I've got a week's leave to use before the end of June. I'm doing JennRide (haven't decided which route yet) and I'll be in the van with both my hardtail and my burly gravel bike.
I generally lean towards gravel riding, but I'm open to suggestions. After JennRide, I'm planning to head up to Scotland for the week. I'm not interested in trail centres or really technical MTB riding, and while I can get a gravel bike down rough stuff if I have to, it's not really what I enjoy. I'd much rather do big days out on good tracks and remote roads.
I'm skipping Dumfries as I rode there last year, and I'll give Aberfoyle a miss because I've recently done the Old Grand Duke's route. I'm also not looking at anything around Kielder as I've already done Dirty Reiver and Newcastleton this year.
My initial thought was to do some day trips by ferry to Arran and Mull, then head over towards the Cairngorms. I've got all three Markus Stitz Scottish Gravel books, so I've got plenty of route ideas already.
Fitness isn't really a concern – I'm happy doing 50–60 mile gravel rides day after day, and longer if the route is good. I'm also happy to use the hardtail if there's a route that's a bit much for a gravel bike, but I'm definitely not looking for jumps, bike park stuff, or anything overly technical.
Any recommendations in Argyll, Perthshire, the Cairngorms, the Pentlands, or even around Selkirk for the journey home?
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There was a similar thread a couple of days ago and there were some links to both Perthshire and Argyle gravel-orientated websites which looked interesting
