Ls Belles Trigpointing again

 

Ls Belles have been out and about, quite a lot as it happens, and I have got a little behind (you won’t hear that said very often!!)

So, the first little trigpointing trip was shortly before the Challenge and is a local one for me, Hill 99 in Culbin Forest. It was quite a fun little walk, especially after we’d found the trig (I’ve been there a number of times…), climbed the fire tower and carefully made our way down the sandy steep slope towards The Gut. At this point, Laura realised she had lost her mobile. We had to retrace our steps, back up the sandy steep slop, to the foot of the fire tower and then along the windy path through the trees to find it lying by the side of the path. Several people had walked passed it and ignored it completely, I suppose this was lucky.

Hill 99 trig

View from the top of the fire tower

Relief

The next was Roy’s Hill, west of Knockando. We met at the little layby just by the end of the track and sat in Laura’s van for a little while, watching the surprising amount of cars pass by, surprising as it’s a road to nowhere. After a chat, we both jumped out and I went to change into my boots, but it was starting to rain, so we both jumped back into Laura’s van to let the rain pass.

We did eventually persuade ourselves to walk, so off we went uphill up a well engineered track to find the trig at the top then walk back down again. Good views from the top mind and an accidental Geocache. This was a better walk because we went to the Knockando Woollen Mill cafe for lunch afterwards, a spicy carrot soup with a scone and a hot chocolate. Yum yum.

This well engineered track leads to a wind farm

Laura and the trig, with Ben Rinnes behind

Me and the trig, with the accidental Geocache and the wind farm behind

Unravelling the Geocache record

Ben Rinnes

A different wind farm

The next trigpointing adventure was intended to include two trigs, the first being Carn Maol. Laura abandoned her van at my house, then we abandoned my car at the entrance to a disused quarry before making our way up the track. It was another straightforward walk with just a little bit of yomping across the heather to the trig, with just a little help from the range flag post for reference.

There were some rather lovely orchids on the way and plenty of other wild flowers. There was also a rather splendid shooting hut, which on our return we discovered was unlocked, so we took advantage to sit inside to eat our lunch. Lovely.

Orchids and other flowers

Fabulous orchid

Laura striding up hill

Laura at the trig

Me at the trig

Smashing new shooting hut

Obviously a recent refit

Waiting for Laura

Lousewort

Butterwort

The second trig of the day would have been Carn na Caillich. We parked easily at the entrance to the track and made our way along forestry tracks until we simply could not go any further. The track simply disappeared under heather and gorse and we could not be bothered to fight our way through, even though it was probably less than 500 metres away. Maybe we’ll go back in the winter if it’s snowy and we can snow shoe…or may be not!

I see a patch of blue sky shaped like the UK…