LEJOG Day 25 - Balloch to Callander

Very windy and rainy yesterday afternoon / evening.  Glad we planned on an evening in.  There was no interest in walking back into town in that!  Can still hear the wind whipping about this morning, hopefully it settles down.

We’re at the foot of Loch Lomond. No cruises yesterday, but we’d already done one a few years ago on another tandem trip up here.  Steve mentioned in his comment post yesterday that his grandmother Edith Campbell Hesketh tandemed up to Loch Lomond with her fiancé or husband (there’s a debate about which!) in the 1930s.  This is what we imagine they looked like:

55 / 13 degrees today, gusty from the southwest at 30mph, high teens mph winds.  The rain in Callander is supposed to start around 4:00, need to get there.  38 miles today, with a couple of hills and plenty of ‘undulations’ to get our legs back into hills mode.  There is a forest track on the route that I’m looking at with suspicion…

We left windy Balloch through a very large park / former estate  and then headed off onto the quiet single lane roads.  Plenty of good cycle paths, plenty of quiet roads and mostly amazingly remote.  There was nothing up on the hills but us, the wind and the occasional waterfall.  We wound our way closer and closer to the hills, the really big hills, until we were surrounded on all sides.  

We’ve gotten to know the Sustrans routes and their idiosyncrasies.  Today there was a a track section, 9 miles.  The book said okay for mountain bikes, off road bikes and touring bikes - gravel road, packed earth and stony path.  We headed for it with a view that if it looked too rough we’d find an alternative route.  

We climbed the first big hill of the day, had a rest and a snack at the top.  Flew down to the bottom, up the next smaller hill, dropped down into Aberfoyle for a soup snack and then began the second big climb.  Got to the turn for the track.  There was yet another warning sign saying this constantly eroding route was only for mountain, off road and the strongest of touring bikes.  We got the message - this route was not for us!  

We decided continue on and take the Duke Pass instead.  I haven’t done a pass before, but I did not want to take that track!  It was on an A road, but the traffic didn’t seem to be to be too bad.  We headed up.  Very Alpine zigzagging back and forth as we climbed further and further.  As we neared the top, there was  just us and the odd passing car.  Desolate, windy and you could see for miles.  We came over the top and could see the mountains in the distance and the lochs down below.  Rode along the side of 2 lochs until we got to Callander.

‘Interesting’ hotel, but even more interesting - there’s a Jazz & Blues Festival on this weekend and it starts tonight!  Listened to a guitarist & singer over cocktails, had a nice bistro dinner (finally had salmon (they must export it all), and Steve had haggis chicken again, which is oddly good) and then went and spent a couple hours listening to New Orleans jazz - what a treat!

Starting to see the hills in the distance

I have been looking at the different types of red berries alongside the roads for close to 800 miles now

Patiently waiting while photos are being taken

Cows, with much bigger hills (mountains?) in the distance

Fantastic rail trail

Don’t see these often

Love passing the castles

Why cyclists need to dismount 

Rather narrow bridge

Slow Hobbits

Highland cow (might be my favourite picture so far)

Can see for miles as we climb

Desolate, empty up here

Dukes Pass climb

Hey, Wikipedia said the pass was 740 feet high! 

At the top of Dukes Pass

Hills all around us

Castle, stately home?

Loch

One of Steve’s favourite words

Loch Lomond Brewery

Managed to fall into a Jazz & Blues Festival

Autumn leaves

Fewer cask ales

Caladonia’s Best - another good one 

Bistro dinner

Finally, salmon!

New Orleans Jazz 

Tartan Special - Steve hadn’t had this one for 40 years, and now remembers why 

Great time out in the town of Callander, after a great day’s pedal. I did my first pass! Would come again for the Festivsl.

Although the second band just came on - need to find my earplugs…

Notes on gear:

We planned and planned and planned some more before this trip.  Since we’re now 25 days into this trip, might be useful to look at what was planned in terms of what’s working well and less well so far.  What’s working well:

- Baseball cap (for me) - perfect for keeping rain off my face and sun reflections off the inside of my glasses (less of an issue since cornwall)

- Yellow lenses - really brighten up cloudy, grey days

- Leggings - lightweight in the South, fleece lined as we’ve moved further North - awesome, wear them every day

- Motorbike thermal jacket - made to go under motorbike leathers, but looks okay as a casual jacket.  It’s like a combo of weatherproof scuba fabric and fleece - warm, warm, warm!

- Elf boots, aka cycling shoe covers - keeping our feet warm and dry.  My neon green ones are ridiculous, but I do feel like we’re more visible pedalling along on a grey day

- Panniers - Orbit, 4 of them, staying nice and dry

- Shower cap - protects my camera / battery case in the rain

- Chamois Cream / Sudocrem - they just work.  Worth trying a few brands of CC to find 

- Reusible ziploc bags - great for packing up stuff for second breakfast and not throwing out plastic bags every day

- LEJOG spreadsheet - lists days, places, miles, where we’re staying - refer to it several times daily

- iPhones for maps, photos, comms, research

- Komoot app w/ the Sustrans route gpx files - this might the overall winner (except for the bike) in terms of making this trip more doable.  The National Cycle Network signage is pretty good, but sometimes we miss things and being able to see that we’ve gone wrong in a matter of feet rather than miles makes such a difference.  (When doing the Coast to Coast a few years ago, we went about 4 miles out of our way before realising we were off the route, very unpleasant considering we weren’t doing anywhere near the number of miles we’re doing now!)

- Orbit tandem - some of the best money we ever spent

What’s working less well:

- Rain jackets - have waterproofed the darn things 3 times and still getting wet.  They aren’t warm, and are cold and clammy in the rain

- Shoes for after pedalling / days off - can’t walk around in the clackety-clack cycling shoes once we’re off for the day.  Need something lightweight, black, that can be worn to walk miles often in the rain.  Sketchers perhaps? 

I’ll do a ‘glad we brought that we didn’t use, would bring again’ list at the end. 

The cask ales are of fewer varieties now, we’re in whisky country.  Planning on trying a ‘wee dram’ here and there as we head further north.