A five trig Sunday

With the high summits still getting a kicking from "upland gales" and low cloud giving a less than 10% chance of clear tops ...I am getting fat. Not just in body but in mind (which is probably more damaging anyway). Decided that a wee local retro route would help cure the ills.

The Old Kilpatrick to Milngavie "Haute Route" was a fairly regular training run during the lead up to my 2008 Marathon des Sables and has the advantage of being :- point to point, local, good mix of mind bending / energy sapping tussocks balance with good runnable tracks and trails, great views (usually), fair bit of personal history in the areas you travel through ...and various trig points to visit as well !

To add a little extra interest, I cycled from the flat into Glasgow where I left my bike before jumping the train out to the starting point. Had a slow jog up the road before starting the climb up the Slacks and the first trig. It was obvious that most of the first half of the day would be spent in the cloud - made very obvious when after leaving the Slacks, I was suprised to drop out the cloud and see the river Clyde instead of Loch Humphrey. Navigation corrected, I made my way out to Doughnut hill which took an age due to a number of fallen trees (I assume brought down by Hurricane Bawbag or the follow up Mawbag storm), the smell of fresh pine made up for the detours. After Duncolm it was more tussocks until reaching the loch behind the Whangie where good progress and easy running returned.

Over the summit and along the race route to the Queens view car park. In previous runs, I usually head straight over the road to pick up the West Highland Way but this time I had a trot down the road to rejoin the route at Carbeth. For sport, I also went over the wee trig that sits above Craigallian Loch before the last few miles down to Milngavie.

No doubt about it, I need more miles before the fat feeling goes :-(