Completed the Loch Chon loop again

We have only ever completed the Loch Chon trail once before and on our first attempt, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Our first visit was last year. Both Craig and I got a puncture on the exact same rock, our pumps were faulty and we got eaten alive by Midgies. Oh, I left out our unsuccesfull attempt at passing a herd of cows! (Dont ask). This trail isn't technical at all but the long, steep decent down to the Loch Lomond shores and the awesome views quickly made this trail one to remember.

This was Allan's first time on the Loch Chon to Loch Lomond trail and I'm glad he wasn't dissapointed. The weather was excellent, with only a bit of wind effecting the day. We knew it was still early spring with Ben Lomond still capped in snow, what a beautiful picture.

Today we had Edward tag along with us. He was looking to try a bit of mountain biking; Although it would be hard to say whether we scared him out of mountain biking or fed his desire to come back!!


Fortunately, this time we didn't get one puncture, we were too early to be effected by midgies and the field was cow free! So all in all an excellent day out. There were a few short, but steep sections once you get off the forest road and onto the farm road that I didn't remember from the last time, something else to get your teeth into.

I don't know about the rest but my Orange 5 was performing pretty well and the short steep climbs were soon behind me.. I had just recently got my Manitou Black fork serviced as they were loosing air pretty rapidly and this isn't the trail for knackered forks. The decent would kill you!

Anyway, we tend to stop for a quick bite to eat just before the big decent down to the Loch Lomond shoreline. Giving ourselves a bit of time to get energy levels back up again ready for the decent. I'm pleased to say that Allan couldn't get over how good the decent was down to the Loch lomond shoreline. Which is just aswell, as we have been talking it up for months now. You really should go and try out this decent, but make sure you have good brakes!! You drop about 1000 feet in no time at tall.. something else.

We soon get on our way along the West Highland Way. You can't ride about half of it, so you are quite often off your bike. Bits of trail like this always amuse me when you pass hikers who are wearing 10 layers of clothing, have enough food to go for a week, rucksack and all.. and then we fly past them on our mountain bikes in our shorts and jerseys with just enough kit to make it safe.

We were soon half way as we reached the Inversnaid hotel. Unfortunatly from here the rest is by tarmac back to the car. Of course the first section of road is pretty steep as you gain height again. A good workout. Good for training days.