Conquering Ben Lomond
May. 26th, 2008 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rwrylsinA beautiful, sunny bank-holiday weekend here. Too bad I don't get the day off work. At least it's nice and quiet now.
Anyway, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
davidcook has mentioned, yesterday we went for a little walk up Ben Lomond. Given that our last significant hill climb was two years ago, it might seem a little insane to be launching straight into a 12km walk up a mountain that's near enough to 1km high as makes no difference. It is, but we're a little time poor at the moment, and it's supposed to be a relatively easy one.
It was a gorgeous day, couldn't really ask for better. Warm sunshine that has singed me a little around the edges of the suncream, bluebells and gorse, green everywhere. The path was dry, the visibility excellent, a bit blowy near the top where small children were being towed along like kites, but nice enough in the sheltered spots.
The early part of the walk actually reminded me of being in Australia. It was very warm and still, the path was dry and sandy, little spiders fled the path ahead of us, and some logging activity had left the hillsides more grey than green. For once the people camping by the lochside didn't seem like lunatics at all, I was even a little jealous.
My camera's memory cards were playing up so I got to spend a lot of time just admiring the view while David took photos. A very nice walk, and the steep path down was exceptionally pretty.
My lower legs were rather letting the side down though. On the way up the calves kept seizing up, requiring regular stops to tell them to stop cheating and relax again.
On the way down it was a constant grumbling from my knees and toes. As it turns out my feet aren't blistered at all, but the way they were going on you'd think there was an inch-wide blood blister at the very least. Lazy, whinging toes. They have no appreciation for a good view.
Oddly enough my shins, normally the bane of my existence, behaved impeccably.
And so our conquering heroes hobbled back to the carpark after taking 6.5 hours to do the 4.5 hour walk. We returned home, devoured a late dinner, and I was soon in bed and sound asleep. I can only assume David wasn't far behind.
Today I'm lightly aching all over, but I've been worse. The toes have mostly conceded that they're actually ok, the knees claim they were fine all along and blame the quads for any perceived flaws in their performance.
A small part of the reason for this was as a little test, to see if we can cope with doing the Jinshanling to Simatai hike along the Great Wall while in China. It is also about 12km long, the highest watchtower takes you to nearly 1km up, and contains steep sections, some with slippery broken stones, so not an entirely dissimilar experience.
The weekend stroll suggests we probably can cope, provided we remember to approach it more as a middle-aged couple rather than as a pair of Uni-student backpackers. Should probably try to get a couple more practice-walks in beforehand though.
Anyway, as
davidcook has mentioned, yesterday we went for a little walk up Ben Lomond. Given that our last significant hill climb was two years ago, it might seem a little insane to be launching straight into a 12km walk up a mountain that's near enough to 1km high as makes no difference. It is, but we're a little time poor at the moment, and it's supposed to be a relatively easy one. It was a gorgeous day, couldn't really ask for better. Warm sunshine that has singed me a little around the edges of the suncream, bluebells and gorse, green everywhere. The path was dry, the visibility excellent, a bit blowy near the top where small children were being towed along like kites, but nice enough in the sheltered spots.
The early part of the walk actually reminded me of being in Australia. It was very warm and still, the path was dry and sandy, little spiders fled the path ahead of us, and some logging activity had left the hillsides more grey than green. For once the people camping by the lochside didn't seem like lunatics at all, I was even a little jealous.
My camera's memory cards were playing up so I got to spend a lot of time just admiring the view while David took photos. A very nice walk, and the steep path down was exceptionally pretty.
My lower legs were rather letting the side down though. On the way up the calves kept seizing up, requiring regular stops to tell them to stop cheating and relax again.
On the way down it was a constant grumbling from my knees and toes. As it turns out my feet aren't blistered at all, but the way they were going on you'd think there was an inch-wide blood blister at the very least. Lazy, whinging toes. They have no appreciation for a good view.
Oddly enough my shins, normally the bane of my existence, behaved impeccably.
And so our conquering heroes hobbled back to the carpark after taking 6.5 hours to do the 4.5 hour walk. We returned home, devoured a late dinner, and I was soon in bed and sound asleep. I can only assume David wasn't far behind.
Today I'm lightly aching all over, but I've been worse. The toes have mostly conceded that they're actually ok, the knees claim they were fine all along and blame the quads for any perceived flaws in their performance.
A small part of the reason for this was as a little test, to see if we can cope with doing the Jinshanling to Simatai hike along the Great Wall while in China. It is also about 12km long, the highest watchtower takes you to nearly 1km up, and contains steep sections, some with slippery broken stones, so not an entirely dissimilar experience.
The weekend stroll suggests we probably can cope, provided we remember to approach it more as a middle-aged couple rather than as a pair of Uni-student backpackers. Should probably try to get a couple more practice-walks in beforehand though.
