Hanging dog, A&E trip, covered in dog pee and lost map bag
Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 7:11 pm
Attracted to this walk by the description of the rocky scramble at the start and thought that this would be a great opportunity to test our scrambling "skills" to see if we'd ever be up for a Cullin or two, ended up in our poor dog hanging from a wire fence by one painfully trapped paw and me having a trip to A&E .
The walk began at the "benched" layby with a climb almost straightaway that soon required all four limbs.
We did fine but doggyboy, Nudge, slipped off a couple of tricky slidey rocks and a helping hand was needed to boost him on his eager way. Really steep and rocky to begin with, with a few creative detours to continue our ascent.
As we scrambled higher and higher, the boulders gave way to tall bracken (and lovely hungry ticks) . Great views opening up nicely now.
Not sure what was worse, the steep bracken slopes or the shin splitting boulders. With the ascent came an increasingly strong wind and we struggled to keep our footing in places.
The fence is reached but a little tricky for our dog.
Once we reached the ridge
and began to scramble up the first steep side
disaster struck as the map bag which was in Alice's possession was ripped from her neck by a particularly fierce gust of wind and flew off in a NE direction across the mountain.
We spent 20 mins looking for the map bag but no joy.....and we returned to the rocky ridge path and our ascent to the summit cairn.
Hunkered down out of the wind for a rather cold lunch stop
and then dropped straight down from the ridge to a plateau below which ended 30mins later with David triumphantly clutching the blow-away map bag in a spot not 30metres from where it had been torn from Alice's neck. Result!
Walked back up to the ridge and got back on track to continue our descent as per the WH's route. All peachy until the point when the ridge ran out and we found ourselves corralled between two wire fences. The three of us stepped over quite easily (in the absence of a stile) leaving Nudge to last so that he could show off his impressive jumping prowess to the camera.
Huge trauma as Nudge caught a back paw painfully and firmly between the top two wires (mercifully not barbed) of the fence. He tumbled groundwards being suspended horribly by his one trapped paw and yelping in anguish.
We all rushed in to help him with me and David trying to pick him up to prevent his leg from breaking under his body weight. Alice tried to prise the trapped paw free but our poor dog was firmly trapped. David then took on the task of freeing our sorry boy with me and Alice holding him aloft. David's strength did the trick and our blood-soaked Collie stopped yowling and bounded off free with nary a hobble but not before peeing down my right leg whilst I was helping free him.
With Nudge free and his paw intact we puzzled at where all the blood was coming from. The adrenaline wore off and an incredibly painful puncture wound in the side of my middle finger soon answered that. It would seem that our gentle soft boy who in his terror had snapped out at me in my attempts to help him. Covered in blood and smelling of dog urine I got some 1st aid in the form of a waterflush , a sticky toffee and a hanky wrapped around my wound.
Next stop was the brilliant Aberlour Flemming hospital where a fab nurse gave me a much needed Tetanus shot.
Don't know what the nurse thought of the strong smell of dog urine wafting off of me!!! Oh the shame!
Walked, scrambled and limped home Sarah, David, Alice and Nudge
The walk began at the "benched" layby with a climb almost straightaway that soon required all four limbs.
We did fine but doggyboy, Nudge, slipped off a couple of tricky slidey rocks and a helping hand was needed to boost him on his eager way. Really steep and rocky to begin with, with a few creative detours to continue our ascent.
As we scrambled higher and higher, the boulders gave way to tall bracken (and lovely hungry ticks) . Great views opening up nicely now.
Not sure what was worse, the steep bracken slopes or the shin splitting boulders. With the ascent came an increasingly strong wind and we struggled to keep our footing in places.
The fence is reached but a little tricky for our dog.
Once we reached the ridge
and began to scramble up the first steep side
disaster struck as the map bag which was in Alice's possession was ripped from her neck by a particularly fierce gust of wind and flew off in a NE direction across the mountain.
We spent 20 mins looking for the map bag but no joy.....and we returned to the rocky ridge path and our ascent to the summit cairn.
Hunkered down out of the wind for a rather cold lunch stop
and then dropped straight down from the ridge to a plateau below which ended 30mins later with David triumphantly clutching the blow-away map bag in a spot not 30metres from where it had been torn from Alice's neck. Result!
Walked back up to the ridge and got back on track to continue our descent as per the WH's route. All peachy until the point when the ridge ran out and we found ourselves corralled between two wire fences. The three of us stepped over quite easily (in the absence of a stile) leaving Nudge to last so that he could show off his impressive jumping prowess to the camera.
Huge trauma as Nudge caught a back paw painfully and firmly between the top two wires (mercifully not barbed) of the fence. He tumbled groundwards being suspended horribly by his one trapped paw and yelping in anguish.
We all rushed in to help him with me and David trying to pick him up to prevent his leg from breaking under his body weight. Alice tried to prise the trapped paw free but our poor dog was firmly trapped. David then took on the task of freeing our sorry boy with me and Alice holding him aloft. David's strength did the trick and our blood-soaked Collie stopped yowling and bounded off free with nary a hobble but not before peeing down my right leg whilst I was helping free him.
With Nudge free and his paw intact we puzzled at where all the blood was coming from. The adrenaline wore off and an incredibly painful puncture wound in the side of my middle finger soon answered that. It would seem that our gentle soft boy who in his terror had snapped out at me in my attempts to help him. Covered in blood and smelling of dog urine I got some 1st aid in the form of a waterflush , a sticky toffee and a hanky wrapped around my wound.
Next stop was the brilliant Aberlour Flemming hospital where a fab nurse gave me a much needed Tetanus shot.
Don't know what the nurse thought of the strong smell of dog urine wafting off of me!!! Oh the shame!
Walked, scrambled and limped home Sarah, David, Alice and Nudge