A couple of Clashindarroch outliers

[Gordon Ballantyne]

These two tumps had been annoying me for a while. I'd put off doing them because I thought they were ripe for a bike assault, but didn't want Harvey to have to run with the bikes. In the end we did both from the Clashindarroch road and H enjoyed the trip and seemed to be in better shape than us.
Parked a little further along the track from Myrtice, as the original parkup was a bit overgrown. Room for two cars as GordonC had hooked up his braw bike carrier on his fine jalopy. In fact there was another place like this just a wee bit further along the track.

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As we de-bussed, a dogwalker came down the track with a large poodle and a straining young black lab. I popped H back into the car and allowed them to pass. The young lab seemed to fancy eating me but was thankfully on a short lead.
Readied our bikes,but mine seemed to be lacking power, so I fiddled with it until it sprang into life.of its own accord.
Off we went up the track to Finglenny. A short way up the track my bike died again, so after some more unsuccessful fiddling, elected to walk/push when I got too tired to pedal . The track wasn't too steep, so it wasn't too onerous. At the back of Finglenny, a sign said "no wind turbines here", which was obviously ignored as the turbines were scattered around the hillside - albeit not turning today ! Finglenny was undergoing some refurb and had a new roof. Think the folk doing the refurb were staying in a caravan at the back of the house.
We negotiated a locked gate just beyond Finglenny via a space at the side.

A stop on the track below Raven Hill

Continued pedalling/walking up to the back of Raven Hill where we parked the bikes.

The Bike parkup on the N side of Raven Hill

Sauntered up the track on the N side of Raven Hill, as a solitary raven patrolled overhead - croaking a way, then we cut up a firebreak into the trees.
There was a lot of brash overgrown by moss, but we tried to follow the animals. After a wee while of blundering around the summit area we eventually declared the highest bit we found as the top.

The top of Raven Hill

Trundled back down to the track and back to the bikes - unscathed.
Re-jigged ourselves and set off on foot for Red Hill. We noticed that the turbine folk had laid a high voltage cable alongside the track, marking it with warning posts and realigned the track a bit which was good for us, as we didn't have to lose much height.
Soon we were trudging up the track to the top of the hill, with a right turn along the top of the trees. Spotted a track leading to the top over the heather which petered out after a few metres. Fludged over the remaining tussocks to the fence and the top.

GordonC by the fence and tussocks at the top of Red Hill

Staggered around the summit tussocks for a bit in the clag then returned to the track. A wee bit of drizzle came with the clag, but it wasn't much. Just returned the same way to the bikes. Spotted that the hand throttle on my bike was jammed on, giving a error on the control panel. Flicking it off solved the problem and I had power all the way back - now that I didn't need it !
Harvey enjoyed the run back down, and although we stopped regularly to give him a breather - he didn't seem to need it as he was loupin around instead of resting !
Bet he sleeps well tonight though - I know I will !
Once out of the clag, the weather was fine. Somehow, the cars took us to our fav haunt in Alford for our, now mandatory coffee stop on the way home. Another grand day out.