Ben Donich, Bagged!

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Paul

Most of the time it’s abundantly clear that dogs in general, and Beagles in particular, are second class citizens. Everything seems to be biased in favor of humans – even the very things that are supposedly made for dogs. Take poo bins for example. Every single one I’ve seen has been mounted way too high up. It’s almost as if the designers were deliberately trying to stop Beagles from having a good rummage inside and maybe snacking on a couple of logs! It is therefore particularly satisfying when you find something that has genuinely been designed with Beagles in mind. A while back we discovered the the ferry to Arran had railings perfectly spaced to allow a Beagle head through for optimum viewing. And yesterday we discovered that the Vango Storm Shelter 400 has similarly been specifically engineered to accommodate the small-to-medium sized hound.

We bought the Vango shelter partly as an emergency survival aid for when we’re out hill walking, but also as a low hassle way to give Beanie and Biggles a peaceful place to chill out with us even when we’re high up and beset by overwhelming sniffs from miles around. We took it with us yesterday on our trip up Ben Donich. We had no expectation of really needing it, but the weather had other ideas.

We started the walk up at about 7:30am, and at that point the weather matched the forecasts. It was a little cold and cloudy but it was dry, and occasional pockets of blue and the odd ray of sunshine held the promise of a bright, clear mid morning – just in time for our arrival on the summit.

Unfortunately as we reached the top we were hit by a strong icy wind, there was what looked like fresh-ish snow on the ground, and visibility had gone down to 100m thanks to heavy grey cloud. It was desperately cold but every so often we’d get a brief (i.e. minute-long) window of visibility. This encouraged us to stay put until the promised good weather turned up, and to combat the cold, we broke out the Vango.

It’s basically a big orange bag with a small plastic window and a couple of air vents at either side. There are no poles or other structures with it – you just find somewhere to sit down and pull it right over you. The material it’s made from blocks wind and rain alike, and the inside warms up remarkably quickly. It’s so effective that some people actually describe this kind of shelter as a “bothy in a bag”. Certainly it worked for us. Even with all my layers on I don’t think I could have tolerated being on the summit for much longer without it. I sat perched on on a rock in one corner of the shelter with Biggles on my lap, while Susan took the other corner with Beanie. Beanie of course wasn’t having any of this “sit quietly on my lap” nonsense; she focused all her efforts on raiding the rucksack that had the sandwiches in it. As Susan and I both struggled to contain our waggy sandwich thief, the wind grew stronger and a hail/snow storm started up. Not a good development, but that was about to be the least of my worries.

As I turned my attention away from Beanie and the storm outside I realised that Biggles’ entire head had gone missing! I’ve often joked about him wagging his rear so much that his tail will drop off, but now it looked like I’d been worrying about the wrong end entirely. His tail, legs, body and neck were all present and correct, but there was nothing but the orange “wall” of the shelter where his head should have been. Then, on closer examination, I realised that his head hadn’t vanished, it was merely fully – and I do mean fully – inserted into one of the shelter’s air vents. Yep, it turns out those clever Vango people have somehow measured Biggles’ head and created a special rain and wind-proof sniffing portal especially to fit him. Now that is customer service!

By the time I’d extracted his head from the vent (and he’d stuck it right back in, and I’d extracted it again, and so on several more times), the storm had blown over. The shelter had worked brilliantly, but we decided that hanging on any longer would be pushing our luck. The best thing would be to use the lull in the bad weather to get down off the mountain and back to the safety of the car. However, just as we packed everything up the clouds began to clear away one more time – and this time they stayed clear. There were patches of blue sky among the grey and a bit of warming sunshine, and I finally got to break out the camera and get some shots of the views.

Clearing…

Clearing!

Clear! Well, mostly!

I’ve heard it said that the best conditions for viewing landscapes come just before, or just after, a storm. I’d have to agree.

Having seen the best of the views, we headed back down.

Shortly after leaving the summit we had to deal once more with the only scrambly bit of the walk – a short stretch of vertical rock that must be climbed. In truth it’s not hard; there are lots of mini-ledges that act like steps, and the whole thing isn’t exactly high anyway. Sherpa Beanie led the way, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, followed by Susan and Biggles.

The scrambly bit is in the lower right corner

Spot the Beagle?

His Biggleship wasn’t wild about the climb but he did it anyway

Hey dad, what’s keeping ya?

Now it was my turn. I put the camera away and mounted my sturdy but heavy and unwieldy tripod back onto my rucksack. I got my right foot securely onto the first ledge/step – taking care to position my torso so as not to scrape the tripod against the rock – and thrusted up hard to overcome all the weight I was carrying. Unfortunately I’d been paying so much attention to caring for my camera gear that I’d neglected my own bits and pieces, and I drove my head straight into another rock ledge above me. It hurt. I now have an extra baldy bit up there, raised and scarred. I guess I could semi-legitimately claim that it’s a rock climbing injury!

Braking Beagles, broken quads

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Paul

Ben Dubh is one of the more accessible mountains we’ve visited. The climb up isn’t that steep – even in snow there’s nothing really scary about it – and once you hit the top you’ve got a broad, gently undulating ridge to traverse as you take in the views. We’ve often thought that it would make for a great hill run, so on Saturday we put it to the test.

Having arrived at the car park in Luss, I pumped almost the entire contents of my wallet into the parking meter while Susan readied the Beagles for our adventure. We went with the usual pairings: Beanie with Susan, and The Bigglet with me. Occasionally we’ve tried swapping doggies, but it always seems to go against the flow. Susan just finds Beanie more accommodating and responsive than Biggles, likes her gentler pulling action, and her less jarring sound effects. Equally Biggles is the natural match for me; when we’ve set ourselves a goal the blinkers go on and we single-mindedly pursue our objective. I don’t mind Biggles’ warbling and baying, Biggles doesn’t mind my grunting and groaning, and we both fart a lot as we run. It’s a match made in heaven.

We’d got barely a few hundred metres into the ascent when suddenly a rabbit darted across the path in front of us. Rabbits are of course the very animal a Beagle is supposed to hunt, but neither of our two even noticed this one, save for a few extra sounds of excitement when we reached its trail.

We used the same approach for Ben Dubh as we would for a formal hill race, running the bits we could and marching up the steeper bits. Both Susan and I were wearing lightweight but thermal running gear and I’d fully expected to be overheating a few minutes into the run, but as we got higher we encountered more wind chill and I was sweating yet cold at the same time. Not so great for us, but perfect conditions for our little Beagles, and they were loving it, except for those occasions when one of us fell behind the other. Biggles still cannot tolerate not being in front and anytime I stopped to grab a couple of shots with the compact camera he warbled and squealed until we caught up. Beanie wasn’t happy getting left behind either, her cries were almost blood curdling. (How come Beanie has this big macho hunting cry while my boy sounds like a little piglet with a megaphone?)

When we hit the summit we took a little break and donned an extra layer of clothing (the wind chill was pretty fierce!) before setting out along the ridge. I don’t know if the effort of going up at speed had burned off their excess energy, or maybe it just wasn’t a particularly sniffy day, but both Beanie and Biggles seemed remarkably calm at the top.

The ridge run was as visually spectacular as it was cold! This was the first time the weather had let us really appreciate the views from Ben Dubh – it’s definitely at its best on a clear day.

When we reached the end of the ridge we simply turned back rather than continuing on and down the other side, which is steeper and slippier than the route up. Once we were back at the summit, I reluctantly attached both Beagles to my belt. Susan felt fine about running the descent on her own, but not with a Beagle. I on the other hand now had two bundles of trouble tied to me, and traditionally it’s on the way back down that they’re at their worst. This time however they were much better behaved. There was a marked increase in pulling power whenever we went by sheep of course, and inevitably Beanie managed a couple of quality lead tangles, but for the most part the return to the car park was uneventful.

Initially the run hadn’t seemed that tiring, but by the time we got back home the four of us were shattered. Biggles took up residence on one sofa and exposed his manky tummy, while Beanie claimed the other.

I know it’s dirty, but tickle it all the same!

Just cover me. Now.

In due course she requested/demanded a blankie. For the next couple of hours all we saw of her was the occasional paw that slipped from under her cover, only to be retracted whenever she heard me using the camera.

When I finally managed to move Biggles enough to get my own bum on the sofa, he co-opted me as a chin rest.

Hope you’re comfortable dad, ‘cos you ain’t going nowhere for a couple of hours!

I became concerned that perhaps we’d over done it with them, but I think their tiredness was more due to stimulation than physical exhaustion because the next day they were full of beans. Biggles even chased a low flying crow round the garden and nearly boinged his way over the fence as it made its escape. I on the other hand wasn’t in such great shape; the effort of braking my descent against the pull of Beanie & Biggles had all but burned out my leg muscles. My back didn’t feel too great either. I guess running down a big hill with Beagles attached should be classed as an extreme sport!

Sheep

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Susan

Since Biggles was a little 7 week old pup we’ve been battling with his noisy, excited obsession with…..well….pretty much anything really! There was a time when it was extremely difficult to take him for a walk without outbursts of noisy, out of control baying. If any of us (Paul, Beanie or I) got in front of him he’d go into a frenzy; If he picked up a horses scent on the beach he’d go nuts; If an interesting smell blew in on the wind he’d loose all control.

Biggles is now 3 and 3/4 years old and I’m pleased to say he’s slowly out growing his noisy ways!

We’ve had lots of outings this week and for the most part he’s been very good.

Beanie, Biggles and I had a run on the beach. Three horses galloped past us and Biggles didn’t bat an eyelid. Not long ago he’d have gone nuts!

We had a lovely evening run at Turnberry (home of the famous golf course and the lighthouse). Dad photographed the lighthouse while Beanie, Biggles and I went for a run along the golf course and beach. It was dusk, rabbits were hopping around everywhere and Beanie and Biggles didn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to them!

They even settled down on a little cliff edge after their run to watch dad taking photos:

We spent a day running and exploring Culzean and the surrounding area. It was a beautiful day and I don’t think I’ve ever seen our pups so chilled. We started out at the deer enclosure – they had no interest whatsoever in them!

Next I took them for a little run along the coast – they just trotted beside me as good as gold and when we stopped Biggles lay down on the sanding lapping up the sunshine. No ‘aaaarrrrffffing’; No ‘woof, woof, woofing’; No ‘oink, oink, oink” (yup – really he does that!). Beanie just stuck her bum in the air and busied herself digging her way to Australia.

We wandered up to the swan pond and after rolling in lots of stinky things…

…we busied ourselves with searching for scraps of bread in the pond.

We didn’t even blink when birds started dive bombing us!

I was so proud of them both that I shared my egg sandwiches with them before getting back in the car. Now that WAS a mistake …. thanks to the Beagle’s short digestive system we couldn’t have been more than half way home when Biggles started pumping out stinky egg flavoured farts.

And then there was the trip to Arrochar. A fabulous 20k or so low level walking amongst the Arrochar Alps. It was a glorious day. We walked a bit, explored a bit and even had a bit of a run.

Everything was going great until the route opened out into a long section of open hillside….full of sheep!!!!!!

Well, it WAS full of sheep until we arrived!

Biggles instantly gained about two inches in height; his back legs (which are always quite wide spread) widened by a good two inches; his chest stuck out; his tail went bolt upright; a couple of indignant “hhhrmmmph, hhhhrrmmmmppphhhh”….and then all hell broke loose. He bayed, he aaaarrrrfeed, he howled, he grunted, he oinked (yup – really!), he woofed, he screeched. Every sheep within a 2 mile radius took flight which of course led to more indignant outrage from master Biggles and was enough to get Beanie in on the act too. The next four or five kilometers was stressful to say the least. Biggles pulling like a train, lunging this way and that while Beanie skillfully managed to park herself EXACTLY where you were about to put your foot. All to a deafening chorus of ‘Beagle in full cry’ with added sound effects.

And then suddenly it was over. For the rest of the day we had our chilled, well behaved little Beagles back.

It seems we still have a few issues with sheep.