Av. Trail Rating:
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Description:-
Leave the car park and cross the canal by the bridge at tag 1. Follow the road to tag 2, and turn hard right and follow this singletrack road for a couple of miles to tag 3, where you join the A82.
Turn left onto the footpath beside the A82, and follow this for 150m or so, before turning left at tag 4 onto the forestry road.
Follow the forestry road as it climbs steadily to the viewpoint at tag 5.
Its a fast downhill from tag 5 to tag 6, where the forestry road meets a tarmac singletrack roadway. Turn left and follow the tarmac until you go over the bridge at tag 8.
As an alternative, you can turn off at tag 7 onto another forestry road, which meets up with this route a mile or so further on.
At tag 8, you join another hardpacked forestry road, which makes its way up the hill past some trails in the woods to your left at tag 9. These trails can be followed for a while to get you off the forestry road while they run in parallel.
The forestry road climbs steadily, breaking out of the trees now and then to give good views to the north.
Keep an eye out for the building on the left at tag 10, which marks a left turn onto another forestry track, not quite as smooth or maintained as the one you just turned off. Follow this tarck to the old ruin at tag 11, where the track ends.
Cross over the fence on the far side of the ruin, and turn right onto the singletrack. This is where it gets a bit wetter and tougher.
At tag 12 there are a couple of fire breaks in the plantation, and the trail follows it's way up one of these. It's a bit boggy in places, and little more than bent grass in others. If it's wet enough underfoot you'll probably end up pushing a good part of the way here.
Another point worth mentioning is that the path on the ground here does NOT follow the route shown on the OS map. The OS map shows the path going directly through the trees. You can try that if you want - but it's a forestry plantation with no gaps !
Battle on up through the fire break where at tag 13 there's an option to turn left into another smaller fire break. The path can be so vague in places at this point that it's a guess as to which is the better way. I carried on straight until I met a fence, turned left along the fenceline and emerged from the trees at tag 14.
At tag 14 I couldn't see the path that was supposed to emerge from the woods, but found it off to my left at tag 15, where it looks like it may have been a continuation from the turn I didn't take at tag 13. But looking at the satellite view I'm not sure !
The path here is pretty rough in places, and can be very soft. It breaks out into good rocky sections here and there, but can also fade away completely, leaving you wandering about trying to find it again. You'll see an angle in a fence ahead of you at 16, where the path heads to, so this can be a good guide as to the general direction you want to head for if / when you lose the trail.
From 16 to 17 route finding can get quite difficult, as the path disappears on you, and you don't really have a line to follow or aim at. There could be a lot of pushing here !
As the path turns and starts to climb beside the Allt Cam Bhealaich at tag 17 it does get better. From 18 to 19 there's a steady climb, but at least you can see the end of the difficulties, and the start of the real fun at tag 19 ahead of you.
At tag 19 you get your first view of the descent down Cam Bhealaich. You're about to drop some 500m in less than 2 miles !
At the top there is quite a lot of loose rock on the trail, but there's a good base underneath. Occasionally there is nothing but stones on the path, but it's always wide enough to give you options when picking your route. As you descend further the path gets smoother, eventually turning into hardpacked grit at the bottom section through the forest, before you break out onto the forestry road at tag 20 with a massive smile on your face.
Turn left, and follow the forestry road to tags 2 and 1 to where you started.