Took advantage of the good forecast for Saturday and set off just after 8 for a run over the two mountains on the opposite side of Glen Croe from the Cobbler. Having run round them on the forest trails I thought it would be nice to run over them.
Planned route was 12 miles with 4500' of ascent. Starting from the Ardgarten visitor centre down the track beside loch Long, up the Coilessan Glen track to the highest point, up and over the Brack then up and down Ben Donich to finish back at Ardgarten.
The first couple of miles of tarmac road undulate uphill for 400 feet or so. Onto forest roads and soon the sign for Coilessan Glen appears, the track steepens up a bit climbing 1300 feet in two miles. Runnable apart from 10 mins of steep manmade path from where the road ends.
The path over the moor to Lochgoilhead is marked by white posts, I had been here once before in Feb 2001, a few Jooster fuelled Millies climbed up and over the moor from Lochgoilhead.
Running up Coilessan Glen I could see the ridge to the Brack summit with lots of small stick figures keeping watch from the horizon. The ridge is just over a mile long with 1000' of climbing, a few tracks and trods but no definite routes. Climbed just off the ridge line to save some of the continual up and down. Soon realised that the stick figures were a large and noisy herd of deer. I got quite close to some of them as I meandered round the lumps and bumps that make up this ridge.
Great views all round from the Brack summit, Ailsa Craig and Jura easily visible to the eye but sadly not my phone cameras lens. After a short stop I picked my way down the steep grassy bank that is the Brack's North ridge, only a few small crags to negotiate. Crossed the beallach towards Donich's east ridge and took a line south of the first hump before aiming for the crest of the ridge. No real paths here either, just deer and sheep tracks.
Closing in on Donich's summit I met people for the first time today, one of the local walking clubs. With a few Millies taking part there was no surprises that the group had split up! A short refuel on Donich's summit taking in the views before dropping back down the East ridge, this time on the North side, turning towards the white posts that mark the path back through the forest and the forest road back to Ardgarten.
Finished in just under 4 1/2 hours, nice run on quiet hills, tough underfoot with few real paths, easy route finding along the ridges but a bit of time required to work out the best lines to take. A few pictures here .
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