Ben Lomond Loop

I decided to do something a bit different for last Saturday mornings run.  Since many of us ride CycloCross (CX) bikes during the winter I quite fancied making the most of their off road capabilities by doing a loop taking in some of the great forest trails nearby.  The route I had in mind took in the Trossachs Forest Drive by Loch Venachar and the Dukes, followed by a run up through the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park from Aberfoyle over to Loch Lomond.  At Loch Lomond side the route was south to Rowardennan, Balmaha and Drymen then home.

Richard and Eddie joined me for this winter epic.  Not the best day for it - howling westerly with horrible sleet showers.  I've ridden some of the tracks before but after all the mega rain in the last week we were a bit unsure how ridable it would be.  With a lot of the off road sections being well used for forestry work they can get quite broken up by logging trucks and in pretty bad shape.  We were all on CX bikes with 35mm CX tyres fitted.  These have a shallow tread, like an MTB tyre but are not as knobbly or as wide.  I find these are pretty good on the road as long as you dont try to go too fast, and off road they give great grip.

Eddie and Richard with snow capped Ben Lomond in background

Callander to Aberfoyle
The first section on tarmac up the Deanston Road we do all the time, but after Callander its onto the gravel and almost single track along the side of Loch Venachar.  We all had big grins on our faces after this: blasting round gravel bends and over wee jumps.  The climb up to the Dukes Pass from Loch Venachar was much slower on the soft gravel track than the usual route up, but it was good to do something different and the descent down into Aberfoyle was an absolute blast - it felt like driving a rally car, beasting round corners, ripping over the rough gravel surface.

Milton to Cailness
After Aberfoyle road and the short tarmac section up to Milton we crossed over to the Queen Elizabeth forest park, and back onto more gravel trails.  This gradually climbs up toward Ben Lomond.  The Ben appeared up in front of us from out among the trees and initially it was quite some distance away, with the top capped in snow.  Fortunately I'd plotted the trail into my Garmin, as there are a lot of criss crossing junctions in the forest and way finding can be tricky.  Having ridden round the forest before I'd often found myself having to stop and check the map to try and work out which way to go, but with the course plotted in the Garmin it was dead easy - just a case of following the line on the screen on my bars!

From Milton up into the Comer estate the trail surface through the forest is actually really good, much firmer than the climb up the Dukes, so we made pretty good progress.  It did gradually become more full of potholes and rough in places.  Almost at the top of the main estate road you pass a small cottage and there is a turn off the main estate path, through a gate and up a very steep, much smaller side track.  The gradient was getting on for about the limit of what we could ride up on the CX bikes due to the slippery wet surface, and gearing available.  After a while it slacked off a bit and it was just another few miles grind up a lumpy but ridable landrover track to the top of Gleann Gaoithe.  By the time we got here it was absolutely pissing down and blowing a gale and seriously cold, so we were pretty glad to see Loch Lomond appear almost directly beneath us.

The descent to Cailness was not really my idea of fun.  When you come over the top of the hill you start at about 350m and Loch Lomond is at about 10m and feels like its directly beneath you.  The track is about 25% gradient, rocky, broken, and was like a river in places.  Theres several switch backs, but the gradient is unrelenting.  Even going down it was tiring, especially on arms and shoulders.  I lost it in a rut at one point and took a header into the mud which wasn't very pleasant.  There was a 4x4 parked at the house at the bottom, but I found it hard to believe you could even drive down the track!  Riding up would maybe be doable on an MTB, but certainly not on a CX bike.

Mechanicals
Half way down the descent I discovered one of the crank arms on my chainset was coming loose.  I fitted a new chainset a few months back after the west coast tour and presumably didnt get it quite right.  The crank arm on the non drive side clamps onto  a post which comes out of the drive side crank, and the bolts clamping the arm on must have worked loose over time.  The arm with pedal attached was now wobbling about.  Richard had a multi tool, so I attempted to tighten the crank arm back on, but a mile or so further on it had worked its way loose again.  After Cailness we joined the West Highland Way and headed south toward Rowerdennan.  The surface is pretty rough along here too, and it was Eddies turn to have a mechanical next.  His chain jammed in the rear mech, and this caused the mech and hanger to be ripped off the back of the bike.  He managed to do a not bad fix up job, shortening the chain to run the bike as a single speed.  Fortunately from Rowedennan back to Stirling there arent any really significant hills, so this was ok to get him home

Unfortunately my crank arm kept on working loose and after a while it started falling off altogether.  After a several attempts at reattaching it I decided it the problem was terminal and it was going to prevent me managing to complete the full circuit.  Fortunately Laura was home and after a phone call she was able to come and get me about and hour later from near Drymen.  Eddie and Richard carried on back to Stirling along the A811, while I pedalled slowly, one legged back to Blamaha and as far toward Drymen as I could.

Broken TCX

The original plan had been to ride the route in the opposite direction, however on the morning we decided to reverse it due to the gale force westerly and the idea that riding westward through the woods would be better than plugging along the A811.  I think going round clockwise would be preferable if the weather was different as the trails are more rideable going the other way, and I'd rather push my bike up the climb from Cailness than ride down it again!  This route would be brilliant in the summer when the trails are drier and harder, and I think you could probably do the loop in about 5 hours if you went at it hard.  Having looked about theres quite a lot of other similar loops that can be made by joining up sections of gravel road.  The only potential problem with wanting to do more of this type of route is the potential maintenance cost fixing all the broken kit!