I know it’s in Kenny Wilson’s book, but given the choice would you ride the Chiarain path over to Loch Treig or the land rover roads along Loch Eilde Mor?

Also is there a bothy at Loch Chiarain?

Ta

Not done the Loch Chiarain path but remember that the land rover tracks end at Luibeilt and you have then got the section following the old HTR550 route to Creaguaineach Lodge on Loch Treig which is very stop-start.

There is a bothy at Loch Chiarain – http://www.mountainbothies.org.uk/bothy-details.asp?bothy_id=46

Ta – found the bothy info.

I’ve done the old HT550 route, which I found alright (used to a spot of bike walking). Was planning to stop in the bothy near Lubeilt or the one further downstream, but wondered if that Chiarain (Ciaran?) path might be more fun.

Also, what about this from Ben Alder to Corrour Lodge?
Ta

I’ve done it both ways. I would choose the Blackwater path if the weather was good, it just feels like a bit more of an adventure.

The path from Blackwater reservoir was lovely singletrack in places, but a bit cut up with moto cross bikes in general and few boggy bits. It was a bit of an anticlimax though as the descent at the end was a horrific bog. Still worth doing if you like exploring. It feels very remote.

The other way is as whitestone says above, easy tracks but a rotten path down the river to Loch Trieg. Probably feels a bit less adventure-ey but also OK.

I’ve stopped in Meanach bothy, lovely location, the interior has been renovated by the MBA since I stopped there so it’s quite plush now, not that it was bad before mind. Never stopped at Staoineag but it looks a stunning place, hope the river isn’t too high for the stepping stones.

We rode(?) the Abhain Rath path in the opposite direction to what you are looking at doing so possibly more pushing the way we did it.

Edit: can’t help you with the Ben Alder track, the only riding I’ve done in that area is the Ardverikie Loop in the Scottish Wild Trails book. There’s quite a few marked tracks in the area that don’t join up 😈 they are probably stalking tracks from different estates rather than old byways or drovers’ routes. Might be worth having a look on geograph.org.uk to see if there’s any photos of it.

Hmm, doesn’t look good – http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/264868 , http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/264913

I’d heard the Uisge Labhair path wasn’t so good, but there’s a hydro track in there now so I think the unrideable section would be fairly short.

Absolutely agree with Tomd, the Chiarain path was good but descent to Loch Treig annoying and disappointing. Could you reverse direction?

Oh and p.s, the path up and over the hill between Loch Eilde Mor and the Loch Chiarain bothy looked awesome when I hiked it a year or two ago, worth incorporating if you can!

the path up and over the hill between Loch Eilde Mor and the Loch Chiarain bothy

That’ll be at the end of the day, so not sure ideal for mates first bikepack – or may be just the ticket….

Would use the Chiaran path the other way, the landrover track in that direction… just my opinion…

We had a great trip. WHW from tyndrum to Devils, along the ‘pipeline’ to the dam and then the singletrack to Chiarain bothy. Lovely big bothy to ourselves and the singletrack to it is pretty good. From the bothy to Loch Treig deteriorates, but fairly short hike. From Loch Ossian YHA, we used to newly resurfaced and pretty smooth ‘Road to the Isles’ past the old Corrour Lodge and on to Ben Alder Cottage. Returned the next day via train from Rannoch.

ST from Bwater Res to bothy

Trail to Loch Treig

Bookmarked!

Lovely. I need to go look at the new Road to the Isles!

Ahh… Interesting! I was looking at the Road to the Isles from the train and thought it looked like it had had some work done! This opens up some excellent ‘gravel’ potential from the central belt now, as there are some great links to Rannoch from Killin etc.

It’s comfortably smooth enough for a CX/gravel bike.