Lochs & Glens: Inveruglas to Arrochar via Glen Loin

At the top of the climb above Ardvorlich.

I was faced with an unfortunate set of coincidences - just as the first cases of Coronavirus were starting to appear in the UK, my replacement CGR 725 was finally ready to see some trail action. With an afternoon to spare and some decent weather in the forecast, I drove to Inveruglas, about an hour from my flat to the banks of Loch Lomond with the hope of getting a wee spin round some promising lines on the map. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but this would be my last opportunity to make a real break from the city and get a good gravel adventure in before the lockdown put restrictions on peoples' ability to travel. Inveruglas is a popular wee spot, both with day trippers out on a jaunt looking for a view over to Ben Lomond, and with hillwalkers setting out for ascents of Ben Vane or Ben Vorlich.

This ride would also be my first real adventure trying out my new Garmin Edge 530, and more specifically, trying out its navigational features. I'd used the familiar Ordnance Survey 1:25000 to check the route out in the first place, laid out a course in Strava's Route Builder, and then synced that to the Garmin without much difficulty.

The first part of my ride was the part I was looking forward to least - a couple of kilometres north up the narrow A82 towards Ardvorlich, where I'd turn up a track and off of the roads for the rest of the day. Thankfully, traffic was very quiet, and I was able to zip up with only two cars passing me - I'd generally not recommend doing this on a Sunday at the height of summer. I said my hellos and dinged my bell in the direction of a few confused sheep and started on my way up what I knew from the number of contour lines would be a tough bit of climbing. As I started, I noted that the trail conditions under the tyres were pretty rank - soft, lumpy and boggy and hard to keep moving through. I had attributed this to being low down in farmland, and kept trying to assure myself that once I gained a bit of height and got clear of the livestock, it'd all harden up and be plain sailing.

Thus begins gravel life lesson number one - I'd naively assumed that anything marked as a double track on an OS map would be easy riding on a gravel bike, but I was very wrong. As a regular hillwalker, I'd always welcomed any double track on the map as "landy track" which meant easy going and limited navigational brain cell engagement. The track here would likely have been no bother at all in a pair of boots, but was almost completely impossible on 38mm tyres, so I spent most of the ascent pushing the bike round hairpins and making vain attempts to pedal when the straights between levelled off enough to allow some forward progress.

The bike having a wee pose in front of snow-capped Ben Lomond.

Eventually though, the climb did let up, and a teasingly short section of hardpacked, undulating gravel led via a small burn crossing towards a radio mast above the Sloy Hydro Station. A wee photo-op was pretty essential at this point, both to take a much-needed breather, and to enjoy the view over to a snow-capped Ben Lomond. From the radio mast onwards, a well-tarmacked single track road made for some terrifying high speed descent down into the glen below the Loch Sloy Dam, terrifying mainly on account of coming round several blind corners to unexpected gatherings of sheep on the road.

Once all the hard-earned height had been buzzed away, the only thing left to do was to drop the gears again and start spinning up the road towards the Sloy Dam. Although there was no loop option or further progress on offer, I had decided it'd be fun to climb up to the dam just to have a closer look. Thankfully the tarmac was beautifully smooth and the gradients not too excessive, and the last section of road through a short tunnel in the hillside even provided some well-timed shelter as a squally shower blew over.

At the north-eastern end of the Sloy Dam after a shower had passed.

With a quick mini-Soreen down the hatch and the rain passed over, I decided to ride along the top of the dam, purely for novelty purposes before getting some enjoyable descent back down the smooth tarmac again. Next objective was to make a right turn at the bridge above Coiregriogan and head west below Ben Vane towards the shadow of Beinn Ime. Climbing off-road never seems to be easy, but again, a floor of loose marble-like pebbles meant having to concede and push the bike up a few of the worst bits. Once height had been gained, a reasonably enjoyable couple of kilometres led in past some interesting hydro-electric architecture to the dam at the foot of Gleann Leacann Sheileach, where I'd cross and almost double back towards Glen Loin.

This descent was almost certainly the highlight of the day - a long, gradual descent along perfectly surfaced forestry track with just enough bumps and humps to keep things interesting. As with all good things, the trail eventually had to come to an end, and switched back down towards the small settlement of Succoth, where many hillwalkers tackling The Cobbler, Beinn Ime and Beinn Narnain had chosen to park to avoid the new extortionate charges at the popular car parks at the head of Loch Long. I nipped through the lanes and houses of Succoth and headed to Arrochar, where I reckoned my chances of a decent lunch option were higher.

Lunchtime view to The Cobbler and Beinn Narnain.

I somehow managed to resist the massive greasy pie/hamburger options and grabbed a quick turkey salad roll and a can of coke at the Three Villages Cafe, with a pretty decent view across to the nearby hills as I ate. Once this important business was taken care of, it was straight back on the road to find my way back to the opposite side of Glen Loin to the one I'd descended, to make my way back across to Inveruglas.

Once again, I'd been slightly deceived by the OS map and the double-track that seemed to ease its way up along the floor of the glen. Interestingly, the 1:25000 map showed a nice double track, but the 1:50000 showed a more accurate representation of the single track that was really there. As I made my way to the bottom of the path, I passed a group of walkers, who seemed entirely bemused at my decision to proceed by bike and one wished me an "aye, good luck with that", which I'd initially written off as just the usual approach that a lot of people take when they see anyone trying to ride anything slightly lumpy.

Promising looking path, for a short while at least.

Indeed, the path started off looking perfectly pleasant, innocuous even, as it wound its way into the glen. Imagine those daft walkers thinking I was going to have any bother at all breezing my way along this beauty, ha! Well, my hubris lasted all of a couple of hundred metres, when the path abruptly turned its way up between some craggy boulders, forcing me to adopt a cyclocross-esque shoulder carry of the bike that would become a regular occurence over the coming kilometre or two. I was very glad of my walk-friendly Mavic XA Elite SPD shoes when it came to stepping my way up through the rocks, as a more traditional cycling shoe might've made a skitey death-trap of these obstacles.

Thankfully though, once the path had risen, it eventually started to descend again back towards the Sloy Dam road, and although some sections were a wee bit hairy, I thought the bike coped admirably, despite being far beyond the remit of what most people would call gravel cycling. Once the road was reached, I had the perfect cool-down to end the ride, with more perfect tarmac to lead me back to the Inveruglas car park. Or it would've been a perfect cool-down had I not unleashed my inner daft wean and decided to get in the drops and see what kind of maximum speed I could register. I blame any unimpressive numbers on the baggy shorts and mountain bike helmet, before any of you go nitpicking through my Strava stats.

Thankfully, just as I arrived back, the sun had come out again, and I was able to sit out on a wee floating pontoon in Loch Lomond and soak up the view while tanning the remainder of my emergency snacks from my rucksack - a perfect relaxing way to end what had been a far from relaxing ride!

Taking a well-earned rest on Loch Lomond.

Notes:

• Ross: Ribble CGR 725
• Nav: Garmin Edge 530 with Strava Routes 
• 35km with 865m of elevation
• Ridden March 19th 2020
• Photos: iPhone 8 & Sony A6300
• Strava Activity