Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)
  • West highland way
  • Robertwilkinson
    Free Member

    Anyone got some top tips for the WHW? Looks like a two day trip but don’t know what the climbing is like from Orchy to Fort William. Where the best stay over point? Would you do it in reverse as the best option? Considering a spring trip on a fatbike.

    winston_dog
    Free Member

    2 steep climbs. Devils Staircase coming out of Glencoe, pretty short. A carry IMO, and a steep climb out of Kinlochleven.

    Fantastic descent into Kinlochleven though.

    Which direction seems to split opinion, South to North for me.

    ivnickkate
    Free Member

    I did it about 10 years ago, from Fort William down. Most walkers were coming towards me, which helped as they could see me. Can’t remember much more apart from the rain.

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    eat_more_cheese
    Free Member

    Depends on your route…sounds stupid but if you’re doing it proper and taking the path on the east side of Loch Lomond then you’ll want to stop further south than expected. Don’t know how heavy your bike is but there’s a fair amount of hike a bike for 3/4 hours till you reach the north side of the loch. I would maybe suggest crianlarich as a stop to then give you a full day of good whw action the following day.

    Neil-F
    Free Member

    I did it North to South in May 2011, we did it over 3 days though. Devil’s was fun coming down the way, lots of climbing out of Fort Bill, a big climb out of Kinlochleven which was probably made worse by the 2 pints of Guinness we’d just had…… 😆
    We stayed at Bridge of Orchy bunkhouse (Not bad) and Inversnaid Bunkhouse (superb).
    As has been stated, the East bank of Loch Lomond is a good 3 hours hiking and carrying, unless your an athlete of sorts, and there’s a lot of bike pushing and carying around the south end of Loch Lomond too.
    I like to do it again in the other direction, the north end is by far the best and offers the best scenery and cycling. For me, the miles between Balmaha and Milngavie were pretty boring.
    Oh, and it rained for 2 of the 3 days, but I still loved it. 😀

    alansd1980
    Full Member

    Did it North to South in August 2011.
    What an amazing trip. Train out of glasgow about 6 on the saturday morning (with a hellish hangover and 3 hours sleeo) on the trail by 11ish. Dinner and the kings house and stayed over in tyndrum. Weather on the saturday was perfect and despite being a tough day think that saturday would go down as my best day on a bike. Sunday was pretty miserable but the trails were great. We avoided the north section of Loch Lomond because my mate couldnt face the hike a bike. We traveled very light and booked a B and B which is what I would do again.

    Would love to go back and have another pop at it!

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    I’ve only ever did it south to north, can only imagine how disappointing it would be to finish along that flat strath, and then ultimately in Glasgow. Saying that, fort Williams not exactly nice either. Worth going south to north as the descent from the top of the devils staircase to kinlochleven is far more fun than the staircase itself, and decidedly longer.

    Going that way, at least you have the feeling of heading into the mountains.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    I can see all the sensible reasons for doing it north-south but likewise I don’t want to start out in mountains and end up in a suburb.

    Aristotle
    Free Member

    We did it in September. We decided to do it south to north with 2 stops (2.5 days riding) -at The Drovers’ and The King’s House.

    We has fantastic weather for the first 2 days. The final day was a biblical deluge.

    The east side of Loch Lomond is good and nowhere near as difficult as many people make out.

    Between Loch Lomond and Rannoch Moor is good.

    Rannoch Moor is good.

    The Devil’s Staircase is a push, but not particularly long or much of a climb.

    The descent to Kinlochleven is good.

    The climb from Kinlochleven is good.

    I suspect that walking the route over 1 week+ would be a bit dull to be honest. Running it might be better.

    I’d recommend doing it on a bike. Great stuff.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Aye – but if you’re after a train back to civilization, they are a lot more regular (and less likely to be booked up) from Milngavie than from Fort William.

    Of course, the only proper answer to this question is to do it both ways 🙂

    rudedog
    Free Member

    We did it south to north with bikepacking gear in August this year – missed out the east Loch Lomond section as we didn’t fancy carrying the bikes+gear for a prolonged period. Camping gear isn’t necessary though as there are plenty of bunkhouses/hostels on route.

    It was a great trip – weather was good,scenery was great, not many midges and the paths were well maintained for the most of it (much better than the SUW)

    Spin
    Free Member

    Consider turning right part way down the devils staircase, riding to blackwater reservoir and coming down the ciaran path. A worthy inclusion.

    maddyutah
    Full Member

    If returning from FT Bill by train,it might be worth booking your bike on can be a few trying to get on.
    Loch lomand side north of inversnaid be ready to shed tears not fun in the darkInstead of pushing up from kinlochleven you can access the way by taking the road up past the Mamore hotel
    The end in glen nevis goes along the road to Ft Bill,there are tracks that will take you in via cow hill far better way to finish than on road

    Beware the anal types who will dis you if you dare deviate from the “official route”

    http://www.trailscotland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=5795

    some photos from my trip
    Good route you will enjoy it

    ivnickkate
    Free Member

    At the risk of starting another debate, think about sticking a bell on your bike.

    winston_dog
    Free Member

    The bell is a really good idea.

    I found that walkers were really happy to stand clear with a quick ding ding of a bell. Seemed much more friendly than shouting.

    balfa
    Free Member

    The bad bit of loch lomondside is being ‘upgraded’ as we speak. Not sure what it will end up like. I imagine it will make it more passible by bike. Its to be completed by April. Not sure if there are diversions in place till then.

    http://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/item.php?id=68520l

    Robertwilkinson
    Free Member

    Some great advice guys. I’ll check out youtube about the east if Loch Lomond just to see how hike a bike it really is. South to north sounds good. Maybe I might think about leaving car at ft bill and train back to milngavie so we have a drive back at the end.

    Spin
    Free Member

    Beware the anal types who will dis you if you dare deviate from the “official route”

    Pedants. Do the route that gives the most/best riding by your standards.

    westcoastmassive
    Free Member

    we did it north to south in may. took the 9am train from glasgow to fort william, which got in at lunchtime, started at 1pm and made it kingshouse (top place to stay, really comfortable and warm). kingshouse-inversnaid bunkhouse (great food and welcome, crap beds though) 2nd day, i thought that was tough enough with that bit at loch lomond chucked into the equation. last day from invernaid- milngavie took about 6 hours, but we did go up conic hill (awesome view, dont bypass that!).

    I would definitely reccommend the train trip through Rannoch moor, in fact the views from the train are epic all the way up. Early may is the best time to go for trips up here, any earlier and you might get snow in glencoe, any later and youll get midges! early may is summer on the west coast.

    westcoastmassive
    Free Member

    oh, and if you do decide to do it the way we did it, the premier inn in milngavie (called the highland gateway) let you leave your car in their carpark for the duration of your trip for a small charity donation, its right outside the police station so you know itll be safe there. its 2 minutes ride from the end of the whw.

    Robertwilkinson
    Free Member

    Thanks westcoastmassive. Tops

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    A worthy response, but if you’re not following the route the whole way, then you’re not completing the West Highland Way. And if you’re not completing the West Highland Way then there are lots of other, better, alternatives available. For a start, why bother doing Drymen to Milngavie at all?

    scottyjohn
    Free Member

    I have walked it a couple of times but more recently did a section as an enjoyable weekend. Train from Glasgow first thing Saturday to Crianlarich, then bike to Kinlochleven, (I found this enough for my fitness!) stay over then back on the train from fw on Sunday. Only section that used to be tricky for cheap accommodation was kings house, but the new log huts at the ski centre look perfect

    winston_dog
    Free Member

    why bother doing Drymen to Milngavie at all?

    Because it’s a lot easier to get to Milngavie than Drymen on the train?

    It’s actually quite a pleasant ride as well, nothing exciting but not unpleasant.

    You can visit the Glengoyne distillery as well. 😀

    I forgot about Conic Hill as well.

    lots of other, better, alternatives available.

    Not as accessible, or with an infrastructure that is really useful for a pleasant trip – luggage transfers, plenty of bunkhouses etc.

    maddyutah
    Full Member

    Scotroutes your like a dug with a bone

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    😀

    RRD
    Free Member

    I did it a couple of years ago. Sth to Nth and stayed in a B&B near Tyndrum from memory. Easily accessible route (ie transport links at start and finish) and enjoyable. Hike a bike wasn’t tough just a pain in the backside…
    I travelled light with just a spare t-shirt and shorts for the evening, worked well. Plenty of places to buy food so no need to travel heavy. Fort Bill train station has mega showers and you can hire a towel too do you can change for your train journey back. Make sure you book the bike on the train – I didn’t and had to wait for the sleeper!

    Sanny
    Free Member

    The tough carry past Inversnaid isn’t being upgraded. I tried the section from Rowardennan and to be honest it was a walk with the bike for much of it. Still, it was worth a go! The improvements should be awesome!

    I really like the Balmaha section heading in both directions.

    Ciaran Path for the win!

    Aristotle
    Free Member

    Before we did the WHW, we were expecting the northern east side of Loch Lomond to be extremely gnarly, difficult and long.

    In the dry weather we had, it wasn’t anywhere near as difficult as expected -Although it may well have been had we been carrying full camping gear!

    It was about an hour and a half(?) of enjoyable technical and non-technical riding interspersed with hike-a-bike and we caught up with quite a few walkers.

    If you’re only used to trail centres then it might come as a shock, but if you’ve done any riding in the mountains or over rocky moorland then it probably won’t.

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Jesus, Sanny posting on a thread that’s not about biking at 4000 feet! 😀

    mintimperial
    Full Member

    The east side of Loch Lomond is good and nowhere near as difficult as many people make out.

    Which Loch Lomond did you ride up? The first bit’s lovely, yes, but once you get past the ferry it’s a 3+ hour carry over rocks and tree trunks. Not pushing, proper awkward carrying on your back, for ages and ages, it is a right ballache. And the few bits you can ride have stupid **** square-edged wheeleating water-bars every few yards. Nothing could induce me to ever go back there with a bike again, it’s horrible.

    The rest of the WHW was pretty brilliant when we did it in September though, even with lousy weather on day 2. We stayed at Tyndrum, it was a 12 hour day on day 1 and a 10 hour day on day 2 and splitting it like that worked out quite well really.

    Sanny
    Free Member

    I hear you, Nobeer! Of course, you could always head up onto Binean Mor and traverse the Mamores for a proper variant on the Westie!

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    Jesus, Sanny posting on a thread that’s not about biking at 4000 feet!

    Sniggers.

    Aristotle
    Free Member

    Which Loch Lomond did you ride up? The first bit’s lovely, yes, but once you get past the ferry it’s a 3+ hour carry over rocks and tree trunks. Not pushing, proper awkward carrying on your back, for ages and ages, it is a right ballache. And the few bits you can ride have stupid **** square-edged wheeleating water-bars every few yards.

    It sounds like the same place, but with a much more difficult description! It really didn’t seem to take that long.

    Ah, water-bar dismounting would have made a big difference -I managed to ride almost all them on my hardtail (pedal hard, pop up the front wheel, hop the rear). A couple of them did defeat me, but I just heaved the front over whilst straddling the bike.

    FWIW, I rarely carried my bike on the WHW. I pushed it almost every time I had to dismount and mostly ‘lifted’ it by the bars (or top) tube when I found an obstacle. It seemed unnecessary and uncomfortable to carry the weight of the bike when it could be rolled/heaved over most obstacles and it was easier to re-mount for a short section if I was walking alongside it. It does work quite effectively for me. I’m probably better at “hike-a-bike” than I am at “bike” 😉

    I may be unusual, though, my friends did carry their bikes a lot more.

    Nothing could induce me to ever go back there with a bike again, it’s horrible.

    I’d do it again. Some of Loch Lomond had me in that zen-like state, with the feeling that I was on the road to total enlightenment, with The Proclaimers singing the WHW anthem, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” in my head.

    cbike
    Free Member

    Three Lochs Way? almost Fully ridable alternative for Loch Lomond section with ferry links, accommodation and stores and fewer walkers to run over.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Aristotle – Member

    Some of Loch Lomond had me in that zen-like state, with the feeling that I was on the road to total enlightenment,

    I’ve had that twice at Glentress, with less walkers and faster cake access.

Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)

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