Loch Doon to Dumfries

A 6:15 am start for the cycle home via Carsphairn, Moniaive and Routin Bridge guaranteed quiet roads and in the sunny weather Dumfries & Galloway was looking good. It made a change to be helped considerably by the wind. The state of the waterfall at Routin Bridge indicated that the area had not escaped the recent heavy rain.

Watson’s Grocery in Moniaive was good for a picnic meal and as usual the villagers were chatty. Another stop was at DG2 Wheels in Dumfries where Andrew Grant will do more work on the bike to prepare it for Leg 5.

Today’s stats were 46 miles with 2000 feet of ascent and 700 active calories. Over the 13 days the total mileage was nearly 600 (with average about 45 miles per day) and the average ascent per day was nearly 800 m.

Feeling not too tired on arrival back home, the opportunity was taken to complete a few tasks such as ordering a Burley Nomad trailer from BikeInn. Lap 5 will not start until this arrives in about a week. The next lap is intended to include Dalgety Bay, Crieff, East Daviot, Inverness, Aberfeldy, Killin and Glasgow. The aim will be to combine Sustrans routes with alternative quiet road sections in order to make reasonable, enjoyable progress on good surfaces. This will require some research into the various possibilities.