This year I'd come up with various options but on the Friday morning an early rise suddenly saw me leaving the car in the driveway and setting off into a cool dawn heading west.
I followed my usual back road route to Callander, had a second breakfast, then headed north via NCN 7, a fine drizzle blowing in from the south west. As reported previously its a great route north from the central belt and fun on a gravel bike.
On the Glen Ogle Viaduct
At Killin I departed NCN 7 and headed west up Glen Dochart. I should have headed up Glen Lochay and then over into Glen Lyon to join the West Highland Way north of Tyndrum but I was concerned that the rivers would be high and the weather looked less than inspiring...
You can avoid a chunk of the A82 by following a wee road on the north side of Glen Dochart, followed by a couple of k of farm track to emerge a few miles east of Crianlarich. From here to Tyndrum its about 11 miles. As trunk roads go, the A82 isn't the busiest, especially on a Friday late morning so I endured the sporadic platoons of traffic and pedalled hard into the stiffening breeze. The WHW after Crianlarich is definitely worth a miss as it involves 3 steep climb / descents for no gain by way of views. The section just before Tyndrum seems to have been newly surfaced so next time I'll use this....
The weather had had a couple of goes at clearing but leaving Tyndrum after a snack at the Café it clagged in once more. I was done with the A82 so stuck with the WHW. Its a bit rough on 40mm tyres but a far more pleasant prospect than the main road. Just north of Tyndrum there is a section of rough single track which can be avoided by a short hop on the road, thereafter its a good double track to Bridge of Orchy.
As I pedalled round the road to the back of Loch Tulla, the sky showed signs of the forecasted sunny afternoon and on the start of the long climb out of Forest Lodge the sun finally made an appearance.
On the military road climb. The surface is almost cobbled - 2-3" stones all packed together. This is about as rough as I'd want to do on a gravel bike but it coped pretty well all in all and I'd recommend this route to anyone making there way north and west.
At the summit looking east towards Loch Rannoch. Somewhere over there is my June BAM site!
The descent is pretty rough so I took it nice and steady, however there are signs of track improvements being done - part of a programme of works to sort the WHW which are long overdue. The Kingshouse Hotel also seems to be getting a tart up, in fact its being pretty much rebuilt into a vast edifice of a new hotel. I hope they can find plenty of people to stay there! Thereafter I re-joined the A82 over into Glencoe right down to the back road to the Clachaig and our weekend accommodation in a caravan at the Glencoe Bunkhouse. If your on a mountainbike you can avoid most of the A82 on this section by following a bit more WHW, a short section of the old Wades road above the river Coe falls and then a longish section of old military road and a roadside path right to the turn off to the pub.
Total distance was just over the 100 mile mark which gave me a fine appetite for good food and beer that night.
Saturday involved five hours of walking in the rain followed by more food and beer as well as a particularly good RnR band.
At the Blackwater Res Dam - this is the inlet to a 5k long aqueduct which feeds the 6 huge pipes that run from the top of the doubletrack climb to the KLL power station. If you go up here be sure to ride (or walk) on the aqueduct!
Sunday meant a long ride home but I didn't fancy the A82 again so blagged a lift with my pals to just near Killin and then rode the nice bit of my outward route with a stiff tailwind and some warm sunshine!
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