I though to jot down some notes as an aid to other Scottish road trippers, based on last weeks experiences of my solo road trip 

Tuesday 21st:  was camping at Lochy campsite just near fort William – large well drained site with clean showers and toilets and tumble driers and friendly too. Nice weather as not windy and some sun and a little cloud. Rode bike to  Nevis range on the cycle track next to road. Was an hour early for the gondola so did a lap of Witches trail -look  out for some fun shortcuts made by locals! At 10,15 the lift opened (30 pounds for the day) and I managed four runs of the red trail. There was no one else on the trail that morning . The first was tentative walking a few bits. The boardwalk feels exposed but is ok. There are very few places you need to pedal and you have brake a fair bit  to line up for rolling the rough slabs. The third run I got a bit cocky and fell off the woodwork but had a squishy landing so was fine. The concentration required to ride this is very high and to an xc rider like me it feels like a moderate dh run but very long. My overall opinion is excellent. Recommend pads.

Wednesday 22nd terrible weather so I decide to ride over some hills! Started at Mamore Lodge near Kinlochleven ignore sign about locked gates as they don’t even though the lodge has now shut down (which is sad). Ride along the rocky land rover track to loch eilde more and then the pipe path to black water dam. This path is terrible and I got miserable half carrying and slogging though bogs for ages in the torrential rain. I eventually slogged along to the Ciaran path back to Kinlochleven and this was good. Lots of slow moves over tricky blocks and slabs in a stunning gorge. The terrible rain had made the steams explode and two were thigh deep white water  and very powerful in dangerous positions over the gorge. I got swept away on one and nearly lost my bike. I’m sure they are normally just trickles! Hot chock at ice factor was welcome in my half drowned state.

Thursday 23rd I paid my second trip to Laggan Wolftrax.   Very gentle fire road climb or there was a trailer uplift running. The upper and Lower red are fun with the upper being the easier. I still don’t have the bottle to roll the big slab it just looks too far! The boardwalk at the end is damn slippy so take care. The cafe was basic and a little grubby and not that friendly but weather was nice and I sat outside drinking coffee and chatting. Then the black… This is a tremendous trail and hard enough to have me walk  some of the hardest bits. The designer has strung a route connecting big slabs festooned with wheel traps. You really need to sight them before riding, or carrying down if they are too much as four were for me. On the plus side granite is very grippy just don’t fall on it.

Saturday 25th i was staying at Glenmore lodge just B&B – really good friendly with bike store (byo lock) bar food pool gym. I had a bomb about for a couple of hours around the forest in the rain failing to find the Badaguish trails made for SSWC. But I ride up to rothemurchas lodge and stumbled along the bog  track to larig gru. The singletrack descent back to the wood is excellent fun but watch out for sniper rocks hiding around blind corners.

Sunday 26th as part of my return south I stopped at glentress  near Peebles. I bashed around the red trail in about two hours. Very friendly and fairly busy but all fun. Spooky woods you barely need to brake just hit the corners full on. Matrix and mouse trap need more attention and are nicely roughed up. The road past Innerleithen to Moffat was really scenic too. 

Excellent, thanks – sounds like my holiday next year!