Cycling day 26: Lanark to Aberfoyle

Today’s cycling was a little over 70 miles. I started out on the A72 which got me to the outskirts of the greater Glasgow area. I then followed a road closed for resurfacing (a great advantage for cyclists is that you can often become a pedestrian to weave through these works if necessary), and met up with National Cycle Route 75, which more or less followed the Clyde.

Several miles along the Clyde I needed to make a small diversion from the cycle route simply because it no longer exists! The M74 is being extended across the cycle route’s path, so the path itself is temporarily severed, but you can skirt around the edge of the works.

A few miles further on the path was closed completely without any signed diversion, quite typical in Britain. I’d just started to figure out a way around when along came another cyclist and he led me to the other side of the closure, which he guessed was due to construction work for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow. The help around the closure was very helpful, thanks!

On the opposite bank of the Clyde to the BBC Scotland building NCR75 connected with NCR7. I then followed NCR7 for the rest of my journey. I’ll be following it for several days now.

I stopped for a few minutes rest at Old Kilpatrick, on the western edge of the greater Glasgow area. Whilst I’d stopped the rain started to come down quite heavily. Luckily I’d stopped under some trees, so I kept mainly dry. After many minutes it became clear that this was more than a quick shower, so I donned my waterproofs and got cycling again. Afterall I still have about 30 miles still to cover.

A little further on at Dumbarton NCR7 heads northward following the river Leven, almost reaching the edge of Loch Lomond. It then heads across country and slowly upwards using quiet roads and a couple of stretches of former railway line. It passes along the edge of the Loch Ard Forest, soon after reaching Aberfoyle at the edge of the Trossachs and the place of my overnight stay.

Tomorrow will start off with a climb of more than a couple of hundred metres over the course of only a few miles through the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park then I’ll be following the edge of Loch Venachar towards Callander. I’ll then be following Loch Luhnaig to my stop at Strathyre, dwarfed all of the time by the peaks above me.