Hello, does anyone have any good ideas/tips for a couple of days bikepacking route that is based around the Southern Upland Way?  I will be wild camping or hammocking.  Rather stupidly, I may be attempting this in late October, so I know some of it will be a boggy mess.  Are there any good fire road routes?  Not after anything mega technical, maybe 100 miles all in?

Any hints would be great.

Alex Pilkington has a page https://fatsterbike.com/2018/07/28/southern-upland-way-a-labour-of-love/ and is also collecting records for ITTs of the whole thing if you decide to have a crack at that!

No idea about what is the best 100m stretch of it but I enjoyed parts around the Tweed valley.  Makes it easy to combine with a trail centre ride in case you fancy that (I don’t always so may not be a consideration)

Edit: sorry I see you are specifically asking about avoiding big, for which my reply is pretty useless 🙂

Might be worth asking on the BearBones forum.

Phil Clarke (htrider) posted this about the SUW on his blog – http://philsbikepacking.blogspot.com/2015/04/dont-do-southern-upland-way.html – on the basis he likes “nadgery” moorland tracks it doesn’t seem like the best route for bikes.

An alternative might be Philip Addyman’s Northumbrian ITT route but you’ll need to check that the army ranges aren’t in use. You could hammock in the woods or if the weather turns there are (at least four) bothies on the route. My wife and I tried it between last Christmas and New Year but the snow was too deep on the border ridge so we short cut that section. Further snowfall the following night meant we didn’t do the last bit past Kershope either.

Wow, ok then.  Thank you for the links.  I see a pattern that perhaps it is something to attempt in better weather and perhaps with more time.

Mmmmmm….Maybe a southern Scotland road tour might be better in October!

It’s really tough apparently, detailed description here

I’m still waiting for someone to suggest a nice, rideable 100mile gravel / bikepacking loop in Dumfries & Galloway

I’m still waiting for someone to suggest a nice, rideable 100mile gravel / bikepacking loop in Dumfries & Galloway

Get the maps oot man, it’s fireroad hell doon there!

@cosmokramer – I’ve looked at D&G as a potential location for a steady 3 day trip at xmas but the forestry seems to be composed of isolated areas so you end up with lots of dead end tracks

You could come up with something using the odd bit of wee link road that would take in Glentrool, raiders road, SUW, windfarm stuff from Carsphairn over to new cumnock, and Loch Doon back down to Loch Trool.

@whitestone

aye this is the problem, new logging tracks constantly being added, the OS fogies can’t keep up and a lot of the tracks are dead ends servicing specific bits of woodland.

@nobeerinthefridge

sounds like you’ve got a gpx in mind waiting to be drawn up!! 🙂

Cosmo, use wheresthepathv3 (google it) to find out what actually exists on the ground. I then use Bing satellite, as it seems to be a bit more recent than google.

Cheers Nobeer that’s a good shout

I’m still waiting for someone to suggest a nice, rideable 100mile gravel / bikepacking loop in Dumfries & Galloway

I have a 300 mile route (not all D&G) I’ll share once I’ve had a chance to ride it over a few days rather than just in sections.

Though pouring over maps yerself is half the fun of course

…..waits with baited breath….

Not fancy the Capital Trail route? Did it in September and enjoyed it.

SupW….

Start at Sanquhar over to Wanlockhead, up to but not quite as far as the radar station. For biking purposes take the track down Enterkin Burn, the SupW track down from the radar station is a nightmare. From the end of Enterkin Burn join the road(Dalveen Pass) . You then have a couple of options(or 3)

1 Go left on road and pick up the SupW over to Daer Res.

2 Go left as above but take a right onto the old Roman Rd down To Durisdeer. From Durisdeer go left at the cemetery, up to Wedder Law and down to the Daer.

3 Gor right and then left to Durisdeer and then same as above.

From the Daer it’s up, up and over to Beatock and then Moffat. You pass Brattleburn bothy on the way.

Need to travel light as there are a couple of big push ups!!!!! First one straight out of Sanquhar, the next before Wanlockhead and the one up from the Daer being the hardest.

From Moffat it’s forest road, bit of surfaced track, estate road tracks and some hike’a bike over to St Mary’s Loch passing Pawhope bothy.St Mary’s Loch over to Innerleithen or Peebles. Not done any more than that.

I have done a 50ml ride on parts of the Annandale Way from Dumfries up to Beatock and back through Ae forest on some of the newer forest roads.

Wouldnt be too difficult to make up a route through Ae, Mabie and Dalbeattie utilising a few tracks here’there onc the coastal path between Portling/Kipford

http://s95.photobucket.com/user/bigjohnskona/slideshow/Polybikers%20Sanquhar%201012