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Mixing things up a bit! Remember Coinneach, my was supposed to be a hilldog that got sacked? Well 4 years on I'm giving him another try pairing him up with Zena for more adventurous walks since it is too much for Moss now and Dakota hasn't built up the stamina!
It's a bit different walking with him, for a start the pace is a lot faster - there is no stopping for lots of nice posing photos that's for sure, he is on a mission! Very much cani-hiking so will have to look at getting him yet another harness more suited to that
However, he did well and seemed to enjoy himself this time round so will have to see how it goes...
Our target today was a the Fiona Meall Dearg between Dunkeld and Aberfeldy as I needed to nip into Pitlochry and it was conveniently located with a track most of the way. We arrived early to try and avoid being out when it gets too hot and parked up in a layby about 400 metres north of the start of the track at White Cairn. Not the nicest road to walk along as there isn't much of a verge to escape onto, but we reached the gate and had a bit of a problem...it was padlocked shut! Easy enough for me to climb over, but harder to find a way through for the dogs and I couldn't get them to jump over. Fortuntely they managed to squeeze through the gap at the hinge side of the gate, just as well I'd brushed Zena yesterday as the additional fluff might have made it and even tighter fit!
Following the track we headed towards the forest. I'd brough extra water thinking the dogs might need it, but as it was there was plenty of water out on the hill. They do prefer drinking from puddles and burns than the stuff out of the plastic milk bottle! Walking along I looked up at all the various lumps and bumps of hills above. Finding which one held the summit could be fun! Just before the forest the track turned heading uphill, quite steep in places but easy enough going to a split in the track. We took the left, more uphill but the wind was picking up keeping those pesky flies away. Drawing closer to where we would need to leave the track to head for the summit (gps helped pick out the right lump!) I looked for a potential way up. At first the slopes were heather but then heading round to the other side there were some rocks and a grassy boggy section. Here we found faint traces of what seemed to be a path and we followed this. It disappeared in places, or seemed to split, but we made our way up. The ascent was steep in a couple of places, but not overly bad and eventually I spotted the top of the trig point and we headed straight for it. We're in July, and this is our first hill of the year
Various reasons, Zena had a wrist injury at the start of the year and then other things just got in the way, including the heat and I lost motivation a bit! The views from the top are pretty good looking towards Beinn a' Ghlo, Ben Vrackie, Schiehallion and others. Not bad for what really wasn't much effort.
We headed back down the same way, at the gate the dogs deciding that they couldn't squeeze through the gap that they had got in through...
- One posing photo on the way up!
- Coinneach looking very small next to his 'little' sister Zena!
- At the summit
- Coinneach not wanting to get a muddy bum!
- Can't squeeze through!
