Finally got around to using my own list again, with a wee four day, 100 mile tour of three bothies in south west Scotland.
Parked the car in the village of Straiton in Ayrshire and set off on Sherpa into Galloway Forest Park to spend the first night at Tunskeen bothy, access is easy with only the last km being on a rougher track requiring the odd bit of walking. Nice bothy, very roomy inside and good stove to get a fire going.
Next day, carried on through the forest park around the edge of Loch Doon and out to the main road near Dalmellington, couple of km on the main road then took minor road east into Carsphairn forest and onto forest tracks up to Sware Brae near new windfarm. Due to windfarm construction works and traffic I cut off the track early and headed downhill across rough country to the Bow Burn and then followed that over hard going tussock grass to eventually reach Clennoch bothy, which does not have a fire
Day three, headed south from Clennoch on fairly good estate tracks and minor roads to St John's Town of Dalry and from there minor roads to Clatteringshaws Loch in Galloway Forest Park again, forest tracks took me the last few kms to White Laggan bothy, which is in a great location and has a stove
Final day, through Glen Trool out to minor road then turned north and headed up over Nick of the Balloch pass back into Ayrshire and back to the car in Straiton.
Great wee trip in superb weather.
Left the panniers at home for this trip and decided to try 'bikepacking' style travel, with my sleeping bag slung over handlebars in an
Alpkit Airlok drybag and my Thermarest held in a
Gorilla Cage, with everything else in my more traditional Carradice Super C saddlebag.
The observant will notice from the photos that initially the saddlebag was attached to my saddle via a Carradice Classic rack but later was mounted on my normal rear rack. This was because the combination of weight and rough tracks caused the saddlebag to bounce around a bit and the tangs on the classic rack bent the saddlebag loops on my saddle and the tangs could no longer hold the bag in place. I think if I had been on good road surfaces everything would have been fine though.
Photo slideshow of trip here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rualexander/sets/72157665521169960/show?rb=1