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I wanted to get out on the hills but with the end of term looming I was too tired to formulate a plan. So I messaged Colin, who made a plan. I followed said plan and we met, combined bikes on his rack
and headed up the road.
It was really nice to have some company and (for me anyway) the journey went by very quickly and we parked up on a handy layby on the Southbound carriageway near the Trinafour exit after Colin managed a very nifty manoeuvre to dodge the roadworks.
Bikes unloaded and boots on, released the Hound (just the one this time
) and set off up the track. This was Jura’s first time out with bikes so we were cautious at first
After an initial uphill, the track flattened out and we were into the trees. Here is Colin fannying about with his saddle.
The route ahead
Off I go
A short distance further, we emerged from the trees to a panorama of rolling hills. The sun was out and it looked to be a good day
Jura hadn’t quite got the hang of Humans on Big Metal Things, and there were a few close calls which made me realise I should probably sort my brakes out
A downhill section – gonna hurt on the way back!
Speaking of hurting….I’d come out on a bike with no suspension without my padded shorts. Rookie error
Me trying to work out how weak the bridge was…
We reached the Ford – fortunately the river was too low to cause any problems but we obviously got pictures during the crossing just in case of any…mishaps
I was the guinea pig…
Followed by Colin and Jura (who seemed to have finally got the hang of not committing suicide by bike
)
An Dun looked pretty steep….and Maol Creag an Loch impossible
We dumped the bikes by the fence and continued on foot, picking up a vague path.
Looking back towards Sronphadruig Lodge
Loch an Duin and the impossibly steep side of Maol Creag an Loch
We were enjoying the path and the banter until Colin said “Aren’t we supposed to be going up this hill not around it?”
We abandoned the path and ploughed upwards through heather and other stuff
Colin found a frog:
It was steep but nothing we couldn’t handle. The beauty of steep is it gets you up pretty fast
Looking back down the valley
Eventually we met something of a path and two people who we had passed on the ride in. Turned out the dude worked with Colin….small world
Colin and Jura having a breather (or a “photo break”
)
We reached the very flat top and the first cairn. According to the map this cairn and the next one are the same height, but we had to visit them both anyway so it didn’t matter.
Jura posing
Looking ahead to the second cairn and the other people
Back the way – an interesting skyline!
Carn na Caim – a big flat lump!
We moved onto the second cairn where some posing was in order
A’ Bhuidheanach Bheag and Carn na Caim
Summit rituals completed, we were off again. The ridge continued for a distance, but then we had to bite the bullet and head steeply down.
The Gaick Pass
A small knee twinge had me worried as we were in the arse end of no-where
but fortunately after some careful stretching it seemed to disappear. Easily across the river, we decided to have a lunch break. However, mid-sandwich the weather arrived and we hastily put on waterproofs. This gave Jura the opportunity to make a bid for freedom
Fortunately the shower didn’t seem to be passing anytime soon, so it was time to get going again. We had thought the forecast was to improve throughout the day
We had decided to cut off some distance and just head up the steep bit:
A glimpse of clarity
It was a case of head down and get on with it, and we gained height quickly although not necessarily with any dignity….Wet grass, need I say more?
Once up the worst of it, I spied a wee ridge heading diagonally upwards.
Colin following my ridge
The rain had finally eased!
This brought us out on a plateau. We could see the people ahead of us heading towards a large cairn (presumably the summit although it looked lower). There was a wee cairn fairly close so we decided to visit that too, making jokes about Corbett Tops
Are they even a thing?!
As I discovered later, it was a good job we did go there, as it was in fact the real summit despite having a diddly cairn
However, we made our way to the larger cairn for photos.
Colin and Jura
Jaxter being photobombed by Jura
Although the rain had let off for now, it was very windy and we didn’t hang around for too long. The route was easy from here – followed the ridge to the deer fence.
Doon
I think those are the Alder Hills in the distance?
Colin and Jura leading the way
The rain decided to return and leggings were hastily reapplied. We followed the deer fence through a bog and we were back at the bikes – hooray!
Weather…
Back on the bikes, we were racing against the weather. We overtook the others who were going to get pretty wet and pelted doon the track. Fortunately Jura seemed tired enough to stay out of the way!
Back at the forest we had just left the weather behind.
And we arrived back at the car in the dry. Celebrating prematurely, we ditched the waterproofs only for the rain to start and we got pretty wet putting the bikes on the car (especially Colin because he’s a gentleman
) My Fenix was telling me I’d burnt about 5000 calories as it thought I’d walked the whole way
It was a wet journey home and I felt the previous night’s lack of sleep catching up with me
Thanks again to Colin for the excellent company
