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Too nice a day today to not head somewhere, and Birnam Hill was the chosen spot. There was a space in the parking area (another freed up before we started walking) and we set off under the railway and onto the ascent. Turning off the track onto a path, the gradient steepened giving me a bit of a workout given I haven't been doing as many hill walks as usual! The autumn colours surrounding us provided a distraction though.
At the signpost, we turned off the main path to visit the bridge with views towards Perth.
Continuing up, the trees gave way to slopes covered in brown bracken the well-made path winding along dipping down to the marker post indicating a short-cut cutting off a corner. From here we reached some steps, some are eroded and now a bit high for someone who is only 5'! There are more trees up on the top, the path becoming muddy as it made its way round to the summit where there were views all around.
Heading down it is steep going and remains steep for much of the descent, where it wasn't steep it was muddy
The noise from the A9 increased on the descent as we got closer to the road but for the most part the trees hid the view of the traffic (and the trains). A signpost pointed us in the right direction when reaching the houses, some very impressive buildings here! The road/track is followed for a while before a marker directs off onto an undulating footpath through the woods which eventually reached the main forestry track which led back down to the car park.
And in case anyone has been wondering why I have been quiet lately (I have done some hills, but they have been repeats and not worth doing another report on), I'll take this opportunity to introduce Dakota!
I started fostering her in January (wasn't allowed to post about her publicly) to work on some behavioural issues she had with the thought that she could join Zena as a hill-dog. Unfortunately it turned out her behavioural issues were down to pain, x-rays showed mild hip dysplasia. Despite this and strongly suspecting she wasn't going to be a hill-dog, in September we made her an official member of our family. Sadly upon taking her to another vet he diagnosed Lumbosacral Disease so she is unlikely to ever be joining us on longer hikes and hill adventures as a result of that, but hopefully we can start doing some of the shorter, flatter, easier walks on the website with her because she does love her walks and exploring new places!
Fortunately Moss is back in action and back to tackling hills again despite her spondylosis (thanks to her physio for helping her get fit again!) so Zena still has a companion for hiking with and I have my #1 hill-dog back!