Narnia and Back in 725 metres

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Susan

Today Beanie and Biggles went for a walk in the mountains and discovered a secret portal that took them into a far away, magical winter wonderland. Just like going through the wardrobe in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was all rather exciting, and needless to say prompted a fair bit of baying and aaaarrrfffing!

The forecasts were looking very good for hill walking – some sunshine, very little wind and frozen solid underfoot even at sea level so no mud! We decided upon Beinn Dubh – Glen Striddle Horseshoe. We did this walk just two or three weeks ago but despite promising forecasts we were shrouded in a thick, grey fog for the whole walk. Today our timing was perfect. As we drove into the car park at Luss the early morning clouds started to break and large patches of blue sky appeared. We were rewarded with some great views of Loch Lomond very early on in the walk:

You can just make out the little pier at Luss on the far right

The sun was quite warm and we soon started to strip off layers of clothing:

There was a slight dusting of snow on the (false) summit ahead :

As we reached the snow line the temperature began to plummet and the layers started to go back on:

Ben Lomond in the background

Biggles’ big gob in the foreground

We think the magic portal was around here somewhere. Biggles did sense something mystical and got rather woofy – although it might have just been a sheep!:

Looking back down towards Luss

Very quickly it started to turn into an arctic expedition…although I’m not sure who the sherpas were – me of the Beags!

Eventually we reached the summit where the views were out of this world. It really did feel as if we’d been transported into a magical winter kingdom. And not a soul in sight. There were tracks in the snow but fresh snow had fallen on top of them so it looked as if we had the mountain to ourselves.

The natives looked and smelt a bit strange but were friendly enough:

From the summit, a broad ridge continues around in a horseshoe shape for 5 kilometers or so. We set off on our journey along the ridge with spectacular new views opening up at almost every step:

The Arochar Alps in the distance

The Arochar Alps again. That’s the Cobbler second from left (top). Weather permitting we’ll be up there next week

Boy was it cold up there! The Beags didn’t seem to feel it. We had their winter coats with us but didn’t need to put them on

Looking forward along the ridge…

..and looking back towards the summit of Ben Dubh

All too soon we reached the end of the ridge and stumbled across a second portal to take us back out of the magical Kingdom. We lingered here a while, not really wanting to leave this special place.

But then again, it had been quite a while since Beanie and Biggles had breakfast and there was a lovely scent of sheep wafting up the hillside. Before we knew it we were hurtling through the portal at breakneck speed with a familiar ‘aaarrrfff, aaaarrrrfff, aaaarrrooohhh’ echoing in our frost bitten ears!

Reluctant Bohemians

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Susan

Last year we planned a lot of our hill walking and trail running trips in advance which meant we visited some of the best places in the worst weather. This year we’ve decided to try and avoid commitments and head for the hills whenever the sun makes an appearance. So far, winter has been miserable. The crisp, white frost and blue skies of the past two years has been replaced by gales, rain and gray skies. We resigned ourselves to staying close to home and working hard on our fitness in preparation for 2012’s adventures in the hills. As luck would have it, when the sun finally came out we’d been training so hard that all we were fit for was a good rest. So much for the new Bohemian lifestyle!

We still managed to get a good dose of sunshine close to home though.

Having completely fried all my muscles with speed sessions and power-lifting over the past fortnight I’m on a strict diet of easy runs this week. Beanie and Biggles are very happy about this as it means plenty of nice 90 minute runs on the beach for them. Today we trundled along in a civilised manner until their dad appeared with the camera part way along our course. Things got a bit exciting then….especially when dad lured the pups through ice cold water dragging their hapless mum behind them!

That water was FREEZING – there was no way Beanie was going in!

Blue skies, blue sea, warm sunshine and the snowy white peaks of Arran peaking out above the haze. What more can you ask for?

Such well behaved pups!

I’m a firm believer that most things in life are good for you in small doses. And that goes for canicross too. A little bit of pulling in harness is very good for the dogs – it is strength training after all. But just as you and I need to keep strength and speedwork in moderation – and build it on top of a strong fitness base, so too do the pups. As such, the dogs are on flexi leads for most of our long runs (today was an exception because my arms were killing me after a hard gym session!). This is the next best thing to running free as it gives them plenty of scope to vary their speed and run the way they choose. We’ve been trying to take this a step further this winter and have been working on ways to get them off-lead on a regular basis. We’ve come up with lots of off-lead games for the beach which are working well and keeping them close to us, but we also take them to a safe enclosure where they can let rip.

And of course, the sunshine has prompted plenty of play sessions in the garden.

Hopefully our winter training will get us in great shape for the spring and summer. We’ve got lots of trips planned (although no dates set!), the main one being a week long extravaganza of trail running, hill running, hill walking and hiking on the Isle of Skye.

Bad day to be a squirrel

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Paul

If Scottish Water had Beagles working for them instead of humans, their recent overhaul of our local pipework would have taken hours instead of weeks. There’d have been no need for machinery, generators or traffic cones. The workers would have simply turned up in their tricolored hi-vis jackets, stuck their bums in the air and got their forelimbs straight to work. There might have been the occasional break to pick up fallen chips and food wrappers from the pavement, or woof at a passing postman, but generally progress would have been very rapid. It certainly was when Beanie followed the trail of some unknown nighttime invader to the rear fence of our garden, rolled up her sleeves and started her latest digging project. I caught her just as she was trying to squeeze her head and shoulders through the gap she’d created, and even though I toweled her off she still brought an impressive amount of mud into the house on her paws.

In the past I’d have responded to this apparent escape attempt by turning the rear fence into a DIY version of the Berlin Wall, but this time I just packed the mud and earth back into the hole and bided my time. Sure enough, two days on Beanie seems to have forgotten about her digging project. Presumably the critter that inspired it has now found a different garden to invade, but there’d have been no digging at all if Beanie & Biggles had caught the little bugger when it first trespassed. With that in mind we’ve been training up their hunting skills, and not knowing the species of critter we’re up against, we’ve tried to cover all the bases.

We started with squirrels.

Squirrels are supposed to be the supreme athletes of the rodent world, but Beanie found this one to be easy prey. It was slow moving, unable to climb, and contained two squeakers; one in the head, and one in the tail, though the tail one didn’t work terribly well, especially after the following incident:

We also tried raccoons. These aren’t common in Scotland but occasionally they have been known to escape from a shop in Irvine called “Homebase”. Homebase doesn’t allow Beagles on their premises. If they did, I’m 100% certain they wouldn’t have a raccoon problem.

Got it!

Killed it! What’s next?

We finished up with the toughest challenge of the day; the orange mini space-hopper. These are wily customers. They bounce in unexpected directions, easily escape from one’s mouth when wet, and keep on squeaking no matter how many times you bite ’em.

Though Beanie caught the space-hopper many times she never managed to kill it, and both she and Biggles had to retire from their training session knowing that there was still one species out there that could defeat them. Their failure clearly weighed heavily on their minds.

Well, it weighed heavily on Beanie’s mind anyway.