Well it would be dull if I just walked up them all wouldn’t it?  With two boys enthusiastic for all things mountain bikey, it looked to me on the map that we ought to be able to get quite a way up Meikle Bin, which is up in the Campsies above the Carron Valley reservoir.  The problem was, despite home having been some time completely snow-free, we’d not long left the car park when things got a wee bit icy.  We had some fun trying to negotiate a non-lethal route, getting quite expert at spotting fine gradations of slipperiness depending on how the ice looked and what it was covering.  But there came a point where even the finest mountain bike tyres (and only one of the three of us had those) could no longer move forwards.  So we left the bikes in a handy snowdrift, and Everest-expeditioned our way (a handy picnic table served as Base Camp) to the windswept and rather cloudy summit.  On another day, as it turns out, it would have been pretty straightforward to get all the way to the top on the bikes…

Check out the track conditions on the way back down…

A fairly quick late January family walk, fading daylight at the end of a grey wet windy day.  We were on our way over to friends Neil and Katie’s house in Milngavie to celebrate Burns Night.  Our joint Burns commemorations with Neil and many other lovely friends go back many years, and have seldom paid too much notice of the proper date for such occasions, January 25th.  To be celebrating it only two days later, in Scotland, was quite the novelty.  It’s not unknown for the constraints of getting the group together at a mutually convenient time to require us to be enthusiastically quaffing steaming plates of haggis neeps and tatties in high summer somewhere in continental Europe… We had a great evening of food, drink, socialising, poetry and music – but first, this wee jaunt up a very popular wee hill not so many miles north of Glasgow.  And a first appearance for the summit T-shirt!

Which is a really nice hill on the west side of Strathyre, just north of Loch Lubnaig, which we tackled as a family on the last weekend of the Christmas / New Year holidays.  As you can see, it was a bit snowy, and once we were out of the steep-sided forestry plantations at the bottom, the path up was very icy.  Time to try out miscellaneous ‘crampons’ which we’ve accumulated but not worn and torn at all.  Up near the top there were some deep drifts which made for slow going in places, but the views and low afternoon sun made for a great summit.  No summit t-shirt yet, alas.

View along Loch Lubnaig on the way up.

Below: summit selfie, walkers and views (snowy Ben Vorlich and Stuc a’ Chroin in the distance)

So this 50 hills venture hasn’t gone quite as planned.  What with one thing and another – an overseas holiday at Easter, broken ribs that took way longer than they should have to heal, and any number of weekend commitments not involving mountains, it’s been a slow start.  Fair to say, I’m a good way behind the curve.  Just over two thirds of the way through the year, I’ve managed just 13 (somewhat less than one third) of the scheduled 50.

However, there’s nothing that gets me motivated more than a big, non-negotiable deadline, so it’s time to start making up some lost ground.  As I said in the first post on the blog, all welcome to join in, it would be great to have company.  So that you can get a flavour of the fabulousness of the hills already negotiated, the fun my fellow walkers and I have been having, and the fashion statement that is the Scottish Autism summit T-shirt, I will post brief accounts of the first 13.  Please support me achieve the remaining 36, in whatever way possible.  Busy weekend of summiting coming up soon (22-23 September, venue tbc)…