Month: March 2017

Paddlers: Mel and Geoff

Weather: Cold and Overcast. Light breeze from the south.

Route:

Report: The north end of Loch Lomond is usually ignored in favour of the islands or Loch Long or the Clyde. It has, however, its own attractions; a fiord like landscape, a lovely isle and its own canal. The last of these was dug out on the bed of the Allt Arnan to extend the water route to the West Highlands as far as possible in Glen Falloch to the Drovers Inn. It still exists but paddling it between the fallen trees is something of a challenge if still possible.

We started at the car park by Loch Sloy where you can get down to a couple of small beaches. From there we headed up the loch, past Ardlui and on to the Falloch. Where it suddenly turns east the canal can be seen behind a hedge of tree branches.

Pushing through the canal carries on for around 1km which is navigable, albeit with a lot of twisting and turning through fallen trees. It eventually widens (a turning circle?) but we could not even get into it and landed with some difficulty.

The Drovers is about 100m away.

The Drovers serves a good, if expensive bowl of soup; ideal for the cold conditions we experienced. The paddle back south was into the breeze which was noticeable without significantly impeding progress. The cloud covered the tops but was high enough to expose the snow still lying.

We stopped for lunch at the ruined hamlet of Ardleish and the lovely Island I Vow which has a nice camp site and a castle with a dungeon.  We arrived back at 4pm having left at about 10.30 and had over an hour for lunch at the Inverarnan and Ardleish. The total distance was just under 20km, a cruisng rate of just under 5kph; 3 knots.

The winter of 2017 will not be regarded with affection. The Ski Centres have only managed to open for the odd day and then with very limited skiing. On the water the wind has prevented a number of planned trips and the overall drabness, rain and cold has limited the appeal of those that have run. In earlier blogs two trips to the Loch and to Lake Menteith are reported. In this blog 2 Training and 2 Midweek are recorded.

Clyde 1st Feb  Paddlers: Dave, Geoff Weather: Grey and greyer, Report: A “why on earth are we doing this”  trip from Craigendoran up the Gareloch and return. Seals for company, of course, and some porpoise. Important information: you can get right along the shore under the small bridge at the Marina, land at the internal slip and have excellent coffee and cake in the cafe.

Training Luss Sat 4th Feb Paddlers: Euan, Geoff, Steve, Olly, Colin (?) and ?    Weather Grey and breezy  Report The weather relented just enough to allow the first of the Basic Skills training paddles to occur.  The water pouring down the river prevented progress through the bridge and caused a couple of hairy moments in the trees.

 From the river the group managed to the beach at Inchtavannach and after a break on to the seal lunch islet.

The paddle back was uneventful but very useful in the context of training, and got us back in time for us to see the Scotland Ireland international.

Clyde 1st March Paddlers: Damien, Geoff, Peter , Callum +3   Weather: The one lovely day in January and February

Report  A  couple of last minute emails and a good weather forecast saw 7 of us gather off Helensburgh pier for a paddle.

A leisurely paddle and a lot of chat took us over to Newark Castle (the east end of Port Glasgow)

and then across to a beach in Cardross for lunch.

Another leisurely paddle after a prolonged lunch and we were home. A good day.

Training: Lomond Shores Sat 11th March Paddlers Euan, Geoff, Steve, Melanie, Adele and Stuart.  Weather: Calm and Grey   Report This was the second Training session for the Basic course and sadly the re-arranged date did not work for most paddlers. Those that came experienced an enjoyable session getting to grips with canoes and solo paddling under Euan’s excellent instruction. The route saw us across to Balloch Castle, down (and back up) the river and across to the Cameron House boathouse. Information: It is possible get up the east side of the river under a small bridge to minimise the impact of the river flow. An excellent morning and back in time for the big game.