Last month’s walks:      The Ettrick Horseshoe pt 2

 

Attendees: Myra, David, Alan, and Di

 

The first part of the Ettrick Horseshoe was done in October but was cut short by terrible weather so it was now time to complete the horseshoe.

We started at the end of the public road at NT188093 and followed the track past the uninhabited Potburn Farm to Over Phawhope bothy where we had our first rest stop of the day after approx 20 mins of walking. Our excuse was that we'd had a 2 hour drive and needed a cuppa. We left the bothy and made for Ettrick Pen. There is a track that goes up through a gap in the trees right behind the bothy. The snow was patchy but still 8 or 9 inches deep in places. Some of it was firm enough to take our weight but mostly it was quite soft.

The track as shown on the OS map is pretty accurate and when we got to the end of it headed straight up the hillside towards the summit. We hadn't gone very far when we spotted some very odd footprints in the snow. It was definitely a ‘Bigfoot’ print and to prove it there's a photo in the photo section which quite clearly shows a huge footprint complete with toe marks. For comparison purposes the footprint on the left is a size 11.

We were lucky that the summit was clear when we got up there and

we didn't stop for long before setting out along the gently undulating ridge to Hopetoun Craig and then on to Wind Fell.

We had a quick bite to eat on the ridge but put off having a full lunch stop until we were back at the bothy where we could eat in comfort.

From Wind Fell we dropped down to Ettrick Head and the track back out.

The snow was up to a foot deep on the way down. We tried a bit of bivvy bag sledging but the snow was too soft and we just sank into it.

Once down at Ettrick Head we followed the southern

Upland Way

track through the trees and back to Over Phawhope Bothy

We must have sat in the excellent bothy for about 30 minutes having a very leisurely lunch before tackling the last mile back to the car.

 

This month’s walk:   Sunday 15^th  March

 

Back to Munros again. Sgaith Chuil and Meall Glas from Glen Lochay. We only have to drive to Killin for this one so a 7.00am start should be early enough.

Please let me know by Thursday 12^th March so that cars can be arranged.

 

 

June:

Myra is planning her annual rollercoaster for the first week in June this year. Activities will include a bit of island hopping, backpacking down through Jura taking in some or all of ‘the Paps’ then Glencoe at the end of the week where there are Munros, Corbetts and Grahams to bag. See Myra about this one.

 

 

 

Other stuff:

 

The website is now up and running www.bemac.org   Anybody who wants walk photos posted please either e mail them to me or send prints and I will scan them. Perhaps different people might like to write the walk report from time to time to get a different perspective on things.

 

 

Alan