The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Tuesday 24 April 2018

Corse Hill (NS984464; 376m)

Distance (Bike): 15.4 miles
Distance (Foot): 0
Ascent: 200m?
Weather: Overcast and windy with one heavy shower
Start Point: Start of windfarm track to the west, at NS 51795 48598


A couple of days ago I realised that by modifying our route to Glasgow a little, we would almost be passing Corse Hill, thus it belatedly got added to the agenda and it seemed to me that it could sensibly be approached from the W. This gives a much longer approach from the usual route from the north, but it minimised our deviation from our drive northwards, and a few extra miles weren't going to do me any harm.

Or, that's what I thought until Bertie started rocking in the howling wind last night. We know it's strong when we're rocking that much when parked end-on to the wind. I pored over the map some more and came up with a couple of contingency plans, as a return leg in a westerly direction didn't seem like a fun prospect in the face (quite literally) of 30mph WSW winds.

The contingency plans weren't required. It was still breezier than I would have liked this morning, but far calmer than last night.

Plentiful parking was found at the end of the windfarm track, and there I left Mick to read his book or go for a walk, as he chose, whilst I flung a leg over my bicycle and set out upwards.

The route turned out to be longer than expected, as the waymarker posts (helpfully marking a good number of the junctions through this truly enormous maze of a windfarm) told me I should go straight on when I had intended to turn left. I would have been rebellious on the issue, except to the left lay a rough track and straight on a surface smoother than most of the B-roads we've travelled this week (not a difficult feat; had I been abducted by aliens and then abandoned on one of those roads, I would have guessed that I was in a third world country by the quality of the surfaces and the amounts of litter).

From the map I knew that I could cycle very close to the top of this one, but I didn't expect to find myself using the trig point as a bicycle stand as I took my summit selfie:

Trig point and bicycle

A few drops of rain hit me just as I reached the top, and that was a precursor of what was to come. The shower that passed straight over head about ten minutes later certainly didn't hold back. Gosh, that was unpleasant! And it made me wish that at some point in the last 13 months (i.e. since the day I bought the bike and the mudguards) that I'd got around to fitting the mudguards.

It had been an undulating route out and thus it was an undulating route back, but this is a gently lumpy area, so no incline challenged my lungs. My right knee was another matter. It doesn't seem to like cycling too much.

Just the one hill today, even though it was a quick one. There were domestic chores to be done this afternoon.

2 comments:

  1. I was a bit confused here with your OS Grid - I think you'll find it should be NS 598 464. I was walking into that perishing westerly wind on Monday. Good to see you have taken well to the bike. If you get serious about Munros it would be invaluable.

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    1. You're quite right about that grid reference - I shall correct it.

      I'm certainly not disliking the bike as much as I did last year, but I've a suspicion that's because I haven't done anything consistently hard on it yet this year. Even as a non-fan of the mode of transport, I do see the value in it, so will stick with it.

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