A West Coast 500 Cycle Trail?

Trying to create a West Coast 500 type Cycle Trail route and I’ve been working on it for a while.

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Loch Shiel https://youtu.be/cOfYyyv4_uE
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I’m trying to create a North Coast 500 alternative it would have ridable gravel turn up and go fairies so it would only be for cyclists and it would explore Scotland’s stunning West Coast over the last 2 years I’ve been plotting and riding the sections involved it’s not ready yet I don’t even have a name but it’s coming together the 4day ride in this video fills in the last remaining Gap in my planning I’ve left the hardest until last God I hate starting a ride in the rain oh that doesn’t look too promising heading up into that onto The High Ground hope I can see where I’m going this is the cowl Peninsula and I’m trying to mix the right amount a Forest Road which go over some big Hills wasn’t expecting a road here with minor roads which show more of the character of this area if you look at the map you’ll see there are so many little Alternatives and you can do this in quite a few different ways in fact i’ stress there’s no pure way to do it I’m just looking for Alternatives all the time and that puts us back onto the road you know there’s only so much riding in commercial forests I can take so I think this route would be be better now if it goes onto a quiet back road and I hope that’s what this will be I’ve allowed 4 days to bridge the gap between tarbet and lo oian I’ve ridden all the rest today I crossed to port ofad and I’ve just cycled the lower part of this peninsula through the commercial Forest I started earlier than planned so I’m now aiming to reach inverary tonight rather than Camp along the way for now I’m on a good Minor Road which is proving better than trying to follow the old road that occasionally runs alongside see what happened there the old road just ran out it’s been doing that into some places going into people’s houses their driveways there’s a kind of a foot path down there but I wouldn’t really want to be on that it’s not the most interesting road but it passes through some nice Villages like sta where the traffic increases this section has very few options and prove difficult to plan the road’s been getting steadily busier which is why I’m wearing the fluorescent thing but let me explain why I have agonized over the next section imagine this bin this is the peninsula and there’s been several ways we could have come up here we came up the middle to begin with and then sort of veered off down towards the coast at the top there is a big block of impenetrable mountains now you can go around this way apparently off-road but there are two big down Ides with that partly some of it is onroad and the road is the worst Road in Scotland for cyclist the a82 and some of the off-road well I haven’t ridden it but it does look like it could be a push or probably a carry there may not even be a track so that’s not good wait for the traffic but the other way around here means you have to be on road and a little part of that is Trunk Road it’s not as busy or deadly is the 82 but it’s going to be busier than we’ve been so far so that is the bit that is going to require the most caution always have a rear light to hand I’ve actually had to charge that up when I came to it it was flat right let’s do it yeah this is the main road that goes down to Campbell town I once had to drive this for work I left glasow at 3:00 a.m. so I could film at 7:00 a.m. down in Campell town when planning it looked like I could have avoided a large chunk of this main road by staying on an Old Road close to the Lock’s Edge on the ground though that had looked less promising let’s find out if someone knows the answer I needed local knowledge so diverted to a PB hi according to the lad in there he attempted a little while ago staying close to the locks Edge and the road just runs out in places it’s just not non-existent whoever mapped it for Kimo needs to remap it but at least I know right I can crack on there this is the least Pleasant stretch of the entire route but it is manageable and soon you’re in ineri a former Royal burough this is a traditional County Town of argil and the ancestral seat of the Duke of argal who probably hasn’t stayed at the otherwise excellent hostile I do like hostels this one’s very nice the good thing for ineri is there are two hotels nearby so I could nip there for my dinner last night and there’s also a corner shop that does hot rolls so that was my breakfast and I’ve saved the the dehydrated food and the porridge for another occasion going into the grounds of ineri Castle now this is another one of those things where you won’t know if it’s ridable until you ride it there was a sign back there saying no through road but you never know whether that just means for vehicles or for everyone so this isn’t a quiet Road it is an a road after all but it’s nowhere near as busy as the Trunk Road last night the landscape changes as the road climbs up and over into a different Glenn that mountain has been cren but it’s hollowed out and at night they pump the water back up and during the day let the water out to make electricity it’s been doing that for decades tempted as I was to stay on the main road there’s the possibility of an off-road cut through here so I’m going to see whether or not that goes getting even dodgier at this point you know what no and that just doesn’t look like the sort of bit I want to send people down I’m coming into to DAL Mai and here we have the first of the Railway stations that we’ve come across since we left Obin AG ago and from there you could get a train back to Oben and then right up to Fort William or you could get a train into Glasgow the problem is you can’t pick up your tickets at this railway station so as far as I can tell the answer is just to get on the train hope there’s room for your bike and then argue about it later Dal also has a well stocked shop morning lers [Music] soon we leave the big roads behind and head into one of my favorite glands gorgeous Glenn Ori as well as being a spectacular Glenn the great thing about this road is that satnavs don’t seem to want to send Vehicles down this way it’s very wibbley wobbledy and it’s not that much shorter than going on the main road I’ve done it a few times and I really like [Music] it just stepped on off the bike to take that shot and look I mean you got loads of camping spots all the way up and down here I think they’re probably used either as take outs and putins kayakers or used by fisherman but there’s a section today that I think is new since I did it they’ve put in some new forestry roads so I’m going to see if that’s a more interesting [Music] option good day enjoying the view Absolutely I’ll go one way you can go the other so not exactly unknown as a touring route nothing on this entire route of mine is unknown it’s all very well known is the bridge of OI all I’m trying to do is link a few things together into a bigger Turf feel out of place here this is definitely hi territory West Highland weers knee deep in them hi hi hi hi so how many people have you counted today Doris hi hi hello the West Highland Way is like the North Coast 500 the sheer numbers detract from the original experience thank you very much my hope is a cycle only route will spread the impact and improve that experience for gravel bike tourist and that is where we leave the West Highland Way and head off towards Glen [Music] [Applause] Lion this looks all lovely and idilic today but please make no mistake we are heading into seriously Wild Country Now because when it’s blowing a hulie and the rain is coming up at your face from the ground this can be a very daunting place to be on a bike well that is me reaching the Watershed and I’m delighted to say I was able to ride all the way if I hadn’t eaten my meal down in the pub if that hadn’t been there I would probably stop now and cook my main meal and use the wind here to try to keep the mid away then when I got to wherever I was putting up my tent I would just have to put it up jump inside and that would be that maybe have some cheese and oat cakes to round off the day it’s that sort of thing you can of need to be thinking about all the time if you’re going to be bike packing in Wild places like this and camping there’s a parallel track to this on the other side of the lock and when I initially mapped it Kimo put me over there I think it might actually be a little shorter it’s going on the inside of the bend around Lo lion it also avoids what can be a tricky Deep River Crossing however it is missing something one very special something that we’re about to get to this is reportedly the site of the oldest continuing Pagan ceremony in Britain tyam bodak the cottage of The Old Man and the cak the old woman Mistress of deer and a central figure in Scottish mythology Story Goes the real cak came here to this Glenn and the people were very kind to her they fed her they looked after her for the winter and so she said well look in return I’m going to make sure that your Glenn prospers the people made these symbolic versions from the river washed stones and every winter they get tucked up in the house in their Cottage and they come out at Spring at the belain Festival I’ve heard recently that people have been laying things on the cak herself or even lighting little fires which strikes me as slightly disrespectful when you look around you and you are in quite such a wild place I would have thought it would be sensible to be kind to the cak so that she will be kind to you [Music] that at about 500 G is the tent which I got I think new they’re about 400 I got it on eBay for just over 200 but this is the first time I’m going to use it the amazing thing is that is a twin skin tent and it is still lighter than my hope baby bag means I could in a midy environment get changed inside there I wouldn’t get it up in a hurry but once I was ready got everything to here bof I could be in swap my kit off jobs are good I was in tyo and in vaness quite recently and I saw this quite small by the size of a coat can and it’s a small inflatable mat by Vango same as the tent it has a rubbish r value one so it’s not going to keep you warm in winter it’s really compresses down and it seems to make a good pair with that uh with that tent something that was immediately OB with this tent was the the size of the vestibule it’s really small so it’s not some not a tent that you would lie in bed and uh Brew up because the chances of some of this nylon catching with the uh the flame for me are just too great I I wouldn’t do that so as you can see there’s not a whole load of space in here I can sit up like that and I could get change which is a lot more than I can do in the hoop bivvy better but I’m rather pleased for for the first time I’m using it it’s not lashing down with rain that we make this a lot more complicated because I mean look at this look where I am spending tonight this is why I do this this is why I come out to Wild places for this I’m almost lost for words it chokes me up the sheer beauty that you get in a place like this [Music] I haven’t even looked outside yet I think it’s going to look a very different world to the one where I went to [Music] [Applause] [Music] bed morning little [Music] family these are the upper reaches of Glenn l on and I’ve been lower down previously but this the first time I’ve been up at this end and it’s really quite beautiful very very much a farming Glen though and we’re not on the road for that long Thursday to Tuesday and today is Tuesday pizar the Glen Lion t- room arrived at exactly the right time second breakfast and coffee before again climbing from one Glenn to another [Music] from ineri yesterday we climbed up and over to Glenn Ori then it was up and over to Glen Lion where I camped now it’s up and over again this time to lock R oh heavy gate this is what is called a Kirk Road a Church Road and it always strikes me just how much harder people were in Years Gone by to nowadays folk in their Sunday would walk over here from ruk to go to church sit through a service and then walk back over the way I’m going now can you hear that it’s the 3rd of June and these are hailstones as with all this trail that route up here was ridable not with my legs however but with yours may maybe you could you can see it it’s definitely doable and it’s not one where you actually have to carry keep me down by the water escape the ground so we can be alone cuz lately days are feeling shorter before we know it the summer will have gone but I know somewhere we can go I’m a full day ahead of schedule and this weather is helping me decide what to do can you see this I am rushing to bet the Drone put away before it gets completely and utterly ruined by these hailstones to dry out the Drone and my other stuff I’m going to spend tonight in a hotel in this Glenn that will give me a short day tomorrow so more filming time it also means I can spend today finding an interesting route through the historic Forest that lies [Music] ahead this is the black wood of ranik trees have been growing here for more than 10,000 years since the last ice age there are descendants from the great Forest of kaledon the name the Romans gave to this country from which we get calonia the so-called granny Pines some of which are 300 years old are part of this Forest Reserve which rewards a little exploration as you can see I found a rather adventurous route through the Blackwood if you’re in a hurry and you’re trying to press onto Kur tonight perhaps then there are plenty of Forest roads on the map you could find but I do rather like this I also learned there used to be a series of canals in this Forest they dug them flooded them and we’re going to use them as a way to float the timber out of here down the lock and then into the river Tay didn’t really work too well cuz the lugs all got jammed partway down but you can still see the canals uh although they are rather overgrown and imagine having a tree named after you this is Gunnar’s tree named after gunar Godwin who inspired the designation of the Blackwood as a Forest Reserve in 1975 to secure the future of this historic [Music] Forest let’s see how this is going to go I’ve left my route and found a good hotel at a bargain price so it’s not the biggest room I’ve ever stayed in but it has a feel of an American room because there’s a fridge and a kettle and the kettle means I could just have a pot meal [Music] tonight and porridge in the morning and best of all everything got dried out ready to go [Music] again heck of a headwind raging down lock ranic there and now hailstones again in June [Music] I was saying that my hands felt a bit cold if you look at the mountains over there that’s fresh [Music] snow just W [Music] fancy after 25 years in Scotland you got a measure of the weather by now but my goodness who’d have thought that wind chill factor would be a big issue in the [Music] summer so in what feels like the middle of nowhere in what is quite clearly a desolate spot you come acoss acoss this building Kura old Lodge built as a shooting Lodge early in the 1800s at 1,700 ft above sea level it was a substantial building with enclosed Courtyard and Stables the highest shooting Lodge in Scotland despite little evidence stories persist that it was an isolation hospital for troops gassed in the first world war isolated it certainly was although to a degree that is changing because nowadays A lot of people must see this cuz this route this bit of the route is popular with bike Packers it’s the badger divide probably the great North Trail uh an tus Mo I’m pretty sure GB Duro came this way um and and probably a few others as well this track sees an awful lot of Two Wheel traffic nowadays but as you can see it’s not exactly the M1 long before those it was the original road to the Isles a major artery in the network of drove roads for cattle my Crossing from lanic to Lo oian will be the last on this journey this may sound completely perverse but there’s something absolutely right about riding a place like this in these conditions blazing sunshine just wouldn’t seem to fit I mean I might be able to feel my finger ends but you know but the Aesthetics are better like this the day saved the best weather for my descent to Lo oian youth hostel and Kara station where I’d take the train I’ve previously ridden the section of my route from here back to Fort William you can find links to all the videos I’ve made on the planning rides in this video’s description so I now know how I would like this route to look I need to do a bit of research and speak to a few people to find out if there are any legal implications when it comes to publishing a route like this there may be also a a partner or Scott rail or someone that I can get involved to help publicize it because there’s no point in having a great Trail if no one knows about it I will share the GPS file I’ll try and find a way to share it with my channel members but as for a big splash I haven’t even got a name for it yet but thank you very much indeed for watching this if you enjoyed it give me a thumbs up I’ll put the others alongside here and uh I’ll see you again next time bye-bye [Music]