Loch a Bhraoin Hills

The cottage at Lochivraon at the end of Loch a Bhroain.

Admiring the view from Groban.

Loch an Nid

Traversing beneath Meall Garbh on the Fisherfield ridge.

Running along on old river bed with Meallan an Laoigh behind after descending Coire nan Clach.

A hill runners flora - Part I

A selection of plants from last weekend's run in the Fisherfield.

Common eyebright (Euphrasia nemorosa) - it was apparently used to be used to treat sore eyes and also gives you physic powers.

Common Cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense) - partially parasitic. The similar looking Small Cow-wheat is very rare.

Dwarf cornel (Cornus suecica) - the berries are meant to be an appetite stimulant hence the Gaelic name which translates as 'plant of gluttony'.

Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) - one of my favourite plants because it eats midges.

Lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica) - this parasitic plant is more common with purple flowers. The name seems to come from common belief that ingestion of the plant by livestock would induce lice infestation.

I have identified the plants as best I can but there may be some errors. Let me know if I have misidentified anything.

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.

Getting back into the swing of things

It has been a longtime since I last posted. I have been trying to think why. Part of it most surely be that the weather really hasn't been that great for taking photographs (how much wind has there been this year???).

Over the winter I ran a lot of trails from my house in the middle of Inverness out towards Dores which sits as the eastern end of Loch Ness. I have managed to link up some great trails to get runs up to 23 miles with only a small percentage on road. The sections of track alongside the River Ness, when not knee-deep in flood water, are simply superb. Heading back to Inverness there are a number of high-level forestry tracks on the hillside above Dores. Invariably the wind is blowing you back to Inverness making the conifer plantations less tedious. The north side of the Great Glen has some fantastic routes too, Anyway, I have a small project in mind with the aim of making up some route maps of trail runs accessible from Inverness. It might take me a while though.

With my new-found enthusiasm for trail running I ran a section of the Speyside Way from Bridge of Avon to Spey Bay, a distance of some 30 miles and part of the race route. I don't know whether I was just having a bad day, but when I reached the end, which has a fantastic cafe at the Whale and Dolphin Centre, I was distinctly grumpy. In fact I rated the day on the fun-ness scale as a lowly 2 out of 10. The weather was okay, I had a great running partner and the flora and fauna were interesting, but I was still disappointed. Somehow the Spey remained elusive throughout much of the day only revealing coy glimpses through the trees, also there were quite long road sections. Even more surprising was the amount of hill on what should have been, I thought, a downhill riverside run. To be fair to it, the last section from Fochabers was lovely and it was all good training.

In order to restore my yin after some much (almost too much) yang the next weekend I went off up some hills - although after discussion with my Tai chi-ing wife apparently yin is associated with dark thoughts and yang with big bursts of energy - so perhaps that should be the other way around. I wouldn't know because a yoga teacher once told me that I didn't have any earth-force - no shit Sherlock. Anyway, back to the running. It was a nice steady (and highly recommended 8 out of 10 on the fun-ness scale) 10 mile Marilyn bagging trip over Mona Gowan via the melt-water channel of the Slacks of Glencarvie over to Morven. To return to the car parked on the A939 by Glenferzie, we jogged back in the sun along estate roads watching rain showers to the North and South whilst we stayed dry. Perhaps this karma thing does work, although then I would be guilty of mixing my religions. Is Daoism a religion? No idea, but I am sure Wikipedia will know....

Ben More Seven

The round over the seven Munros just south of Crianlarich is another one of those long hill running classics that just have to be done. A good forecast and low Munro count for the year so far meant that I was really keen to head down and get it bagged. The round is about 20 miles in length with 3000m of ascent and only a very small amount of road running. I parked at the Forestry Commission carpark just east of Crianlarich 'town centre' and headed east along the road to Ben More in effect doing a clockwise round.

It seems like most walkers take these hills in three of four chunks and the day was an exercise in linking up the 'normal routes'. This predominately involved big drops and climbs into and out of the deep bealachs that subdivide this group of hills. All of which were pretty rough and slow going. In contrast, the linking ridges all boasted well-worn paths and the odd bit of easy scrambling.

The conditions were fantastic with a think layer of cloud ending abruptly at 500m, above this it was sunny and warm with only faint breeze. Under these benign conditions the cloud in the glens didn't shift all day. In some of the bealachs the cloud layer was just about managing to creep over from one corrie into another, but generally it was a day of views and soaking up the sunshine.

The order in which to do the last two Munros, An Caisteal and Beinn Chabhair, was a decision I was unsure about - an still am. In the end I decided on climbing Beinn Chabhair last and then I ran down Coire a' Chuilinn to reach the West Highland Way at Derrydarroch. I wanted to make the run about 20 miles and also having never run on the WHW, I wanted to see what it was like. The corie was pretty awful underfoot and once in the mist it was an unpleasant contrast to the sunny tops above. There is an obvious ridge to follow if you finished on An Caisteal which would give a shorter, and probably more pleasant, route back.

As soon as I started on the tracks of the WHW my hips started complaining again - just as they had on my Fort to Fort run a few weeks earlier. I walked for about 10 minutes and then got bored so decided to 'man-up' and jogged what remained back to the carpark. I am sorry to say that Way just didn't float my boat, which is not to detract from the enjoyment that many derive from walking and running the route. The route took me 8h 45min at what I thought at the time was a gentle(ish) pace, however it took my legs almost a week to recover and so much for my off-season.

Fort to Fort

The Great Glen Way is much maligned amongst folk up here for being tedious and boring, but to paraphrase someone (Hamish Brown I think) 'there are no boring runs, just boring people' it remains none-the-less an attractive and logical challenge.

I thought I would just rock up and give it a go and see how far I got. I seem to be pretty tired much of the time at the moment, so even before I set off I was only aiming for Fort Augustus. A run from 'Fort to Fort' had a nice ring to it and it was the section of the GGW that I hadn't been on before - having cycled the Eastern section only few weeks previously.

Strangely (!) I was the only passenger on the 5.30am bus from Inverness to Fort William. It became apparent the close I got to the start that I hadn't picked a great day. I was chilled from the start with the first proper frost of the autumn and there was an atmospheric low lying mist. From the rather inauspicious start on a roundabout on the bypass, the first section was a mixture of narrow path alongside the loch and river before heading through some rather grim housing scheme roads. After about 30 minutes I was on to the canal which is followed until Gairlochy. The beech trees alongside the track were turning and remnants of mist clung to the utterly still water of the canal. Absolutely stunning. I had only a vague idea of the distances of each leg so I ran this flat section far too fast. I fact I was nearly half an hour up on schedule, but I was feeling great.

From Gairlochy the Way follows the northern shore of Loch Lochy along a fantastic little path, only forsaking the lochside for the road when the bank steepens too much. The views back towards Ben Nevis revealed it's north face, accentuated by clouds draped over the buttresses. I was still cold and to cap it all a head wind sprang up. Dropping onto a forest track after a few miles of quiet single track road I got the first twinges from my hips and thighs. 'A bit early for a rough patch' I thought and just kept on running hoping it would go away. Having driven down the shores of the loch dozens of times on the A82 and thinking it a small loch, I soon came to be proven otherwise. It just seemed to go on and on and by the time I reached Kilfinnan I was seriously struggling to keep running. The forestry track wasn't exactly interesting, but the views were still worthwhile.

Laggan Locks was passed and on to another delightful section of track through some woods, restoring my faith in the route. A quick crossing of the A82 to reach the disused railway which runs alongside Loch Oich. As the path wound through birch forest and my pace slowed, I decided that my hips hurt too much and called in a lift to get me back from Fort Augustus. With now no pressure to go much further, I just chilled out and enjoyed the countryside jogging as much as I could. At the Bridge of Oich it was back to the canal tow path. Running even on the flat was difficult, but necessary as walkers began to appear at regular intervals. There was no way I would be seen to have had to resort to walking.

After an age of trying to guess how far I had left to go and desperately hoping to see the locks at Fort Augustus around the corner, I arrived just 10 minutes short of 6 hours after leaving Fort William - the last section having taken some 20 minutes longer than even my rough schedule allowed.

So that was 50km or about 32 miles at an average pace of 5.3 mph, although the first section was dispatched at 7mph pace. Not great, but a nice little run and a great day to finish my running year on. A couple of months off running now for time to plan for next year...

Glen Etive 11

I have had an idea of running the Ben Starav Nine for a while, but I kept in at the back of my mind. I was put off by having to drop a bike off at the top of Glen Etive to get back to the start. In a quiet moment at work I was perusing the map when I came up with a new and cunning plan. If I added in the two Corbetts of Beinn Mhic Chasgaig and Stob Dubh the route would become a nice, neat circle with only a few hundred meters of common ground. The stats didn't seem too bad - just over 50km and 4500m of ascent or thereabouts and an estimate of 10 hours.

With the weather not looking favourably on a long run in the Cairngorms, along with a distinct lack of motivation for a long solo run in the dark, I decided last Thursday to have a go on Friday. Thursday night saw me in Glen Etive camped in the car ready for an early start. Even crammed into a Focus I managed to over sleep and it wasn't until six thirty that I was under way.

The day was perfect with only light cloud cover and a slight breeze keeping the temperatures almost perfect for running. Ben Starav, Beinn nan Aighenan and Glas Bheinn Mhor passed by in a blur. Fantastic running mostly all on well trodden paths following ridge lines and I enjoyed the inspiring views trying to put a name on the summits I could see. The summit cloud had by now all lifted. The next munros, Stob Coir' an Albannaich and Meall nan Eun seemed a bit out of place - more like hills in Cairngorms than the west coast. At least water wasn't much of an as each of the deep bealachs had their own burns. For the first time I was trying Complan - a meal substitute drink, but unfortunately I couldn't find any Nuuns tablets so I was relying on Tesco mini Scotch eggs for salt intake (!!!).

Having banged out the first five Munros in less than five hours I was pretty chuffed, but I knew now my estimate of 10 hours was going to be way out. It felt a long way to Stob Ghabar, but I was still enjoying myself and I savoured the views back to Ben Starav. A mini Aonach Eagach lead down to the climb up to Stob a Choire Odhair. Munro seven and seven hours in. I decided to take a beeline for Meall a' Bhuiridh for several reasons. There looked to be a big shower of rain coming through, the wind had picked up and when else was I going to be here to run through the bogs surrounding the Black Mount.

It was almost 2 hours later that I reached the ski-ing detritus on the slopes of Meall a Bhuiridh having survived a pretty intense rain shower and the man-eating peat hags of the River Ba bogs. After so much beautiful scenery it was all a bit depressing. It was now pretty cold with a bitter wind, my feet hurt and I was keen just to get on with it. A short steep scramble up to Creise. 11 hours and now I was on my way home. Could I do it or would the 'easy option' of the road become too tempting?

At least the first Corbett Beinn Mhic Chasgaig was easy. With new enthusiasm I decided to go for Stob Dubh and finish of the route 'properly'. Allt Coire Ghuibhasan was alive with midgies and despite the dramatic surroundings I was glad to press on. The SMC guide book speaks of short grass when it mentions Stob Dubh. Obviously the landowner has forgotten to mow this particular hill for a while. Knee and thigh deep tussocks were the order of the day until the ridge was reached, strangely I still felt pretty positive - well more positive than I had 2 hours ago. The summit craig loomed ahead - a more than fitting end to this hard run.

Finally it happened. I hit the wall. The last fifty meters of ascent were overcome with a supreme effort of mind over matter. I felt sick. I couldn't eat or drink and I was out of gas. I sat on the top for a moment on the cairn and contemplated the way off. Once I had picked a way through the crags it would all be okay. The mist had by now come in, however I got through the steep rocky section and to my horror discovered that the promised short grass didn't exist on this side of the hill either. Imaginary sheep mocked me as I hobbled down, the track never getting any closer. After an hour of agony I reached the track.

My stomach by now so sore that even a gentle jog was too much. Fast walking interspersed with bouts of retching finally got me back to the car 13 hours and 45 minutes after leaving it. Not the quickest, but my longest unsupported run. The less said about the drive back to Inverness the better. Suffice to say I managed by the grace of God to keep all my bodily fluids out of the car interior at least.