Loch Lyon Watershed

Loch Lyon Watershed

A running friend of mine, and fellow Marilyn-bagger, gave me a call earlier in the year regarding an 11 hill epic run. Loosely based on the watershed of Loch Lyon, which if kept to the strict definition would 'only' take in 5 Munros and 4 Corbetts, he guessed the distance at around about 50km (30 miles in old money) with 4000m plus of ascent. My rule of thumb for long hill runs seems to work out at about a Marilyn an hour plus a couple of hours. So I estimated it would take about 14 hours. With that in mind I stocked up with a rather random selection of fruit pastiles, sesame bars, chocolate, flap jack, honey roasted nuts and my new wonder food - Chicken Jalfrezi chunks in soft white rolls! After my experience on the Glen Etive 11 there was NO Complan on the menu. It all added up to quite a hefty weight.

I met up with Dave in Pubil by the Hydro road to Killin on Friday night and awoke to almost perfect weather. Looking down Loch Lyon however it was evident that the weather was not going to last. Easily we trotted off down the road and then up the first hill, and Munro, of the day - Stuchd an Lochain. The going was good. Grassy underfoot and little evidence of peathags and deep heather. In fact the whole run was remarkable good running. Perhaps something to do with the underlying geology and the grazing pressure from sheep and deer? It certain made a nice change from the usual underfoot conditions on Marilyn missions.

We continued anti-clockwise bagging a couple of grassy Corbetts on the way, both with some impressive views over Rannoch Moor. So far so good. Early niggles sorted themselves out and there was enough of a view to take the mind off the effort involved. A of botanising on the way helped pass the time finding all the kind of things you would expect- moss campion, cloud berry, bilberry, trailing azalea to name a few.

The more we headed West, the lower the cloud dropped and the colder it felt. Just as we were beginning to drop down to the deep bealach from where we would have to get up onto Beinn a Chreachain I had to put on another layer. At 1081m it is the biggest hill of the route (by a few meters) and it felt it. I always have a bad spell during long runs and even though we were only just over 3 hours into the run, I had hit the wall. It is for these situations that I have my MP3 in the bag. I know that die-hard mountain men would deplore the use of non-traditional tactics, but it really does help. A good bit of German Rock got me up the never-ending grass slope into the clag and rocks.

The weather just got worse and worse. It deteriorated from a fine mist first to dreich then right on through to minging. By the time we reached Beinn Mhanach I was soaked, cold and all my toys were out of the pram scattered somewhere in Gleann Cailliche in the gloomy depths below. I was all for giving up. A jalfrezi bap and a clearing in the weather provided, together with stern manly words from Dave, suitable motivation for the rather uninspiring sequence of 3 Corbetts that were to follow. The scenery was spectacular I admit, but I challenge any hillwalker or runner to wax lyrical about 35 degree grass slopes that seem to go on for miles. At the least we had a temporary respite from the rain and I managed to dry out.

Typically, we ran right back into the rain for the last 2 Munros. The navigation was tricky in the thick weather, but after a steep decent through rocky outcrops from Creag Mhor directly to the bealach we at last found a good baggers path up Beinn Heasgarnich. An easterly bearing from the summit took us down to the Hydro road and back to the tents for tea and medals some 13.5 hours after we started.