Cafe Closed

The cafe at Intake 7 was closed. Luckily I had a banana and water with me. Slightly longer than the Cour loop this gives a 28km round on mostly unpaved trails. There are also a couple of very steep hills. While I have managed them fine on more recent outings I was worried that if I stalled on the loose gravel today I may struggle to get a foot out of the new clip in pedals and fall over. It was more incentive to push on really hard and get to the top. What a relief it was to encounter that final easing in the gradient.

The concrete structure behind the cafe is the "conduit" . It is a large, square in cross section,  pipe carrying water from the nearby intake dam to a vertical shaft where the water pours in to a tunnel hundreds of feet down in the heart of the mountain. The water next sees daylight as it emerges from the aluminium smelter hydro electric power house down in Fort William.
If I ever write my novel this would be the setting for at least one the grim murders.