Picture of the Month - December 2012

Loch Lomond

Open Canoe trip -

River Endrick to Balmaha

Andrew and Elizabeth

Late afternoon winter sun.

Cold, crisp and clear - perfect conditions for a trip on the 'lower' 

River Endrick  from Drymen Bridge to Balmaha

On the trail of the lonesome pine

Garadhban Forest,

West Highland Way

10th December

It was only two days after Hurricane 'bawbag' had passed through Scotland, leaving a trail of destruction, the worst winds we have experienced for over 10 years.

In the calm after the storm, a walk on the West Highland Way over Conic Hill would give us exercise before the Christmas food excesses.

It's a club tradition to wear appropriate silly headgear on a Christmas walk. The girls qualify.

Andy looked the part for a festive remake of the 1979 film 'Alien' - with Santa bursting out of his chest....

 ......'see you Jimmy' Graham, and 'Elvis' Bill, looked just as bizarre.

It was very misty and murky with no chance of views, but we were our usual happy chatty, nonsense talking group, as we strode out along the forest track.

It wasn't long till we came to a fallen tree or two....none of us had thought about this.

It was fun for a while but the detours became harder and harder as we sought out safe routes.

A staggering amount of timber had been blown down, shows the strength of the windstorm.

 Andy pretending to be superhuman, or perhaps a tree hugger?

 Our route was interesting to say the least.

Single trees were just as difficult to get around as you couldn't easily clamber through them.

Fallen timber wasn't just on the WHW forestry track. Deep in the woods hundreds of trees had been blown over.

Some had just snapped -

- to fall right in our path.

To continue to Conic hill and Balmaha was going to take a long while - a decision was made to loop back to our start point.
It wasn't only conifers that had fallen, some natural wood as well, 
but still difficult to get through!

Conifers are relatively shallow rooted - this shows the root spread of a large tree.

 We were getting weary of constant bushwhacking. 

Do you think 'Elvis' modeled for the Forestry Commission sign? Scary....

An eerie scene - the lonesome tree in the mist -
giving a feeling of surveying battlefield remains.

Studying the info board at the start of the track we couldn't believe how short a distance we had covered - all of 4 km in two and half hours.

Web advice a couple of weeks later stated:
  “A route diversion is in place at Garadhban Forest on the approach to Drymen due to fallen trees blocking the Way. Users are advised that other parts of the route may be impassable due to storm damage. A full inspection is under way, in the meantime please take care and avoid taking unnecessary risks.”
I think we were some of the first to discover this!

We ended up the day at the Clachan in Drymen, for a bowl of soup.

With all the devastation in Scotland after the storm - why did we choose a forest walk today? ! 

The would be wood walkers were;

Dee, Roni, Elizabeth, Graham, David, Ron, Andy, Bill and Gordon.

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Autumn Colours on Loch Lomond

Trip report from

our Open Canoe section!
17th October

The forecast for Saturday was particularly good, and a ‘phone call on Friday evening from Andy rallied a family outing of four boats. (well 3 boats & a Kayak)

During the summer months Milarrochy Bay on the east side of Loch Lomond is ‘hoaching’ and we were stunned (and delighted) to find it almost empty on such a beautiful day.

Amanda and Fraser, love adventure in the open air, their main concern was that we had brought enough lunch!

The red (slower) canoe set off ahead of the (speedier) green ones...! The shore slopes gently, there was much hilarity about not capsizing in 8 inches of still water!

Heading in the direction of Inchcruin, the mist slowly burned off the southern part of the Loch. We could tell it was going to be a cracking day…..

The wooded islands with a backdrop of the Luss hills in autumn colour made for a picturesque scene. It was very peaceful; the loch was almost empty of other craft.

The trees were starting to turn and in the bright sunshine they glowed.

Reflections were good, almost mirror image.

We had the beach on Inchmoan all to ourselves, yippee!

As well as playing Frisbee with the kids, we passed time playing that old Scottish game, ‘hunting for lost coins’

Couldn’t resist a pic of the boat, when you have so many good days it becomes one of the family!

Time for the obligatory photo of the group at feeding time,

‘Everybody squint into the sun please!’

Fantastically warm sun for October, little if any wind, and best of all NO JET SKIS!

A great family day out.

Spot the Frisbee!

Beach bums were; Colin, Bill, Amanda, Fraser, Frank, Andy, Susan, Roni, Elizabeth.

Moray Club Home page 

Loch Lomond - Sea of Islands

The Low Road

Wednesday 31st December 

David may have been basking in the sun on the hills above, but Andy and Bill were rather chilly as they pottered about in their open canoes around the Luss islands.

Andy the floater, paddled through the moored boats.

Strange sight on a misty day!

Bill was matched stroke for stroke by his mirror. 

Paddling up Luss Water was a diversion, it's not very deep or fast flowing, but interesting all the same.

Fortified with take away coffee, and posing for tourist cameras off the Luss pier, the 'boys' took off for the islands.

The forecast warm sunshine didn't break through the cloud, however it was photogenic!

It was to be a day of 'jacket on, jacket off' for Andy, he really should carry a bit more body weight to keep him warm.

A bed of reeds shows how shallow parts of the channel are.

Bill created barely a ripple, if it wasn't for his colourful drysuit it could been a black and white picture, the light gave muted colours.

On Inchtavannach, a Fallow Deer seemed unconcerned as the boats slid silently by.

Would it be possible to get a closer picture?

The quarry didn't seem the least bit bothered.

Andy, a member of the SBS, decided to stalk the beast on foot.....

Don't give up your day job Andy!

Shortly after his pic, the deer took off in two bounds!

Inchgalbraith with it's ruined castle was circumnavigated before lunch on the beach at Inchmoan.

Its a braw beach, even on a cold December day.

Andy had chilled down, and was desperate for a heat!

He found a novel way of keeping warm after lunch.

Spiderman dropped by to share in the fun. 

Exploring after lunch, a hidden pool deep within the reeds was found; totally silent and rather eerie, not a place to linger long!

It's a short hop out to this group of islands and in most weather conditions perfectly safe as shelter is never far away, perfect off season, but give a wide berth in summer, it's mega busy.

Bill couldn't help but show off on the return to Luss, he'll fall in one day; Guaranteed!