The plan for today was to go and bag Lendrick Hill, followed by lunch, then followed by the bagging of Innerdouny Hill, and, if there was energy and motivation, Steele’s Knowe as a sweet course.
Didn’t quite work out like that, in fact , I’m a bit ashamed that I bailed out of this expedition a bit early.
Cudder done more….
Anyway – After a little navigational distractions on the Stirling road system and twice taking the wrong road, I eventually arrived at the bottom of Lendrick Hill. This one is on a minor road just Northish of Yetts of Muckhart and is half-covered in forestry (and the other half not covered in forestry.)
We trotted off up a forest track and soon came to a part where the forest and the unforest were only a few yards apart. As I had no idea if there was a big fence at the top of the forest rides – of the twelve-foot deer excluding type so difficult to get a struggling dog over, for instance, and encouraged by a “walkers welcome” marker on a post , I left the track and entered a damp tilted jungle of enormous grasses and deep bracken and steep tussocks. More posts with welcome signs on them encouraged more upward progress, and so we heaved and stumbled upwards, thrashing and falling, tripping and tangling. A flock of sheep on the other side of the fence sniggered.
After an age, during which both me and superdawg grew beards, we emerged on the hilltop and, leaping the small barbed wire fence, we homed in on the summit furniture – in this case, an old cairn on a lump (maybe a tumulus?) and a trig.
A good, clear path lead us easily down a forest ride on to the track we’d daftly abandoned earlier.
Then it started raining. The nearby bigger lumps of Ochils disappeared under cloud and mist. We began to get wet.
I drove then to the car park at the foot of Innerdouny. This one has forest almost all the way to the top.
The drizzle drizzled ever more drizzly.
I just couldn’t be arsed.
I repaired to the tent, calling at the store in Thornhill for more celebratory stuff.
My daughter and her boyfriend arrived and pitched their tent.
We ate chillie and spuds and the sun came out.
The main Ochils group are much better than this – but I’ve been all over those hills and I was supposed to be doing something new.
Shudder gone up Ben Cleuch or something. Nothing wrong with these hills - not my finest hour, though. Baggers intent on Lendrick Hill should just follow the forest track and turn off at the cairn and post. Dhuhhh....
Didn’t quite work out like that, in fact , I’m a bit ashamed that I bailed out of this expedition a bit early.
Cudder done more….
Anyway – After a little navigational distractions on the Stirling road system and twice taking the wrong road, I eventually arrived at the bottom of Lendrick Hill. This one is on a minor road just Northish of Yetts of Muckhart and is half-covered in forestry (and the other half not covered in forestry.)
We trotted off up a forest track and soon came to a part where the forest and the unforest were only a few yards apart. As I had no idea if there was a big fence at the top of the forest rides – of the twelve-foot deer excluding type so difficult to get a struggling dog over, for instance, and encouraged by a “walkers welcome” marker on a post , I left the track and entered a damp tilted jungle of enormous grasses and deep bracken and steep tussocks. More posts with welcome signs on them encouraged more upward progress, and so we heaved and stumbled upwards, thrashing and falling, tripping and tangling. A flock of sheep on the other side of the fence sniggered.
After an age, during which both me and superdawg grew beards, we emerged on the hilltop and, leaping the small barbed wire fence, we homed in on the summit furniture – in this case, an old cairn on a lump (maybe a tumulus?) and a trig.
A good, clear path lead us easily down a forest ride on to the track we’d daftly abandoned earlier.
Then it started raining. The nearby bigger lumps of Ochils disappeared under cloud and mist. We began to get wet.
I drove then to the car park at the foot of Innerdouny. This one has forest almost all the way to the top.
The drizzle drizzled ever more drizzly.
I just couldn’t be arsed.
I repaired to the tent, calling at the store in Thornhill for more celebratory stuff.
My daughter and her boyfriend arrived and pitched their tent.
We ate chillie and spuds and the sun came out.
The main Ochils group are much better than this – but I’ve been all over those hills and I was supposed to be doing something new.
Shudder gone up Ben Cleuch or something. Nothing wrong with these hills - not my finest hour, though. Baggers intent on Lendrick Hill should just follow the forest track and turn off at the cairn and post. Dhuhhh....
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2 comments:
Congratulations on finding the hard way up - I used the path (smug grin). - Then I came down the hard way, wading through god knows all what(grin now wiped off face).
Ken - There should be a sign, or maybe a skull on a post which says "You'll be sorry" as you pass by on your way to the "hard way" (Its an old Popeye episode...!)
Everest The Hard Way, now Lendrick Hill The Hard Way. Ive still got bracken fronds in me underpants.
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