BikeVermont Scotland Tour
Day 3
Tuesday, 26 June 2001


Day 3 begins cool and cloudy with rain threatening. Our first pause is the Tay River bridge. As we're admiring the river view, a nearby thunderclap makes us jump. We zip up a little tighter and head on down the road. Soon we are pedaling along the shore of Loch of Lowes. We stop at the nature centre, where we go in the "hide" (a "blind" to us Yanks), where telescopes and a video camera are set up to observe a pair of nesting ospreys on the far side of the loch.
   We arrive in Dunkeld, where some of us get some welcome hot soup and a sandwich downstairs in the cozy Tappit Hen coffee house. We gather at the support van to get directions to the various sights in Dunkeld. One of them is the Dunkeld Cathedral ruins.
   A major highway cuts across our path, so some opt to get over it by riding in the van, while others opt to take the off-road trail that leads under the highway and along the River Tay. There are several steep downhill sections that we wisely decide to walk our bikes down. We meet up with the van at the end of the 2-mile trail, unload bikes and riders and continue on our way towards Kenmore. The rain comes down just as we start out. For the next 2 hours, or so, we ride in the rain. Not a good time to take pictures. Most of the way we're biking along the banks of the River Tay.
   Finally, the soggy cyclists arrive at the Kenmore Hotel in Kenmore, where the River Tay pours out of Loch Tay. A warm fire is going in the fireplace in the Poet's Room. Above the fireplace is the poem that Robert Burns wrote on the wall in 1787. After dinner we are entertained by the folk singer, Ewen Sutherland.
   Total miles: 36.7