[Closed] Revisiting old classics - Loch Etive, Glen Kinglas and Rannoch Moor

Continuing the theme of revisiting old MTB classics on the gravel bike, this time I took on the very tempting loop comprising Inverawe - Ardmaddy - Glen Kinglas - Rannoch Moor - Glen Etive - Bonawe - Connel, taking in the infamous 'three brethren' of east Loch Etive-side, the slabs of Glen Kinglas, the cobbles of Rannoch Moor, the car-camping bell-endery of Glen Etive, and Scotland's worst hike-a-bike underneath the Trilleachan slabs...

https://www.strava.com/activities/3849133939

Wife dropped me off at Inverawe in the morning, saving me the 15km tarmac trudge between Benderloch and Taynuilt. I expected a rough start, remembering mine (and others) struggles on the three loose and bumpy landrover track climbs that make up the east shore of Loch Etive between Inverawe and Ardmaddy. Happily, going the other way, with a tailwind and at the start of a ride rather than the end of a ride, I barely noticed them. Ardmaddy was reached with minimal effort.

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Lots of Hydro works going on in the glen, and there was an extremely smooth and fast looking new access track on the south bank of the river, but I've always enjoyed crossing the bridge at Ardmaddy, and anyway, I didn't know if the new track joined the old track further up the glen (it did).

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The glen has always impressed me with it's scale and relatively remote feel. With the new track and a tailwind, I was also making exceptionally good progress, and had the time and energy to enjoy the bike's handling on fast loose corners and dodging puddles. CX geometry + fast gravel riding equals lots of silly knees and elbows out cornering behaviour.

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It couldn't last of course, although I was well prepared for the top of the pass where the landrover track gives way to quad bike track gives way to bare bedrock and river crossings...

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I was constantly surprised with how well the bike climbed some of the steep, loose and rough sections. I put it down to the low gears, grippy tyres and nimble handling allowing me to keep the power down smoothly whilst threading a neat line between all the trouble. Some sections though just had to be met head on but apparently 40mm gravel slicks are all you need even for Glen Kinglas's answer to the Arenberg Trench

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swiftly followed by the famous slabs...

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The good times couldn't last however and the trail gradually deteriorated until almost disappearing completely in a particularly low and flat sort of strath near the top. This preceded a fairly painless 15 minute or so hike-a-bike to the top of the pass

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The trail picked up again over the top and was pleasantly fast riding, actually quite firm and stoney under wheel, even though from a distance it looked like it could have been boggy and tussocky.

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I had been looking forward to revisiting Loch Dochard and wasn't disappointed, it feels like a special place in the midst of some very big and wild scenery.

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The going between Loch Dochard and Victoria Bridge gradually improved, although I chose to ignore the slightly off-putting signage to detour up and around the farm near Clashgour, rather than take on the lumpy looking path along the river bank

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I was feeling great at this point, I still had a fresh wind behind me, and combined with the eagerness of the bike (I'm still not quite over just how fast the bike feels on the right tracks, my legs can't do it justice) I shot (relative term...) across Rannoch Moor, enjoying the feel of the tyres and the supple latex tubes over the cobbles of the old military road, the bike really did seem to float or skim across them, so long as you kept the speed up and the big gear turning...

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The final descent down to the ski centre was interesting, I knew the easy gradient and wide track encouraged silly behaviour not befitting the quantity and size of loose rocks littering the track, so I tried to focus on being smooth and threading a line between all the rim-bangers.

I grabbed lunch at the Kingshouse. I don't know if it's me, but I just can't enjoy lunch stops on long/hard rides. Even if the food goes down well (which it did, and the pint of Red Devil, and the double espresso afterwards) I still cool down too much and it took a fair bit of pedalling and shivering in all my layers to warm up again. I think I need to learn to stop only on warm sunny days!

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I didn't stop for many photos down the Glen Etive road, there was a lot of traffic and car-camping going on although no obvious bad behaviour. I was still happy just to spin my way down into the (now) headwind, whilst also waiting for the feeling to return to the fingertips of my left hand, incipient nerve damage from the descent of Rannoch Moor I assume...

Always worth looking back to where you've come from! The herdsmen looking fine.

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I stopped at the bottom for a snack in preparation for what I expected to be a tough few kilometers along the loch-side, remembered from a trip I did a few years ago. Unbenownst to me at the time, but whilst trying to pose the bike it fell on its side, completely buggering my rear shifting due to a bent hanger which no amount of re-bending could sort. Thoughts slid to the brand new hanger still sitting on my workbench in the garage instead of inside my saddlebag...

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Here my mind goes blank. Perhaps as some sort of subconscious post-traumatic coping mechanism, I'm not sure, but I remember thinking I wouldn't wish the hike-a-bike beneath the Trilleachan slabs on even my worst enemy. So bad it almost felt deliberate, as if even the most random, arbitrary line across untrodden ground could not be as bad as this 'path'.

What almost made it worse was that upon finally reaching the start of the rideable stuff again, I realised that the roller coast of fine, gravelly singletrack and numerous stream crossings was now so overgrown that it was barely passable. Slow progress was made rolling along ducking and diving my head through all the branches and fronds, but anyone with bars wider than 500mm should probably just turn back! A little sad that a trail which feels like it ought to be an established thoroughfare could actually disappear.

Eventually it opened out again into the 'fairy woods' that I remembered, a winding, evidently once well built cart track through old deciduous forest, everything covered in thick green moss. It has been said before, but sometimes the painful hike-a-bike sections just have to be endured to get to the good stuff. Not that I'm saying it was much more rideable at this point, my legs, the malfunctioning gears and the steep rocky uphill pitches had finally sapped me of the required enthusiasm.

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Eventually though more consistently rideable singletrack resumed, and soon turned to gloriously fast, wide, newly repaired hydro access track, which would have been perfect for anyone who hadn't ill-advisedly tried to tweak their front mech a while back and lost access to their biggest ring! (Shimano low and high limit adjusts seem to work differently from how they used to?) I had a long twiddle out in my granny ring and 6th or 7th sprocket, depending on which gear my bent derailleur hanger decided to auto-select for me.

This continued all the way along the final 10km of loch side tarmac between Bonawe quary (insert 'gravel' joke here) and my mum's house back in Benderloch. A shame as it was a beautiful road and would have been a perfect victorious final time trial back to a waiting beer and burger to finish off the day.

Was it a brilliant day out? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Hmm...