The Less Explored North of Glasgow

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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

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Rough map visible here:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/face ... 1CcMcbAdRh

[campbellrae1]

Looks like a great route, been thinking of virtually the same thing so good to see someone else doing it and enjoying the ride! I have walked all of it so was just a case of finding the time for a full day from Milngavie!

Would love a copy of the GPX file if possible please, can just upload that to my Bryton Rider 50 and head off if this weather keeps up! My email is campbellrae1 at gmail dot com if you can't PM it!

Thanks,

Campbell.

[valleydaddy]

really need to ride more in Scotland hoping to do a motor home tour of the West coast next summer

[Taylor]

really need to ride more in Scotland hoping to do a motor home tour of the West coast next summer

We've got this booked for next week, http://www.motorhomeluxuryhire.co.uk/ I'll let you know how it goes.

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If you need any route suggestions around Glasgow or WHW info let me know

[campbellrae1]

Did this route on Saturday, was really good! Had great weather which helped but certainly worth a go. Would be a big day to start/finish in Milngavie but worth it I reckon!