The Less Explored North of Glasgow
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:32 am
Ok so not really a trip - more of a training ride - but if you made this into a round trip starting in Milngavie then you'd get a route between 60 and 70 miles long with close to 6000 ft of climbing, lots of wilderness and plenty of really nice bivvy sites.. As it was it was still 42 miles, 4622ft of ascent and 4hrs 7mins in the saddle.
Anyway on with the story, for a long time had been eyeing up riding round the back of Ben Lomond and dropping down into Loch Lomond and returning along the West Highland Way (WHW) from my home (Blanefield). Hadn't done it for two primary reasons : 1 - time (2 kids in the house) and 2 - expected difficulties with navigation through loads of forrestry roads. Suffice to say these were overcome with a day to myself,the purchase of a mapping GPS and a forecast of good weather, the only snag was i only had 5 hours to do the route so a start from Blanefield wasn't going to happen, elected instead to start at the edge of Drymen, ride into Garadbhan, take the old road towards Gartmore then hang a left through the maze of forrestry towards Glen Dubh then Gleann Gaoithe, Loch Lomond and back to Drymen taking in some of the fine WHW singletrack.
This turned out to be a fantastic route and I would recommend it strongly to anyone, you get a real feeling of wilderness and solitude as this is an area rarely visited, highlights include the vaguely exciting views back to Aberfoyle and the Trossachs,the ride into Gleann Gaolithe, the views of the back of Ben Lomond and over to the Cobbler,the crazy descent to Loch Lomond which drops 1000ft in less than 1/4 mile down some vaguely exciting hairpins and of course the WHW singletrack along Loch lomond (fortunately missing out all the horrible hike a bike stuff further north).
Flickr stream is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84407126@N ... 967193466/
and I've got a copy of the .GPX file if anyone wants it :D
Anyway on with the story, for a long time had been eyeing up riding round the back of Ben Lomond and dropping down into Loch Lomond and returning along the West Highland Way (WHW) from my home (Blanefield). Hadn't done it for two primary reasons : 1 - time (2 kids in the house) and 2 - expected difficulties with navigation through loads of forrestry roads. Suffice to say these were overcome with a day to myself,the purchase of a mapping GPS and a forecast of good weather, the only snag was i only had 5 hours to do the route so a start from Blanefield wasn't going to happen, elected instead to start at the edge of Drymen, ride into Garadbhan, take the old road towards Gartmore then hang a left through the maze of forrestry towards Glen Dubh then Gleann Gaoithe, Loch Lomond and back to Drymen taking in some of the fine WHW singletrack.
This turned out to be a fantastic route and I would recommend it strongly to anyone, you get a real feeling of wilderness and solitude as this is an area rarely visited, highlights include the vaguely exciting views back to Aberfoyle and the Trossachs,the ride into Gleann Gaolithe, the views of the back of Ben Lomond and over to the Cobbler,the crazy descent to Loch Lomond which drops 1000ft in less than 1/4 mile down some vaguely exciting hairpins and of course the WHW singletrack along Loch lomond (fortunately missing out all the horrible hike a bike stuff further north).
Flickr stream is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84407126@N ... 967193466/
and I've got a copy of the .GPX file if anyone wants it :D
