Heres a wee report of the trip Stuart and I made over the campsies last Friday. I never ended up doing the weekend recce if originally posted about, Stuart and I just went out for a day. Having met with Peter this morning it turns out we were exactly on the watershed all the time I expected. Its not an example of high quality writing but a good introduction as to what to expect.... Kilsyth to Fintry 16.88miles 5hrs14 We started at West Auchincloch farm as there was parking marked on the map and from a brief study of Peters book I wasnt entirely sure where the WS route crossed the main road so a parking spot seemed like the best option. Climbing up the hill here towards Tomtain was largely dictated by paths through and around the 2 farms we passed. We followed a disused railway for a short while before cutting up to tomfyne farm. We met the farmer in his jeep here and were politely advised to stay behind the farm to protect the wild pheasants. There was a pretty decent track cutting through the fields here so it was easy going until the next farm where we had to knock on the farm house door to ask how to get through the farmyard without distressing a closely packed flock (pack??) of lambs. I suspect we were slightly too far west at this point to be on the true watershed route. It was tricky negotiating the fences and farms though so I think we stayed within reasonable parameters. We ended up hitting the tak me doon road and following that up to the start of the track over Tomtain. It may be a well trodden track but it was damp and boggy enough to make it hard going. Off the hill at the far side, where most others seem to stop we got a real feeling for the toughness of the watershed terrain. The ground was spongy and wet, the weather had been reasonable for the previous few days so I think its fair to say it wont get much better. Where the ground was dryer it was very lumpy and covered in long scratchy grass, nettles and thistles so was no easier. I was wearing my very standard running kit - Capri tights and my trusty saucony peregrine trail shoes. Neither were ideal, I lost count of the number of nettle stings on my poor legs and my quick drying shoes were never given a chance to do any such thing! I was jealous of Stuarts gore text trainers and am going to do a bit of experimentation with waterproof footwear. And itll be long tights from now on too! The navigational part of the day went satisfyingly well, Im not too confident with maps and some of the hills we crossed are very featureless. It was a lovely clear day though and that helped us a lot. Having the 1:25000 map was a winner as it shows all the fences and they were a huge help in keeping us on track. I think otherwise we would have needed to take several compass bearings to keep us going in the right direction. Having said that, Id slightly made the route up with a general sweep of a highlighter pen on the brand new map in the car that morning. Lets just say my computer let me down big style so the route Id plotted on memory map a little more precisely was not to join us. I followed the shape of Peters track in his bk (pg46) and concluded the watershed was likely to cross garrel hill, black hill and Leckett hill. I found it very difficult to comprehend which direction water flows, despite the map and looking at the lay of the land. Peter is amazing to amp the whole countrys watershed! As Stuart said, a lot of water hasnt decided which way to go yet and was sitting waiting to fill our trainers. The only slight navigational issue we had was when we reached the forest that extends down to the reservoir. Paths through forests seem to appear and disappear quicker than maps are produced in my experience so I was quite hesitant with choosing a route. Again the large scale of map saved the day as there was a clear track marked on it that we managed to pick up. I was also checking the map every few paces to check I knew exactly where we were. Stuart fell twice during the day, it was impressive that between us that was all. However, we were both very cautious and I was shocked at how slow going it was. Infact, we ran very little of the day and walked long stretches. As a result I felt Id rather cut the run a little short as I wasnt mentally prepared for such a long day out and we ended up joining the road from waterhead farm back along to Fintry. In total we ran 16.88 miles at an average pace of 18 minute miles. We climbed about 2500 feet in to the bargain. Although Im not too sure how accurate we were with the route Im confident we got a good feel for what weve let ourselves in for. Lessons learned: We both decided to do a map reading course I know Ill be wearing long tights or at least calf guards Trail shoes are not the ticket Pace is going to be very slow I hope we can get 1:25000 maps...
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 13:17:33 +0000
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