Meikle Says Run

Just three weeks ago I was in the Lammermuir Hills, over Lammer Law and atop Harestone Hill staring wistfully at Meikle Says Law, telling myself, another day, another run. Today is the day and as I leave the house its Scorchio! I have an hour or so of drive to a little space where you can put a couple of cars on the high road to Longformacus. I can remember a family walk from here over Meikle Says Law a couple of years ago to the weekend. I have a different, a little longer, a little harder, route in mind today. Parking up there's a fierce wind blowing and gusting from the west, the car is rocking. I'll have to run into that wind as I ascend, and there's a little voice inside my head saying "maybe not, today". I take a moment to send the little voice to the naughty corner and I'm just about ready. Outside, the garmin is taking an age to lock onto the satellites and I am having to do battle with the little voice. At last the forerunner finds it necessaries and I'm off. The sun is hot, despite the wind I'm getting a good sweat in no time.

The run starts today on stoney tracks. There were two kinds of terrain today. Stoney tracks and rough ground, often boggy and surprisingly soggy. There don't seem to be any walker paths here, none that I've found, I guess the walkers just use the stoney tracks. The hills here are blighted with wind farms. This is also grouse country, there are lines of butts everywhere. Usually my hill runs start with ascent, today is different, at first I must descend to Faseny Water, passing Faseny Cottage.

The start, on stoney track, from the high road to Longformacus.

These hills are blighted by windfarms

This is grouse territory and lines of butts everywhere

Today is different as I start with a descent ...

... passing Faseny Cottage ...

... toward pretty Faseny Water.

There are quite a few routes up into the hills on the stoney tracks. Today I'm heading on the track along Faseny Water. The Explorer map shows a short section of track and then footpath, fording the stream once. Turns out the map is a bit out of date here, there is no footpath, its track all the way to the summit, fording the stream several times. No matter, once the feet are wet, well, they're wet, and Faseny Water is very pleasing to the eye. At one of the fords I discover a new sport - duck startling!

Faseny Water ...

... pleasing to my eye.

The track crosses the stream, splish splash splosh ...

... and again ...

... and again ...

... and my first go at the sport of duck startling.

The track ascends now leaving the waters behind. The wind mills of the wind farm are peeping over the horizon. Like I said earlier, this is grouse country, and the feeders are everywhere. The wind to my face now has picked up some more and movement is difficult. I'm working really hard but I'm getting nowhere, looks like I'll be training in the school of slow hard miles for a while here. I'm getting closer to the summit and the wind mills loom large ahead of me. Luckily the track has turned twice to my left and the wind is to my back, easier going now. Soon I'm reaching the trig at the top and there's something on the trig, something I've never seen before, it was not there a couple of years ago.

The track ascends, leaving the water behind.

In grouse country there are grouse feeders

Nearing the summit the wind mills loom large

The summit trig, with a bright thing, never seen this before

Visibility is good today and views from the summit are decent. Now is time for descent and for a while I leave behind the tracks and head across rough boggy marshy ground. Sometimes dry, sometimes wet, very variable today. There is a dry-ish stretch of bog here, its the only smooth terrain around, alas today its not strong enough to bear my weight and I'm in the rough along the edge. I reach a turn of the fence and it looks like easier going on the other side. Over I go and at first the going is better although a little soft. I realise I've gone off-plan now, I'm supposed to be heading for a line of pylons and the track which follows them down to the waters below. I'll have a brief rest on the service roads for the wind farm, passing some kind of mast, and then over the wet rough ground to the pylons.

Views from the summit ...

... toward Lammer Law.

Smooth but too soft for my weight

Little rough along the fence at the wind farm

Some kind of mast

It's a bit wet up here ...

... watch out for the man-eaters!

The pylons and the track are reached at ankle-wrenchingly last. I'm on easy ground now, with the wind behind me, descending, I feel like I'm flying, and I'm drenched in sweat. For the last several minutes I've been noticing a small bump far far away on the horizon and wondering what it is, not a structure I have in my memories. Now I've figured out that the far far away bump is in fact my car, parked on the high road to Longformacus, and it looks so far away, my legs begin to protest. Before long Faseny Bridge comes into view. There's a family or two here, playing in the waters. I drop down to the river for a couple of photos and have a look at whether it's feasible to run along river back to the cottage. It does not look like a flyer from here and I'm wondering what to do now. Somehow the legs get the upper hand, the decision is to just run up along the road back to the car, and hope to thumb a lift along the way. No luck, all the cars came the other direction, its all up now on the road, and the legs are moaning something rotten. Eventually, in the distance I see the car, I want to be there, my legs want to be there, they're moving faster and faster, and its over, and I'm done for the day.

The track along the pylons is reached, easier faster going now ...

... down toward pretty Faseny Bridge.

Faseny Water under the bridge ...

... and upstream no sight of footpath.

On the road, the car, a wee red spot in the distance, and a welcome sight

My shorts and my shirt and my hair are soaking wet with sweat. My shoes and my socks and my feet are soaking wet from fording Faseny Waters. The drinking water in my bottle became warm and horrible, anyway it is empty, the bottle in the car is no better but I am so thirsty. The half eaten chicken salad sandwich is scoffed in just a few hungry seconds.It's been tough today, more than I'd like, the wind on the way up sapped the little energy in my legs, but its a run better done than not. I've been on the go for about 1:37, done about 14km on the horizontal, and about 320m on the vertical. Its been kinda slow, but hey ho, some days are like that, and the wind, and the heat, so I'm really ok with how I did today. Oh, about the walkers, on such a sunny day, well there were none ... from the moment I plodded off from the car, until I reached the bridge about eighty minutes later, not a soul in sight. Stopped at the co-op in Gifford for a bottle of chilled water from the fridge, aqua-nirvana.

Enjoy!