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GUIDE TO THE RIVER LOY NAME OF RIVER: Loy. WHERE IS IT?: Near Fort William Drive out of Fort William on the road that takes you to the Spean and turn left at a big set of traffic lights. Then soon turn onto the B8004. Eventually you will find the river. PUT-INS/ TAKE-OUTS: Access is by driving almost to the end of the road and putting in at a small 'car park'. Or...put-in at Inverskilavulin Bridge, and take out before the tunnel, unless you are feeling brave. Below the tunnel you can continue to the Lochy, see below. APPROX LENGTH: 1 1/2 miles from the bridge. Longer from the carpark. TIME NEEDED: Unknown. ACCESS SITUATION: Unknown, but see also the SCA notes on Access. WATER LEVEL INDICATORS: Some Guidebooks say it is a spate river, but my Uni did it last year when it was at a lowish level. Needs heavy rain to paddle from the carpark. GRADING: Grade 3 when at moderate levels, when we did it at very high conditions some of the drops may have reached grade 4. MAJOR HAZARDS/ FALLS: At high levels there is a tree across the river at chin height that one of our group managed to hit. There is a tunnel at the end of this trip, described below. GENERAL DESCRIPTION: The upper section above the bridge is easily paddleable in heavy rain. Access is by driving almost to the end of the road and putting in at a small 'car park'. Generally it is just a fast moving body of water and a nice way to see the glen, however it does have one or two grade 2 falls and there is a weir halfway down. The weir can be paddled on the far right and offers an interesting 2-3 section. The left hand side should be avoided as it is a concrete step. The first bit from the bridge is quite tame (grade 2) but fast, then the drops come at you. There are about four or five in all. In fact they are all very easy to inspect on the way up as the road follows river on the way up. After the take out there is a tunnel 40m long and who knows what's inside! Any takers? Andy Evans adds: 'The tunnel does go. Quite exciting and dark! I remember there being a wave in the middle of it but the last time I did it there were no obstructions. You can take out river right just below and walk back up through the access tunnel, which if you have the river at a good level will have a minor stream running along it. Certainly a novelty.....' Jim Wallis adds: 'I noticed Andy Evans wrote an update, that the tunnel on the Loy does go. I believe he is recalling a trip in Jan '94 which is pretty good going! The Tunnel does still go (I ran it twice in Feb '99) but there was some work to the Caledonian Canal (under which the tunnel passes) and hence scaffolding in the river downstream of the bridge not visible from above. This was not a hazard when I was last there but I thought I'd mention it so people can walk through the access tunnel to check it out first if they like. An alternative finish (after running the Loy a couple of times) is to continue onto the River Lochy'. OTHER NOTES: Ron Cameron, April 2006...'The Loy got a lot of traffic yesterday; people having fun in the pre-midge season. while we were going down there was a group who were having fun of the other sort. a couple of them had resorted to a long tarmac portage, one lad endured a long separation form his boat and paddles and other bits went missing too. With more water it gets harder and when its really big it's a frightening sight. I just don't have the skill or courage to test the retention of the holes that appear at the bottom of the bigger shelves!' CONTRIBUTED BY: Chucky, David Smith dave@daveski.idps.co.uk, Jim Wallis, Ron Cameron and Andy Evans. |
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