Counting swims on the Blackwater

It’s definitely winter season in Scotland now and this means trips have to start earlier to maximize daylight. So an 8:30 meet-up (the horror!) was on the cards for Sunday paddling. I managed to arrive late having maximised my last few minutes in bed, Oops.

We were off to paddle the Blackwater which has been on my list to tick off for some time. Further signs of winter were sighted on the drive up with frost on the ground and low lying mist clinging to the fields....

 On the plus side the sun was shining and I have a new leopard-print onesie to keep me toasty!

The Blackwater starts with a bang, a 4 tiered grade IV drop at the putin. My assessment was that the first drop was the hardest, so much time was spent inspecting this with less attention paid to the other drops. Possibly this was my downfall.

Stevie and Gregor led the charge, with varying degrees of style.  

Stevie hits number 4

After switching up safety, I paddled down the first drop, slightly missing the line and having a small moment with the rock, and eddied out to wait for the next people down. the next thing I saw was Mags floating past me  upsidedown. Fortunately however, Mags rolls like a trooper and survived the rapid still in her boat. 

Mags on the way back up

Gianni followed and then Kevin popped into my eddy, so I decided to paddle on down the rest of the rapid. Drops 2 and 3 were pretty much as expected. The final drop did not go exactly to plan, I managed to push the ‘anti-boof’ button and ended up backlooped into the hole. A slightly embarrassing swim but at least the only thing wounded was my pride.

surprise backloop for me

Kevin followed down behind and missed the line on the final drop, unfortunately dislocating his shoulder on the way. Swimmer and boat were successfully rescued and Kevin managed to pop his shoulder back into place by the side of the river. Hospital visit successfully avoided, but unable to carry on, Kevin joined up with Hieu who had also decided not to paddle. L

Kevin styles the top drop

Alec brought up the rear and the rest of us joined up with Christina and headed off downstream. Some fun rapids lead us into the gorge section , all was going smoothly. I decided to walk the big rapid in the gorge -  some days you just don’t feel it. Gregor lined up first, styled the rapid and then swam in the pool in the bottom, doh! Fortunately there was another group just downstream to do some chase boating.

Gregor, just before it all goes a bit wrong

Gianni on the gorge

The rest of the gorge was nice read and run rapids with Gianni and Stevie adding one a piece to the swim count. About halfway down the gorge we found Gregor re-united with his boat and headed on down the rest of the run. Other than a surprise backwards rapid for me it was pretty much plain sailing down to final bridge, before heading to the pub for beer and hot chocolate. 

Out of the 9 of us on the trip on Alec and Christina had a head dry day on the water (clearly they weren’t trying hard enough!)

Luss Water with Low Water

Aka the lies of wheresthewater.com

Five intrepid boaters met in the overcast South Queensferry Tesco with a plan to go paddle something or other. The decision was taken to head up to the Luss Water, the wheresthewater gauge was saying the river was high and should be good to go.

Not really knowing much about the Luss I said ‘ok cool’ and jumped in the car, casually flicking through the guide book to find out what we’re in for: grade 4 some 4+  “a serious undertaking at very high flows” was pretty much all I read before closing the guidebook and pretending I hadn’t seen it.

Five boat one car shuttle

As it turned out I needn’t have worried, when we arrived at the putin it was pretty clear flow were not exactly high, definitely enough to float but not enough worry about. We all jumped into Laura’s car for  a cheeky 5-boats-on-one-car shuttle, up to the putin. Usually the Mollochan Burn is slid down in to the Luss however it was looking little low for that so we trekked down to the confluence, I was wishing I’d put on less thermals.

At the low levels it was a bit of a pin fest in places and I was perfecting the ‘spin on a rock and go down backwards’ line. We got out to inspect the hardest rapid on the run, a chute into a rooster tail with a curtain pushing you into a boily wall just above a second drop.  I bravely let everyone else go first.

Some took better lines that others, Derek and Alan both rolling over the lip second drop, looked particularly nasty.  I managed the rapid head dry but with a slightly swollen thumb from punching the wall (no pictures of me = I can pretend I styled it ;-)

(If anyone wants them the full sequence of photos can be found here)

 

Various lines, clockwise from top: Laura skirts under the curtain, Steve makes it look a bit too easy, Alan being pushed over by the curtain, Derek upsidedown on the lip

After some more interesting drops we arrived at Luss falls; a tree filled undercut gorge. We all portaged. Steve and Alan paddled on to probe the next drop, I’m not sure exactly what happened, other than from the top all we could see was a river left bush waving wildly around. Steve the appeared on the bank with Alan’s paddles signalling to go right.

Nasty looking strainer on the gorge

We carried on through the short gorge before the river opened up into a weir followed shortly after we saw the road bridge signalling the end of the section. The Luss Water is a lovely scenic run, definitely keen to come back, but maybe with a little more water next time!

Funtimes on Luss Water

Munros: Cruach Ardrain and Beinn Tulaichean

(Ahem... quick change of Munro names after Ashley pointed out I'd got them mixed up)

One of my favourite things about living in Scotland is that when my friends come up to do fun things I can easily pop along for a weekend.  Last weekend I joined Phil Ashley Ivanka and Heather who were up in the north for a spot of Munro bagging.

I ventured up to join them after work on Friday, after getting horrendously lost driving around the forest tracks behind Killin I eventually made it to the holiday cottage in Auchmore (thanks for coming to rescue me Ashley). In future I shall follow my satnav and not the confusing direction. Fortunately I arrived just in the nick of time to take control of the Chilli making for dinner.

An Epic game of contract whist commenced, in the conservatory,  having made the living room too hot via the wood burning stove. Unfortunately I did not win (just biding my time/developing strategy/ some other excuse).

On the way up 

Saturday morning saw us heading to the hills with a cheeky pit stop along the way for me to inspect the falls of Dochart (definitely runnable). We set of from Crianlarich train station, the lower part of the ascent involving a significant amount of bog. I think everyone had wet feet after 30 mins. The winds were steadily picking up as we climbed, the Forecast had reported the winds would drop after midday, they didn’t.  

Half way up I spotted an appealing looking rock which I naturally set about climbing. I didn’t exactly plan how I was going to get down however; resulting in a slightly sketchy jump/fall.

No thought given to the method of getting back down (Photo: Ashley)

The summit of Cruach Ardrain was celebrated with a speedy pork pie eating stop, while Phil loaned out spare pair of gloves to me and Ivanka. I’m not sure why anyone would carry 3 pairs of gloves up a mountain but I was pretty glad. Some comical fellrunners were also summiting at the same time, their vest/backpack thingys looking at lot like a buoyancy aid.

Cruach Ardrain Summit (photo: Heather)

We carried onwards to the summit of Beinn Tulaichean, I have not one a clue how to pronounce this one either. The wind was making stopping a chilly prospect so we headed off of the mountain in the direction of the car the wind quite literally blowing water back up hill.

Water literally blowing up hill

We arrived back at the car just as it was starting to get dark, and headed back to Auchmore.  Phil and Heather were dispatched to buy pizza’s while I started playing at lighting the stove. After some epic hot chocolates, and another nailbiting game of Whist (I pipped Phil to the post!), we all collapsed into bed.

Another successful weekend.

Beinn Tulaichean summit (Photo: Heather)

ICCC oldies collide with Imperial freshers

Photo's cheekily stolen from Alby and Will as I forgot my camera.

One excellent weekend paddling in North Wales! 2 ½ new sections of river, not bad for an old stomping ground!

Some time ago Adam started organising an oldies trip to Snowdonia, as the date drew closer we discovered that the trip would coincide with Imperial College Canoe Club’s freshers trip. In fact we would be staying 100m apart in different bunkhouses in Tremadog!

Lots of my favourite people in the same place at the same time Perfect.

Leeman and I both had Friday off work, so after some nostalgic faff on Thursday night we set off, only 2 hours behind schedule. A cheeky wild camp in the Trough of Bowden saw us heading into Wales for an afternoon paddle on the Conwy with Texa, one of Tom’s Aberdeen mates. It rained overnight and levels were good for a lovely bounce down the usual middle section, before taking on my first new section of the weekend the section down to the Penmancho Bridge.

Both grade V’s  were looking a bit messy, so we set about portaging, however there’s still plenty of fun to be had on this section even with the portages. Texa had an unlucky swim shortly after The Gobbler and just as we’re pulling her boat out of the water Tom pointed out the yellow markers on the bank signalling the end of the section. I hadn’t even noticed. Fully aware of the stories about folks missing the take out and ending up on the rock above Conwy falls, we’d inspected the take out pretty carefully on the shuttle.  We paddled down a few hundred meters more to the final take out, it’s pretty easy to see how you could miss it.

We made our way down to our bunkhouse in Tremadog, having discovered the Freshers had had their accommodation plans screwed up by the BRMC, as so were invading the oldies in Eric’s barn, albeit we slept in the bunkbeds while the freshers were on the floor in the climbing barn (rather them than me!). Sitll at least it meant we got 8 ICCC presidents together for a photocall!

8 ICCC presidents in a row (Is that a record?)

Saturday morning rolled around and while the freshers went off to paddle Llugwy the oldies went to paddle the Fairy (Scary) Glen. Somehow I found myself joining the oldies heading for the Glen.

Getting changed at the put in was a bit of a surreal experience, I genuinely never expected to find myself attempting this section of river. Not that I paddled terribly well mind, a roll and a couple of swims in the first gorge persuaded me that I would be better off taking out at Fairy Falls, hence I’m only counting half of a new section. Thanks to the rest of the team for superb rescue efforts, especially Nick-good work on the throw line! Luckily Tom was carrying splits so I paddled down to the falls with some slightly oversized blades.

 Fairy Falls was attempted by some members of the group, Adams upsidedown line looked particularly painful, while others made it look all too easy.

Adam's upsidedown line- Ouch! (Photo:Alby)

I made my way down to the take-out to reflect, while the others faffed about in the lower gorge. I still have the rest of the glen to complete and a wee glen rock in my BA, courtesy of Patrick, as inspiration to come back and do better next time!

Patrick on the lead out (Photo: Alby)

With light remaining we went off to inspect some horrendous looking waterfall in Blaenau Ffestiniog. No-one was keen. I returned to the hut with Paraic and Wardle to make a head start on dinner before the freshers invaded our kitchen, while keen beans headed to the Glaslyn or on a booze run in Porthmadog. Nick and Derf had to be rescued by the minibus after some unexpected car troubles.

Saturday evening proceeded in usual club style, complemented by a firework display from Ally and Jake. Possibly the location of the fireworks had not been risk assessed, however fortunately no cars passed at an inopportune moment. Ferrero Rocher’s were provided via Rik, which has developed into a new game: how fast can you east 16 Ferrero Rocher, (“you may have one tiny sip of water at the halfway point”). I managed just sub 6 minutes. Hazelnuts, it turns out, are surprisingly difficult to swallow without water. After a late Friday night most people bailed for bed by 2am, with Derf (the hero) looking after one slightly incapacitated fresher.

Eating all the Rocher's! (Photo: Will)

Sunday morning began with a speedy breakfast in Eric Cafe and some extended faffing.  The Wnion was the name of the game for the oldies, and a whole new river for me. It was a superfun blast through the gorge and made for a very scenic end to the trip. October is definitely the best time to come to Wales, the autumn colours are very pretty and it’s not too cold (I’m easily pleased).

We all said our goodbyes and the cars sped off in all directions, returning to various parts of the UK, until next time. Many thanks to Adam for organising the Oldies, and to Jake for organising the freshers (I hope you guys enjoyed the Dee!).