Monymusk

 

Saturday 1st Feb.

Mary's mum lives in Monymusk and has recently been vacationing in Woodend Hospital following a minor stroke. We went up on Friday Jan 31st to visit. We were supposed to go the previous weekend but the trains were cancelled due to storm Éowan. The fall out was still being felt which meant we detoured via Stirling and the train time pretty much doubled. 😟

Other than seeing Mary's mum who was remarkably well, and sister Karen and bro-in-law Andy and drinking lots of wine and eating some fantastic food, the highlight of the weekend was a hill run round Pitfichie and Cairn William. Our weekend schedule around hospital visits was quite tight and it looked like the best way to squeeze in a couple of hours running was to start at first light on Saturday. Not my favourite time of day but needs must, and it wasn't too bad getting up as we were in a really warm house and the forecast was excellent. We had (just) managed to not drink too much wine the previous night. We were out the door at 8.02am. It was Baltic with a convincing frost on the ground and all puddles frozen.

I only carried the DJI Pocket - we wanted to travel light and fast, rather than carry a big camera. And there was plenty of light about, apart from the first few shots which were taken pre-sun-up. After the sun appeared I shot most of the run on video. The stabilisation on the tiny gimble camera is incredible.

going through Monymusk village

out the other side

looking towards Benachie (Mither Tap)

sun up!

some fairly steep trails up into the hills

Mary wore leggings but I felt shorts were sufficient. I did have 2 pairs of gloves, a buff over my ears, and 2 long sleeve tops. I was warm enough and only felt the cold at the top of the hill where the light wind was strongest. 

I had forgotten about the small trail up into the trees. The last time we ran here was 9 years ago and we wondered if we'd remember the route. We couldn't place it all together before we went but as we ran, it came back to us and we didn't make any bad nav choices. Mary was ahead and remembered the small offshoot from the main path. It used to go through the trees but they have been logged in this area. 

spectacular views of the surrounding countryside opened up

Just before the summit of Pitfichie a path goes off to the left and heads towards Cairn William. I'd have opted to go to the round summit of Pitfichie then return 100 yards but Mary was remembering the hospital and that we'd agreed to be showered and ready to go around 11am. So we turned left and headed towards the higher summit. There is a 68m/200' height difference but it descends before it climbs so feels more on the second hill.

There were far more zigzags back and forth going up the second hill than we remembered. The path was made by mountainbikers anxious to create as long a route as possible rather than force a direct line and it feels like a lot of meandering up 7 or 8 gradual switchbacks rather than the quickest line. 

The path goes over hundreds of high friction granite rocks. As we gained height a lot of them were partially covered with frozen snow melt and were as slippy as black ice. Both of us took one-footed slides but neither of us hit the ground. It made us far more cautious and we did way more walking than we usually would here. It will be interesting to return and do it all at a run to compare times.

It was spectacularly beautiful. Mainly thanks to the glorious sunrise and unclouded skies, a real rarity for anywhere in Scotland in Winter. And the lack of strong winds was a welcome treat as well. Being a Saturday I was surprised there were so few folk out. We only passed another couple of blokes who were coming in the opposite direction on e-bikes. I did not envy them the bikes which looked quite hard work despite the motors. Also the chance of slipping and falling and getting a handlebar in the teeth seemed very possible. In the video at the bottom of the page you can see us shouting good mornings to each other.

The descent went on for ages and covers quite a lot of hill before we came off onto larger forestry paths (as below.) We both enjoyed the ice free tracks after so much tip-toeing along narrow icy sections. I was shooting this on video rather than stills.

Soon there was a junction and no waymarkers or useful signage. Happily both of us felt that we should turn right. After more trail the route dropped down a path through the trees to a small road. More trees had been felled leaving the path churned by heavy machinery. However it was similar enough to how we remembered it. 

We then joined this bigger road which featured in a tale Margaret Hunter had told us: she had cycled (solo) around this area some years ago and had found herself (with bike, obviously) on the wrong side of a high deer fence. Rather than retrace her route back miles in the wrong direction, she opted to climb the deer fence with her bike. I think she was in her 70s but a good deal stronger and fitter than most at that age having been a rock climber in her earlier life. Or perhaps just more determined. Somehow she managed to scale the fence and got her bike over as well, without injury. I have no idea how, but I would have liked to seen it done! We had a wry laugh reflecting on the episode with Margaret, later in the hospital. 

The last couple of miles are on metalled road. In the past we'd curse the thin soles of hill-shoes as we trudged this section with tired feet, however with Hokas you get a good comfy cushion on top of the grippy lugs for off-road. It was a fantastic run in ideal weather. We visited Margaret on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, before catching the train home. She was (all things considered) in very good health and we spent much of the time together chatting and laughing. Not bad for someone in the second half of their 90s!

9.57 miles in 2hrs19m