Schiehallion

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Paul

Schiehallion comes in at number 6 on this handy page of “easy” munros. A bit of Googling got us a more complete description of the walk than that site provides, and crucially, satnav coords (Lat 56°40’32.88″, Long -4°2’9.6″) to the car park at the start of the walk. As previous posts have shown we’re both really good at getting lost, so precise satnav directions are always a boon. I know these gizmos can sometimes let you down, but since replacing the standard female voice with that of Mr T I’ve been even happier to entrust all navigation to the power of satnav. Can you imagine Mr T ever getting lost? No way fool!

All the write-ups I could find for this walk enthuse about the quality of the recently upgraded path. Some note that the path doesn’t go all the way to the summit, but still rate the walk as pretty unchallenging. This created a vision of an easy 4-5 hour stroll in our heads, and the first hour or so of walking matched our expectations. The path was just great – some sections were steep and kind of monotonous, but it was shaping up to be the easiest munro we’ve done.

A while further on we hit a little plateau with a cairn on it:

That cairn effectively marked the end of the clear path we’d been on so far. From here on in you mostly had to pick your own way through an increasingly boulder-strewn landscape.

Some of the time a trail of rubble indicated the way forward, and after a while we had the reassurance of another cairn, this time with a short wall extending out from it. I have no idea what the wall was for, but apparently it smelled quite nice.

From this point there was never any doubt about which way to go – we just had to follow the ridge up to the top. I was very glad we both had substantial walking boots though; some of the rocks were loose and it would’ve been quite easy to end up with a sprained ankle.

The best way to make good progress was to dodge the rubble and aim to step on only the more substantial rocks. Easier said than done when you’ve got a couple of eager Beagles trying to pull you in different directions! In the end I decided to stop trying to lead the way and pretty much followed Biggles. He seemed to favor the bigger stones, whereas Beanie seemed determined to weave her way through every little nook and cranny.

Biggles – the ultimate Sherpa Beagle

I must admit I started to really enjoy walking over all those rocks. Having to pick and choose every step took my mind off the effort of the climb, turning it almost into a game. At one point we saw another cairn above us and for a second we wondered if it marked the summit, but it was just an impostor. A little further on we found another, though this one was obviously a fake. I was very doubtful when I saw yet another, but this time there was nowhere to go beyond it and I realized we’d finally hit the top.

Not too far now!

The last cairn!

Made it!

Obviously it was time for treats and some bold exploration:

Some more shots from the top:

The way down was straightforward if a little hard on the knees, and back at the bottom I was tired but my leg muscles didn’t feel burned in the usual way – I think walking over all those boulders was more of a challenge for the stabilizers than the main driving muscles, so to speak. It’s close, but overall I reckon Schiehallion was our most enjoyable munro to date!

Glasgow East End 5K 2010

Posted on June 13, 2010 by Paul

Today Beanie & Biggles both notched up their third road race. The East End 5K is a particularly good one – it’s an easy, safe course starting and ending at Tollcross Park, and though it’s primarily for humans, doggies are welcome and can even get their own number and T-shirt.

It was raining pretty hard on the way through to Glasgow (a sure sign that summer has arrived!) and because of that we were expecting a low turnout, but we couldn’t have been more wrong:

The road outside the park is flooded with runners, though not all are enthusiastic about the warmup!

The rain slowed to a barely perceptible drizzle just as we arrived, creating perfect conditions for running; nice and cool for the dogs, but not too cool for us. The only problem when the race started was the sheer number of entrants – we’d almost reached the 1km marker before we had enough space to break into a jog, and we still had to dodge and weave past walkers almost up to the final kilometre! Despite that, we had a great time. There were drummers, dancers and pipers dotted along the course to spur everyone on, and nearly every time we passed a group of spectators we heard “awww look at the little doggies”.

As in the previous year I ran with the Bigglet and Susan ran with the Beanster. Unlike last year, Biggles thankfully decided against getting into a woofing match with the big Rottweiler in a walled garden along the route, and neither Beanie nor Biggles seemed particularly bothered by even the most enthusiastic drummers. The 5K passed very quickly, though not quite as quickly as this brief compilation of clips from the race:

I don’t think Biggles quite knew what to make of the Master of Ceremonies cheering him on as we approached the finish. The guy looked very suspicious and didn’t have any treats. If we hadn’t been running I think he might have been on the receiving end of a Bigglewoofing!

Once my boy and me had finished we collected our two medals (the officials insisted on giving me an extra one for the Bigglet – I didn’t even have to ask) and found a good vantage point to watch for Susan and Beanie. When they appeared, Beanie was trotting along like a dressage pony and gazing into her Mum’s eyes. She probably looked like the best behaved doggie in the world, but in reality she was of course just waiting for another handful of chicken from Susan’s pockets!

Susan and Beanie finish the race in style!

Back in the park we bumped into runners from Dog’s Trust and an appropriate fuss was made of our two, and then we spotted another couple of Beagles who’d completed the race. One of them was Brodie, one of Newlin Waffle’s pups and therefore related to Beanie. He was a great little guy – wiggly, full of life and keen to have a nibble at Beanie’s racing number!

As we left the park, we were both enthusing about how great our little Beagley running partners had been. This conversation was interrupted when Bigglet had a bit of a tantrum because he couldn’t quite reach a half-eaten chip lying on the grass. This was rather cheeky on his part given that he’d nicked a sizeable lump of chicken from the kitchen worktop before we’d even set off that morning. Still, racing champions get perks and a small step towards the chip quickly resolved the situation.

Way To Go Biggly Boy!!!!

Posted on June 6, 2010 by Susan

We haven’t been to lure coursing for a couple of months so we were all looking forward to today’s meeting at Rumbling Bridge. It lived up to our expectations and more!

Biggly Boy – Our little boy has grown up!

Anyone that regularly reads our blog will know that Beanie has always been the athlete in our family. It’s not that Biggles is bad at sports – he’s actually pretty good compared to most. But Beanie really is quite exceptional for a Beagle. At lure coursing Beanie would always be glued to the lure and running flat out while little Biggles would make a bee-line for the home straight and pounce on the lure when it came past.

When we arrived today we saw that the course (which is normally the same every month) had been changed. We were confident that Beanie would manage just fine, but fully expected Biggles to be very confused by this – how would he run to the home straight if he didn’t know where it was? We were in for a BIG surprise. See for yourself:

Biggles absolutely trounced his big sister. He stuck to the lure like glue the whole way around and he was fast! For the first time ever Biggles had knocked his sister out of the competition – and he’d done it in style.

Biggly Boy was clearly enjoying his success and was very keen to check out the competition between races:

Biggles Meercat

In his next race Biggles was up against Biscuit, a very fit, fast little Whippet. We fully expected Biscuit to open up such a lead that Biggles would loose sight of the lure and give up. In fact, Paul positioned himself on the start line for photos thinking it would be the only part of the race Biggles would complete. We were SO wrong. For the first half of the course Biggles stayed with the lure. Biscuit would open up a lead (but a surprisingly small lead – our boy was powering around the course), but everytime the lure changed direction Biscuit would overshoot whereas Biggles turned with the lure and would take the lead again. If this kept up there was a chance that Biggles would do the impossible and beat a Whippet! However, on the second half of the course there was a nice long straight section. Biscuit built up a bigger lead and Biggles decided to cut a corner. They finished the race together but Biggly boy had cheated.

Beanie and Biggles had another run together at the end and exactly the same thing happened.

We think Beanie’s still got the raw speed, although there’s not much in it now. But whereas Beanie (and Biscuit) just loved to open up and run Biggly boy had one goal in mind – catching the lure. Somehow he knew when the lure was going to change direction. Had he detected the trampled area of grass where other dogs had run the course before? Was he using scent and sight? It looks as if our boy is a lot smarter than we’ve given him credit for!

Here’s a couple more pictures from the day’s racing.

There are more of Paul’s piccies from Sunday on Sue and Kevin’s blog:

http://lure-coursing.blogspot.com/2010/06/photos-from-sunday-6th-june-2010.html