch eBike Systems

You can stretch your adventures a little – travel a little further, higher, and longer than you might otherwise be able to achieve.

Harris/Lewis has a long history of habitation and visitation stretching back over 5,000 years, its standing stones and burial mounds bearing witness to its ancient, often bloody history. Ruled by the Vikings for 400 years, it was a defensible wild place that remains an independent-natured land.

The ferry boat capacity limits visitors, which thankfully means that planning and effort is required to dock on these shores. This has the effect of limiting the hordes visiting that would otherwise ruin its fragile and unspoilt beauty.

The Rhenigidale Loop and postman’s trail were the targets for our first day’s riding and a good tough test for the Haibike eBikes we had brought with us. Taking an eBike on to a long, rough, wet trail does come with some questions, but leaving the hilltop car park near Tarbet, we put any worries about being stranded and having to push an 18kg bike uphill to the back of our minds as the flow of the trail took precedence.

The trail flattened after a couple of kilometres. At just about far enough from the car to be safe, two souls caught in flagrante (delicto) stood, buttoning up and tucking in as we whirred past. Giggling at their misfortune interruptus, our Bosch-assisted speed ascent made short work of the steepening trail.

Ahead, the trail kicked up. If I’d been riding a normal MTB, I’d be gathering the will and leg power to make such a steep ascent, but under eMTB power shifting to an easier gear sees us spinning and grinning up the otherwise tough climb. Don’t get me wrong – it is still work, and you do not abdicate your riding skills to technology, but it’s just much easier to pedal uphill.

Lapping some steep sections for photographs, I begin to appreciate what a liberator these bikes could be if your life dictated you needed power assist. Whether though age, injury, or simply if pure mountain riding is a step too far, the e-revolution is a positive use of technology when electronic devices have increasingly shackled us heads down to a screen, rather than lifting us into fresh air. You can stretch your adventures a little – travel a little further, higher, and longer than you might otherwise be able to achieve.

The crest of the hill soon gives way to the descent towards Loch Seaforth. I find it hard to manhandle the bike over rocks and drainage ditches. The electric motor’s power takes me by surprise – when in turbo mode it sucks up a hard-pedal stroke, converting it into forward momentum rather than a lighter front end; I power through obstacles rather than hopping over. The first of four group punctures pops, and it’s then we discover we have only one spare between us. Our excitement at getting on the trail had eroded our normal day-start planning and checks.

Over our shoulders just off the postman’s path peat hags scar the hillside, an indication of how populated these remote valleys once were. Traditionally the islanders were subsistence farmers running animals over wide hill pastures but in the early 1800s this all changed. After Culloden the great clan families ran up unsustainable debts and the early Victorian romance of the wild Highlands saw greedy landlords wanting to recoup money by turning traditional farming land into hunting and shooting estates. The island crofters were treated with contempt and callousness by their lords and masters – many were cleared from their land by physical force and economic violence. The Clearances were the result of a perfect storm. Poor growing seasons, potato blight, and the collapse of the kelp harvesting industry, combined with the greed of the landowners, forced thousands abroad or to the coastal fringes of these rocky islands.

Rhenigidale and the abandoned village overlooking Loch Trolamaraig grew into small settlements where none had existed before. The change to coastal living was a hard transition. The written history tells of the huge sorrow at the loss of lands and the difficult choice to stay and fight on home soil, or take the landlord’s bribes and leave for Canadian shores. Skirting the cliff-edge path, past the skeletons of the abandoned houses and raised (run) rig potato beds on a warm day like this, the place seems idyllic, warm and welcoming, but in the cold December bite, dreaming of emigration to the new worlds would have been at the forefront of many a mind.

The islands are full of strange contrast and irony. At the fading of empire, the Royal Yacht Britannia would anchor here in peaceful solitude, the Queen and party taking tea amongst the ruins of the hard hand-built houses, no doubt marvelling at the quaint, sorrowful beauty. Curious sheep are now the only inhabitants on the trail as we spin into the shadows of Beinn Tharsuinn and towards the postman’s zig-zags that climb steeply up to the bealach above.

Curious sheep are now the only inhabitants on the trail as we spin into the shadows of Beinn Tharsuinn and towards the postman’s zig-zags that climb steeply up to the bealach above.

Cresting into the warmth of the setting sun, we run down towards Tarbet village. This 2km downhill of perfect singletrack is our reward for pushing the machines and enduring another set of midge-infested tube flats.

Too steep to ride and with the eBikes being quite heavy, we engage walk-mode, which turns the back wheels at walking pace. On sections this works really well, but on the gravelly loose steps hauling and lifting the machines uphill keeps us honest and earning our easily won descents.

Cresting into the warmth of the setting sun, we run down towards Tarbet village. This 2km downhill of perfect singletrack is our reward for pushing the machines and enduring another set of midge-infested tube flats.

When I first visited Tarbet in the 80s the demise of the fishing industry had left the place drab and peeling, but a new energy seems to have replaced the crumbling frontages. This is due in part to increased tourism, but also fuelled warmly by Isle of Harris Gin production and the new distillery. The building dominates the once rusting harbour basin. The still’s award-winning elixir has stimulated not only the town but also many a blood vessel. We pick up a sea-blued bottle and tonic and head to our campsite overlooking Luskentyre Beach. Soothed by rhythmic distant seventh wave crashing and warmed by 800-fill down and gin, sleep comes easy.

Beach riding is a pure, smooth pleasure, and a marked contrast to the waterlogged dirt and rock trails of yesterday. The beaches of Harris are world famous – and rightly so. Stretching for miles, the beaches offer sand riding in the shadows of Sron Ulladale, the largest overhanging cliff in the UK, and An Cliseam, the island’s highest peak. Stalkers’ paths and old coffin roads cut deep into these remote mountain glens offering some fantastic riding but at the day’s end we cannot resist beach cruising along the edge of the breakers.

The oversized fat tyres zip over the sand as the sun fades. All too soon our battery indicators drop to a single bar of charge and indicate a range of 4km left before a hard push would spoil the easy cruise.

If you view the eBike as a facilitator to get deeper and more easily into the hills and trails then it is an absolute winner. As a way to extend an active life, or promote activity in wild places for those who would not or cannot otherwise experience such things, it can’t be seen as anything but a positive invention. At the end of the trip, whilst waiting for our ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool, we decided to fly around the Lewis Castle MTB trails. Fun riding on interesting swoopy trails led us to the trail-end Woodside Café, where we were approached by a man in his eighties. In under a year he had ridden 3,700km on his eBike, which had almost replaced his car for shopping and daily runs about town. At 7p a charge, who could argue that his life had not been enhanced by technology? There can be no doubt that, when the legs do not want to turn any more, the eBike is a huge benefit. And if you’re an active person wishing to force deeper into the hills with reduced effort, to allow you to perform at a higher level when your destination is reached – backcountry skiing, remote crag climbing, or when faced with long uphill drags – the eBike is a true revolution and enormous fun.

Duncan McCallum, Sophie Nicholson and Andy McCandlish took on the challenging terrain of the Outer Hebrides with Bosch eBike systems using Haibikes and discovered a new way to get more out of your ride.

For more information and inspiration, follow them on Instagram
@boschebikesystems
#uphillflow
@haibikeuk

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