UKC

At about 4.30 this afternoon I was walking back on the Loch  a, Bhraoin track after a walk in the fFannichs when I met a guy pushing a heavily laden wheelbarrow carrying a couple if rucsacs and sundry other  bothying gear en route for Loch a,Bhraoin bothy about 3 miles further west.  He explained he liked to bothy in comfort but I didn't envy him his walk with darKness approaching. That track although flat is pretty gravelly in places and wet with the loch level high after the wettest month of the year. Hope the bothy wasn't  too busy if/when he made it!

Today's fascinating fact: there's a wheelbarrow on the Pitcairn flag. Take a look 

Sounds like a mate of mine. He’s always used a trolley, maybe he’s mixing up his technique 

He said he was a Fifer.

That figures

I can understand pulling a wheelbarrow long distance, but _pushing_ it?! Sounds like a complete masochist!

On arrival at the bothy: a Fifer well spent. 

There was a merry chink of bottles from his load so he probably soon revived.

That's the spirit!  

I see what you mean. I wonder if the Picts made it to Pitcairn as "Pit" in Scottish placenames is usually associated with Pictish origins. eG Pitsligo, Pitmedden 

Met a guy in Wales doing the same thing. Cae Amos and Lluest Cwmbach where the bothys. Each to their own..........

I can't remember the details, but I'm pretty sure a few years ago there was a rescue of some sort near Esk Hause of several ladies (possibly Japanese or Chinese) with trolley suitcases. It's also become a feature of the Ochils in August to see families of Orthodox Jews (who have a conference at the university) surprisingly high up in the hills with the man of the family pushing an oldfashioned pram (containing a child, not any bottles of beer as far as I'm aware).

Hi Dave. 2 members of the Desperadoes once got a car to the door of Culra bothy. Claimed they were sober as well.

Crikey - a proper real car? That's a good effort. My better half's late father once rode a motorbike (big proper road thing, not a scrawny scrambling bike) to the top of Coniston Old Man in the days when such things were laughed about rather than tut-tutted at. And do you know the story - recounted in some ancient issue of TAC - of a chap named Iain encountering an ice-cream van on a cloudy day at somewhere close to 3000ft on the Mullach Clach a' Bhlair track? I've always found this very difficult to believe, but Iain is an honest chap and he swears it's true.

Maybe the van owner was on the run from the old Glesca ice cream wars.

I also remember 2 guys arriving at Gerry's hostel with a supermarket trolley having pushed it from Achnashellach station. It contained their purvey for the weekend and an astronomical telescope! One of them at that time was well known in Scottish astronomical circles and his pal was a submariner! What a combination. So today quite cheered me up with a bit of healthy eccentricity

Someone takes wood out to Lluest Cwmbach by wheelbarrow, don't know if it was the same bloke you met but it's happened more than once.

I met one of those rowing machine guys on Ben Lawers a few years ago - he was at about half-height, heading down. I don't know if he'd been to the top but it looked to be a be pretty cumbersome thing to be lugging about (although perhaps no more so than the mountain bikes that people occasionally carry up and down rocky ridges - but at least they get to ride them later on).

You could have used a wheelbarrow for the champagne bottles on Ben Cleuch last weekend!

A rowing-machine? Are you sure ,? We all know about you avid Beinn Cleuch folk and your champagne!

Not 100% sure but I've no idea what it was if not, and I'd not long before seen pics of a bloke (possibly the same one) who had carted a definite rowing machine up Ben Nevis for some charity event. It was a really awkward-looking thing to be carrying - long and clearly pretty heavy with various hinges and sticky-out bits. The guy (youngish) had a distinct look of the military about him. I should really just have asked - I'm generally quite nosey on journalistic grounds - but for some reason I didn't.

I didn't have much but there was some very nice Dundee cake floating around too and I had a decent chunk of that.

Anyway, tell more about this - what kind of car, 4x4 or ordinary? Hatchback or saloon? Presumably it was during a dry (or frozen) spell. I know of someone who drove along the Auch Gleann track towards Beinn Mhanach - not for work, simply to try and shorten the walk - including at least one of the river fords, and duly got stuck and had to be rescued in some combined MRT/AA kind of way.

I think it was a VW polo and it may have been a hired car. Graham B. Has the full story I think.

PS Desperadoes50th birthday in 2 weeks time. 

Ah, hired car makes sense! Will ask Graham in due course - he's never told me that story. We have a VW Polo with >115k on the clock - drove it to Glen Devon to get wet for a couple of hours today in fact - but I'd likely be in the bad books with the daughter of the Coniston Old Man motorbike man if I tried to off-road it somewhere such as Culra.

Great stuff - please pass on greetings to all. Are you Yule Meeting this year?

Will do,Dave. Hopefully there will be a Yule Meet again this year again.

Kind of reminds me of the story of some drunken Brits (was Whillans involved?) in Chamonix in the 60s chucking a stolen bike onto the electrified overhead lines of the cog railway half way up to Montenvers  

Have Cauty or Drummond completed yet?

I worked outside a lot and learnt to pull an empty barrow, push a full one.

Ha - are there 276, 282 or 284 Mu Mus?

276… you would only be justified in using the ancient text

Don't be silly; it's grim up north...

Many years ago me and my ex were overnighting in a remote Dales shooting hut. In the early hours we heard what sounded like a laden cart being moved along the dirt track outside. Neither of us fancied getting up to investigate. Further along the track were disused lead mines. The old miners used to use barrows and carts to move stuff ...

youtube.com/watch?v=JX-sUg_QQuE&

In the late 80s there was a multi-generation extended family group of downright dodgy characters from the Glasgow area who stole a pie van, drove it to Glencoe and set up shop in front of the Clachaig, selling off the pies. There was a robust discussion between the hotel owner and the head man of the family, who thereafter were known as 'The Pie Crew.' It ended amicably enough. They visited Glencoe a couple of times a year, generally in a van or two, not of the catering variety but possibly still stolen.

I remember them well.

I used to wonder how the builders of the sadly now gone Rannoch Doss in the 'coe got the cement and corrugated iron down into that gully Not wheelbarrow terrain!

My memory of that doss was of a large garden shed but it was a long time ago and I think I only saw it twice, once after a night in the Bendy and once on a visit to the crag. It was in an impressive spot, well kept secret. When was it burnt down? I remember hearing about it but not when. Any ideas how/by whom?

This is all getting a bit Bob Servant.

https://twitter.com/bobservant?lang=en

Don't know what happened. I stayed in it a number of times between the mid 70's and the 1990's. I think Ken Crockett was in the Rannoch MC at one time  so he may know what happened to it.  Should have been preserved as a historical monument. It was built totally unbeknown  to the NTS . I remember the floor being concrete and the main construction was panels of corrugated iron. Slept at least 12 "comfortably" A true mountaineering civil engineering miracle.

This is part of the history of Scottish hill-going, Dave.

Were you a regular at the Bendy? I can still remember the candles flickering behind the poly sheeting as I was climbing down to the Doss

Was the Rannoch MC a Creagh Dhu offshoot? And does it still exist? There's a Rannoch Climbing Club listed on here:

Rannoch Climbing Club

but that might be different.

I think they were ex GUM club members.  Again, Ken Crockett probably best source of info.As far as I know the builders included some Glasgow Uni civil engineering students who were in the GU MC in the 60,s.Will check this out with Graham B.

Ah, I see. Btw, I was past the Clashgour hut this summer (furthest I've been in that direction for a couple of years) and it looked to have been repainted in a brighter shade of green. Previous time I was there, someone emerged and offered to show me round - it was interesting to see inside, looked nice.

I take it you know about the story that it once slept 30+ bodies. It used to house a stove known as The Bomb which was reputed to glow red hot when fully fired.

Yes - I seem to recall that's mentioned in the excellent Peter Hodgkiss area guidebook. I was reminded of it a few years ago when Andy Nisbet told the story on here of an already full Garbh Choire refuge acquiring new inhabitants at about 2am on some blizzardy night. Someone asked what would have happened had they not managed to all fit inside, and Andy just said "They would have died".

Anyway, must dash - off to the nice mini hill of Clackmannan Tower for a legstretch now that the rain has stopped. That would be a good target for a Desperadoes Yule Meet sometime - it's a pleasant half-hour walk from the Morrisons car park at Alloa.

Enjoy your walk Dave. Hopefully see you before too long

Don't knock the sport of wheelbarrowing, might even become Olympic recognised one day soon?

youtube.com/watch?v=msqNOBoSJtw&

No, I only stayed there once, early 90s, chickened out of drink driving back to the Clachaig after a lock in at the Kingy. By that time, afaik it wasn't in regular use though I'd driven and ridden over it hundreds of times by then and didn't know of its existence.

I agree that the Rannoch (and the Drey and Jacksonville) should be categorised on historical significance grounds, assuming their respective clubs would want it.

Ha ha, he sounds like a character you might have invented for TAC.

And the bridge above the bendy should have a plaque. You really had to be brave to stay there

Definitely should have a plaque. Someone on here must have photos.

Funnily enough my erstwhile TAC sidekick Warbeck is from Broughty Ferry (or possibly Monifieth) and is unsurprisingly a big Bob Servant fan.

Broughty Fery? Monifeith? I didn' t realise Warbeck was so posh!

PS having mentioned wettest month of the year in my original post I have a horrible feeling that this is about to be outdone by November. Only amphibious wheelbarrows will do!