Balquhidder
Journey Run
8th February 2004
The roads in Edinburgh
on Saturday night were treacherous. It had been snowing since
lunchtime and I thought the journeyrun was bound to be cancelled but blue
sky was peeking through on Sunday morning and when no phone call came
I skited on the ice up to Nikki's. The weather forecast
was bad for the hills which, Nigel reckons, means the opposite. And so
it proved. Apart from the wind at the high point the weather was glorious.
Sun, snow, exercise, good company. The only worry is that I'm soooo stiff now
- I hope I'm OK for the Carnethy 5 this weekend!
AN
Fifteen journey runners gathered outside the Kings House Hotel for the
notorious Balquhidder Rectangle run. A bitterly cold wind was blowing
so three went inside to fortify themselves with morning tea. The rest
of us set off to keep warm; along the new cycle track towards Lochearnhead.
The sun soon came out and there were several inches of fresh snow underfoot
so running conditions were very pleasant. We soon had magnificent views
down Loch Earn, then continued up Glen Ogle and on along the old railway
track into Glen Dochart. We stopped at the old railway station for lunch,
the edge of the platform making a good table for the cucumber sandwiches.
Just as we were getting chilled and ready to move off, the Tea Drinkers
caught up with us.
We left the railway for a couple of miles of heather-bashing towards the
pass at the top of Kirkton Glen, making a better job of finding the path
than last time. We were supposed to wait for everyone to catch up by the
lochan at the top of the glen but gale-force winds whipped up clouds of
spindrift so we went on to shelter for a while behind Bruce's Stone lower
down. We had a long, easy run down the forest roads of Kirkton Glen to
Balquhidder Church and Rob Roy's grave at the bottom. A couple of miles
of quiet road then brought us back to the Kings House. The bar was full
of walkers so we went to the restaurant for gallons of afternoon tea.
A good day was had by all and no-one got frostbite this time!
Nigel Rose
) Kingshouse car park |
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) Alan and Nikki as we start the climb to our high point |
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){kind=small} Spindrift |
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