2 TO 3 DAY LOOP IN Scotland First bikepacking trip

[Catrike16]

Hi
I would like to do my first bikepacking trip, Scotland with a 2-3 night wild camp/bothy experience.
I have ridden MTB for years but I am just returning to health after being frankly obese, I'm still heavy but surprisingly can outclimb my MTB mates 7 stones lighter than me.
Any advice on routes etc would be really appreciated.
I have Komoot and a garmin edge so could use gpx files.
cheers in advance

[Dean]

Cairngorm Loop can be ridden multiple ways, overnight shelters at the fancy Glen Feshie place, Ryvoan or Red House and lots of places to wildcamp. Or Middle loop of HT550 starting at Fort Augustus, multiple spread out bothies (if you like pushing your bike).

[whitestone]

Crikey, where to start? Oh, that's what you are asking

Starting with published routes:

There's the Capital Trail which loops through the various hills south of Edinburgh. Very steady as a three day trip, a bit more challenging over two.

The Wild About Argyll trail. The full route is pretty long but it twists and turns so much that it's quite simple to shorten it according to your needs.

The Highland Trail. I'd choose the southern loop rather than the central one, generally much more rideable (but there's still some H-a-B) and you can do part of the central loop to extend it - head up from Fort Augustus to Cannich then short cut back into Glen Affric to pick up the return.

The Cairngorm Loop is pretty tough, mainly the inner loop, so stick with the outer loop and avoid the "sting in the tail" going out to Fealar Lodge.

Other loops.

There's lots to go at (surprise) but here's a few that I can think of at the moment.

Ben Alder tour. Two options:
1. Dalwhinnie - Loch Garry - Loch Rannoch - HT550 route past Ben Alder to Culra bothy then back to Dalwhinnie viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9015#p106320
2. Dalwhinnie - Loch Garry - Loch Rannoch - Rannoch station - Corrour - Laggan - Ardverikie - Loch Pattack - Dalwhinnie viewtopic.php?p=289897#p289897 (this trip took a "short cut" along Loch Ericht - read it to see if you fancy it)

The Moray Triangle. Not done this, looks generally low level and gravel bike friendly

A route we did last year - Cannich - HT550 route to Contin - through Strathconon to Craig - pick up the HT550 return at Achnashellach - Dornie - Glen Licht - Glen Affric and back to Cannich. viewtopic.php?p=273016#p273016

Have a look through the Trips and Reports sub-forum, I've posted about the two Ben Alder options and the Cannich route. There's also stuff on my blog - http://bobwightman.blogspot.com/ Fatbikephil has also posted lots of suitable routes, he's also a blog http://philsbikepacking.blogspot.co.uk/ with lots of reports.

[Catrike16]

Thank you for the route tips and advice much appreciated

[fatbikephil]

https://deesidetrail.com/
This ones a cracker - the 'extension' at the west end is some what challenging so mebbes worth a miss for the first go. The rest is all good though - 140 miles with plenty of options to cut it short. I did a chunk of it last year in two leisurely days starting at Braemar.

If you pm me an email address I've gpx tracks of the Ben Alder tour that Whitestone mentions.

[In Reverse]

I'd second the recommendations of the Capital Trail and Cairngorms Loop minus the inner bit.

If it's your first trip and you're going to be out for 2 nights I wouldn't shy away from bivvying the first night then getting a room in a pub or B&B for the second. Getting a proper nights sleep and a shower etc can make the riding a lot more enjoyable, especially if the weather's not ideal.