This route is fun – muddy, noisy, chaotic fun!

It’s also very beautiful. It’s a perfect canicross running route if you like rough, off-road running. It also makes a lovely walk if you don’t mind getting muddy feet. We run along here frequently and rarely meet a soul although I expect it’s a little busier at weekends.

Starting at Auchincruive, the route follows the riverbank for a few kilometers before crossing the river and coming back along the other side.

They’ve picked up the scent of a stray sheep – this means trouble…

…and here we go!

Parts of the route can be very muddy – there’s no choice but to just go through it

You need to watch your footing along this section!

More obstacles

More chaos

Heading back into Auchincruive

Although this is a very short walk it’s quite hard going in places and the top steep section can be particularly tough on the knees on the way back down! If you stay to watch the sunset there’s plenty of time to get back down to the woods (and easier walking) before it’s fully dark. But a head torch is probably necessary unless you’re a very fast walker.

A different day a different sunset – this was the Summer Solstice sunset

There’s not much more to say about this one really. A lovely, lovely walk with some great views.

There’s a lovely campsite at North Ledaig, situated right on the beach overlooking the islands. The sunsets are simply spectacular, but sunrise is also special as first light falls on Mull. There’s a hill behind the campsite (Ben Lora) and we figured that if we scrambled up during the night the views of first light on the islands would be even more magical. I seem to remember it took a couple of hours to get up there – mostly along forest access roads and tracks so a fairly easy run if you were so inclined. Although there was a steep 1.5k of so of muddy open hillside to negotiate near the top.

The views out to the islands didn’t disappoint. The views over Oban were also stunning, shrouded in a low mist.

What we hadn’t anticipated were the stunning views inland over the mountains. Sunrise was simply wonderful.

It wasn’t until a couple of days later that we realised this particular sunrise was a little bit special – it’d had been the morning of the Autumn Solstice.

What a way to start the day though! A night time climb from the front door of your caravan, a spectacular sunrise and out-of-this-world views then straight back down for a fry up and to snuggle down for a nap with the smell of freshly laundered sheets. The best of all worlds.

Knock Hill is a route we like to do on stormy days when there’s plenty of dramatic cloud in the skies. Which perhaps explains why it’s always so muddy! Although I suspect the bogs rarely dry out properly even in summer months.

For the most part it’s fairly easy running (albeit uphill), but there’s a short, rugged section at the tops that really gets your heart pounding and your legs burning!

This is about as good as the path gets!

We’ve been longing for a parkrun at Eglinton Park for the past few years. Finally our wish has come true!

Just imagine how beautiful this will be in the summer!

Firstly, 5k is our preferred maximum race distance. All of the family members (both 2 legged and 4) get bored by long runs. We don’t mind walking for hours on end, but when running we all prefer short, all out efforts rather than long, slow plods. This is the perfect distance for us to train for.

The start line is at the end of this tree lined avenue

The actual events are a bit too highly charged for our little Beaglets so they’ll be doing ‘freedom runs’ with us at quiet times during the week. Paul and I will be entering the official events about once a month – we’ll be using them as a time trial. The aim is to see how much faster we can run the course with our little Beagle engines.

In the past, Beanie and Biggles have taken a good 3 – 4 minutes off of my 5k time

It’s a lovely course with 3 distinct sections and lots interest and varied scenery. We’ll post up more photos and info once the events get underway and we start to get a nice collection of photographs.

Tournament Bridge with it’s strategically placed bollards – a bit tricky when the dogs go one way and I go the other!

Crossing the final bridge just before the finish line

The route starts on the shores of Loch Doon, right beside the ruins of Doon Castle. It’s possible to add miles and miles of loch side walking or running with the most stunning scenery if you fancy something a bit longer.

One of the lovely things about the Craiglea Trail is that there’s so much more to explore!

Beanie and Biggles check out every nook and cranny of the castle before setting off on their run

The ruins of the castle were relocated from an island in the loch in the 1930s when the level of the loch was raised as part of a hydro scheme.

There’s a sign posted path leading up Craiglea beside Doon Castle. It’s very runnable if you’re reasonably fit. Or alternatively, take a gentle stroll and savor the views.

This is as far as our cameraman came – which is a shame as he missed some utterly spectacular views. The route continues high up into the hills with some panoramic views – Paul would have continued up with me if we’d known how nice it was going to be. We’ll go back and photograph the whole route sometime very soon!

I never get bored with the views along the loch

After a short but sharp climb up a steep tarmac path the route opens out into a rough track running along the side of a hill just above and parallel to the Gojo Burn. The track takes you to a bridge over a spectacular waterfall. You can cross the bridge and continue across hill farming country, or follow a marked path up to a spectacular viewpoint.

This broad grassy path nestled on a hillside is wonderful to run along

As with most of the West Coast, views are generally best at sunset. However, there is also some lovely light at sunrise:

Pre-dawn. Watching the world come to life below us

Looking inland towards the hills – you could run/walk for miles

We’ve never seen sheep on this route, but the pens at the bottom of the hill suggest that they are likely to be present at certain times of year.

It’s a lovely course. We highly recommend trying it out – either on a Saturday morning at a regular parkrun event, or as a freedom run any time you like. Full details are available from the parkrun website.

Watching the world below us coming to life

After a fry up, a nap in front of the telly and a spot of work we set off to see if we could get an equally spectacular sunset in the far South of Ayrshire – at Loch Doon. We weren’t disappointed!

We started out by exploring Doon Castle.

Then I took the pups for a little run up the hill behind the castle.

By the time we got back down the sun was close to setting so we wondered about by the loch side enjoying the solitude and watching the sun set.

What better way to end such a busy day than having a lovely relaxing massage.

It’s a hard life being a Beagle!

These were taken along the Ayrshire Coastal Path at Turnberry Lighthouse.

Sunset

Just after Sunset

Failing Light

And these a little further North along the coast at Dunure Castle.

Then right out of the blue Paul and I came down with the worst flu ever. Thank goodness the worst of my symptoms hit a couple of days ahead of Paul as neither of us could have crawled out of bed to walk the dogs. Fortunately it was as short-lived as it was severe. Just a couple of days in bed and we’re now both on the mend. We’re planning a little run tomorrow to test the water and see how we hold up. Then all being well back into our planned February activities.

Of course, Beanie always likes to be the centre of attention so she had to take to her bed too.

Could someone bring me a hot drink please?

Makes sense. But does it apply to dogs too? Are regular short walks / play sessions throughout the day better for them than one big run/walk and a sleep-fest for the rest of the day?

“Wake me up when it’s time for bed”

What to do? Let sleeping dogs lie or get them off their lazy butts on a regular basis?

When we were suffering the miseries of a nasty cold last month walks were cut to one big outing in the morning (which frequently didn’t start until afternoon) and a quick 10 minutes at night. I was horrified when I realised that on one occasion Beanie slept for 18 hours solid without even getting up for a pee!!

I ran this by our vet and canine physio a few months back (after watching a program on TV about humans and the health problems associated with long daily periods of inactivity). Neither had considered it, but thought it probably didn’t matter too much with dogs. A bit of mild neck/shoulder/back pain for Beanie this last week has prompted us to re-think our daily routines. We’re going to try spreading exercise over a few daily sessions and see how they do on it.

Challenge One – Pavement Pounding

Our first challenge is to get our mileage up a bit to ensure that we’ve all got the levels of basic fitness needed for 2013′s canicross hikes and runs.

Our Goal?

An average of 50 miles (80 km) per week by the end of the month spread over three walks/runs per day (mostly walks).

Despite the challenge title this won’t be pavement pounding but rather a wide variety of terrains from beach, forest, hills, pavements, trails etc.

Challenge Two – A Triathlon (Susan Only)

A slightly grumbling achilles has made me reluctant to spend too much time running this month. Last month was wiped out due to a lingering chest cold so things are getting a bit desperate! I am keen to keep my fitness levels climbing and I don’t want to loose hard-earned running speed. I toyed with the idea of including more cycling and rowing but couldn’t quite motivate myself. Fortunately the instructors at my gym presented me with the ideal solution – the challenge that they’ve set for gym members for the month of February is a mini triathlon.

The challenge is to cycle 3k (level 7), Row 2k (level 10) and run 1k.

- No recovery breaks and the activities must be done in that order.
- Times for the three activities are added together and entered on the leaders board. Fastest time wins the challenge.

My Goal?

Under 20 minutes for the entire challenge (5 min cycle; 9 minute row; 4:30 minute run – wishful thinking?)

I’m really looking forward to giving the month’s triathlon training everything I’ve got so should end the month a whole lot fitter than I started it. Assuming I survive it!

Challenge Three – A Peanut (Beaglets Only)

The beags need to constantly work on their core stability to keep them safe and injury free during their mad-cap adventures. (Did I mention that they’re a pair of raving lunatics with a death wish?). In the past we’ve done regular sessions on a gym ball with them but if I’m honest not regularly enough. Now that they’re 4 and 5 years old (approaching middle age would you believe?) we really do need to start taking this kind of thing more seriously. We figured that a whole month of daily gym ball sessions would get some great results that we could maintain throughout the year with just a couple of sessions per week. Browsing through photos of them on their gym ball it occurred to me that the shape of the ball encourages them to be a bit hunched. So for this challenge we’ve bought them a new gym ball – called ‘the peanut’ due to it’s shape.

Their Goal?

Starting at 3 mins per day on the ball and building to 5.

We’ll just wing it and use our imagination to see what kind of tricks and games we can dream up whilst we’re up there!

Some other goals for the end of February

Susan
- 40 Pushups
- 3 Pullups (this one has been on my list for three months now – maybe this month it’ll get ticked off!)

2013 hasn’t got off to the best of starts, with virtually the whole of the month of January wiped out by the dreaded lurgi! Persistent chest colds for Paul and I (with accompanying aches, pains and muscle tweaks), and a mystery sore back for Beanie – which I’m pleased to say cleared up in double quick time.

The pups have had their weekly 10k beach run (thanks to their dad) and their daily walks (thanks to their mum). Paul and I have kept our fitness up reasonably well thanks to our local gym. The pups have had the occasional off-lead blast:

But other than that things have been pretty quiet for us this month.

We’ve started to feel a bit better the past couple of days and managed to drag ourselves out of bed before dawn for a little jog along the coast at Portencross – the sunrise was well worth the effort!

Here’s hoping the rest of 2013 is a bit healthier than the start!

There were a lot of sheep on the hill – something that Biggly Boy wasn’t prepared to tolerate with out comment. He woofed, arrfffed and bayed from start to finish. I can’t begin to tell you how hard we’ve worked at desensitising him to sheep. He can walk through a field of sheep (on-lead) and ignore them completely. Yet out on the hills he’ll still react as much as ever. In fact, on occasion he’ll still react to sheep in fields. I guess it all depends on his mood!

One of the rare moments when the Biggle gob was shut!

The light and views changed constantly as the clouds blew across the sky.

We were soon heading back home to a steak pie dinner. In contrast to Christmas day we were still feeling fresh and full of energy. So much so that I spent a good hour planning out our 2013 canicross trips. We’ve got some crackers lined up for this year!

Things went off the rails a bit during the summer due to me working hard with a physiotherapist to fix some long-standing hip problems. Our big plans to spend most of the summer canicrossing in the mountains was put on hold, but on a positive note my hip is doing great, I’m feeling fitter at 49 than I ever did in my 20′s and I’m looking forward to doing more than I ever believed possible in 2013.

Biggles’ obsession with sheep hit an all time low during a trip to Skye in May. It was impossible to go anywhere on the island that wasn’t infested with sheep and this drove the Biggly boy wild. He was a danger to himself, to us, to wildlife and to livestock (despite the fact that he was ALWAYS on lead). We’ve worked very hard throughout the year to calm him down and desensitize him to all kinds of things and to get both Beagles responding reliably whilst in prey drive. Recent encounters with sheep indicate that we haven’t been entirely successful – he still goes a bit wild. However, overall he’s much calmer on walks, both he and Beanie respond much more reliably to commands when in prey/chase drive and when he does go off on one we get him under control much more quickly. So partial success there. I think particularly sheep-infested routes are still out of bounds for us in 2013 during lambing time (Feb – July). Legally we are of course entitled to go where we like provided the dogs are on-lead, but having spoken to farmers, rangers etc it’s clear that excited, boisterous dogs – even when on lead – are a hazard that they could do without.

Memorable runs have included hills, ridges, clifftops, beaches – I think my all time favorite has to be an impromptu barefoot run on a lovely beach on Iona

The Cobbler wins hands down for most memorable hill climb. We made two overnight climbs – one in April the other November. Both were in snow and frozen conditions and we were rewarded with the most amazing sunrises from the summit

The award for most frequented running route has to go to the Ayrshire Coastal Path. 100 miles or so of stunning coastal paths packed full of castles, lighthouses and great views out to the islands. We explored a good chunk of it in 2012 in small sections – with many of the best bits visited over and over. Our local beach makes up part of this route and the Beags normally do at a least one 10k run there each week.

The most frequented hill had to be Ben A’an. It’s not much more than an hour’s drive from home. It’s a short but steep climb with the fabulous views from the summit – especially at sunset. The perfect evening walk!

The most versatile hill route was Beinn Dubh – A 7 – 9 mile route (depending on how you tackle it) with 800m – 900m ascent. It’s a grassy hill – not too steep, and has a broad, undulating ridge with great views running for 3km (6km if you choose a there and back route). It’s perfect for an easy hike or run. Very safe even in wintery conditions and perfect for an introduction to hill running with pesky dogs!

Other memorable outings included:

The Cuillen Range on Skye – we got as far as Coire Lagan which is about 2/3 of the way up. Much to Biggly boy’s delight the mountains acted like an echo chamber throwing his baying and aaarrrrfffffing in all directions making him sound like a whole pack of Beagles! Needless to say, it was vital that he kept this up for the entire walk.

The Trotternish Ridge on Skye – Including the Quaraing and The Storr. We took a couple of trips up the Storr – one at night time to experience the sunrise from the high cliffs overlooking the Sanctuary. Getting back down again proved tricky on one occasion due to a sheep that was intent on staying just a few yards ahead of us all the way down the steep, rocky, slippery gully. Biggles was of course incensed by this making our descent somewhat hazardous.

Another favorite was Ben Donich. A very rocky, rugged little hill with lots of fabulous outcrops to explore and scramble up. Perfect for adventurous little Beagles!

The Isle of Whithorn and St Ninians Cave

The Mull of Galloway

Some more of our local running routes

And finally a few random snaps of places that we particularly enjoyed. Left: Mull, Loch Lomond, Plockton. Right: Southern Upland Way – Portpatrick, Ben Lora, Arrochar Alps

I hope everyone else enjoyed their year of Canicross Adventures as much as we did. Here’s hoping for even more fun and adventure in 2013!

Visibility on the hills was dramatically reduced by heavy mist/fog. Ben Ime was almost completely covered in deep snow higher up and was a muddy bog lower down. We bravely walked a little of the way up, but our spirit of adventure gave way to common sense when we got hit by a heavy, wind-driven blizzard. We retraced our steps and started to head up Ben Narnain instead, but it wasn’t long before we were once again shrouded in thick fog and blizzard conditions. Out came the faithful Bothy Bag and we hurriedly threw it over ourselves, our Beagles and our rucksacks as we perched on a lump of rock.

Inside the bothy bag – “C’mon mum, crack open the turkey sandwhiches!”

Plans of a cheery festive feast inside the bothy bag soon proved to be impractical. There’s just not that much room in our shelter, and when you’ve got a hungry, shivering Beanie on your lap the last thing you want to be doing is wrestling with tinsel and sandwich’s. The bothy bag warmed up very quickly and we were soon quite comfy and cozy. As always, Beanie and Biggles quickly found the two air vents and stuffed their heads into them in order to savour the outside scents from their warm, comfy den. The downside to this was that their bums were inside with us and both air vents were blocked. The air soon became thick with the heady aroma of rotten turnips. As soon as the blizzard stopped Paul and the Beagles made a hasty exit.

Every so often the fog, mist and clouds lifted a little to provide us with some nice views:

Taken from the slpes of Ben Narnain

Heading back down to Arrochar:

Just before entering the forrest leading down to Arrochar we stopped to put our Christmas decorations to use…

That’s the Cobbler peaking out of the clouds in the background

We were back home by around 5pm. Frozen to the bone, consumed with hunger and utterly exhausted. After a long, hot soak in the bath and a hastily prepared Christmas dinner we all crashed out in front of the telly and were soon snoring.

The next day, after an early morning run on the beach and a visit to relatives the pups finally got to open their Christmas presents. We’ve made the mistake in the past of buying them expensive presents but we’ve learned from experience that there’s nothing they like more than a bunch of boxes with treats in wrapped in Christmas paper.

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Initially we’d set out to get some shots of Greeto Waterfalls but the light just wasn’t right at all. So we just roamed around for a bit and ended up climbing a hill with an impressive view across the water to Arran.

Taken near the Greeto Waterfalls above Largs, about 1/2 hr from sunset. Across the water there’s Millport (I think) and Arran.

Millport, Little Cumbrae, Arran, Ailsa Craig way over to the left

Heading for home

One of the nice things about winter is that you can experience sunrise in the hills without having to get up at a silly hour in the morning. We got underway at around 8am and were quickly rewarded with some lovely night time views of Luss.

We were about 3/4 of the way up when the sun came up. We got a lovely view of first light on the Arrochar Alps:

And of the sun rising over Loch Lomond:

We continued on to the summit and walked along the ridge for around 3k before turning and retracing our steps and heading back down to Luss, hot chocolate and bacon sarnies.

The views from just a little way below the summit

Now that’s what I call a morning walk!

It was cold – bloomin’ cold!