The great thing about Strava is spotting routes others do that you haven’t. They might be whole new routes or take trods* that you haven’t done before, or take directions and circuits into areas rarely travelled. I have a rule in the Pentlands: if you see a trod that you haven’t ran, take it instead of your usual path.
Ken Fordyce’ “Sunrise Run” met the ‘not run it in that direction’ criteria. I put a Facebook message up and Mike, Nikki and Ivor plus dogs Barra, Oscar and Meg met me at Flotterstone in the pouring rain. The route contours Turnhouse from the 2nd gate above Glencorse to the wooden bridge. It continues to follow the various wool lined trods below Carnethy to meet the left side of the Loganlea dam and beyond it rises around to the stone circle above the reservoir. So far, so runnable.
Now an ever steepening climb up the grass, moss and heather of the North Face of Carnethy gets your heart, lungs and legs thumping. It is quite brutal after the previous sections. We arrived in a cold windy blizzard at the cairn and scurried off of the top to re-group out of the squall before descending to the col before Turnhouse. Through the gate, we turned rightwards, now in glorious sunshine, to skirt through the heather around Turnhouse back to the gate and downtown Flotterstone for a nice hot chocolate in the cafe (thanks Nikki). 9.5km, 500m, 1hr 40mins if slow like me. Most is run off the usual paths which I love. Enjoy.
* a trod is a small path made by sheep, deer or maybe cows. The best are narrow, green and not too muddy. Trods are the routes punters don’t usually take.
Mark Hartree