Had a little bit of a scare Friday morning. For whatever reason my old big toe JKD injury flared. The night before I could hardly walk on it. In the morning it was just as painful. I wasn't going to let it screw up my run though. I had planned a few hours running around the higher peaks on Arran. The one opportunity I get to be in the mountains. I packed up as usual and once moving around it fortunately was fine! Whew. That would've ruined my day!
I ran down to the nearest bus stop in Kildonan, got on board, and headed to Brodick. I had minimal gear, the basics for an ultramarathon I normally am required to carry. Once off the bus at the ferry terminal I ran off towards Glen Rosa. The huge U shaped valley pretty much splits all the higher peaks or Corbetts. Corbetts are anything between 2500 and 3999 feet in height. Anything over 4000 feet is considered a Munro. On the way I made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up more food and some extra water. I knew I didn't have enough and I'm not sure if the water here needs to be filtered, likely not, but I wasn't going to take that chance! Off I went through the rest of town and on to Glen Rosa.
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| road to Glen Rosa, Goat Fell in the mist |
The "track," as they call it here, starts off a wide gravel road and continues to slowly get narrower. Nice running but the more difficult the terrain the lower quality the track. They don't consistently do trail work like in the US so it's more like following a route versus a trail. Once I left the main track I was forced to hike due to the steepness of the terrain. They don't do switchbacks here, it usually goes straight up.
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| Beginning of Glen Rosa |
The views up Glen Rosa are spectacular. The end of the glacial valley surrounded by rugged peaks. Creeks drain down from all over to form Glen Rosa Water, the main creek that leaves the valley to sea.
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| Looking up Glen Rosa at Cir Mhor |
I was doing the Western Glen Rosa Horseshoe. A ridge run that, as the name says, forms a horseshoe around the Glen including a run down the Glen itself. I'd previously ran the Eastern version and was nearly snowed out. The top of Goat Fell, the highest point on the island, was covered in rime ice, and the Glen was half full of snow. It was anything but safe but I made it happen. Ideally I would've liked to have connected both sides today but I didn't have the time or the water.
Looking at the high peaks you'd think it would take forever but it went rather quick, especially going straight up. Initially breaking off from Glen Rosa Water (the main creek) I followed a drainage of cascading waterfalls straight up. A faint track came and went alongside the creek which was full of granite slabs making it look like a huge water slide. The water looked a murky golden color from the tainted rock slabs, likely stained by the runoff of all the peat bogs. Eventually I came to a ford. Seeing it marked on the map I was expecting a flat watercrossing with a few rocks to hop across. What I got was a 30 foot deep gorge with pretty much vertical rock walls with a steep narrow trail in and out. Pretty cool and very unexpected. The odd rolling terrain hides many features here and until I was at its edge I had no idea!
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| hidden gorge, trail on the left |
Once I gained the main ridge the terrain was basically low brush and grass surrounded by boulder fields, no more boggy patches. All shapes and sizes of granite were strewn about and the track was decomposed granite. It was very similar to the a Sierra Nevada, just much less maintained other than old man made slab staircases randomly constructed. Some sections required class 3+ scrambling and climbing which made for slow going. Not much of the "high country" was runnable. Going up it was a power hike and the flat sections were short and few.
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| hard to believe behind me are a bunch of Corbetts, looking South West |
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| decomposing granite track, this was a 17% grade |
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| Holy Isle in the haze, the low valley is Glen Rosa |
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| gaining the ridge, I eventually followed along all of that |
As I worked my way around I considered what I was doing, and as much fun as it was, it wasn't the same alone. Running I'm perfectly happy alone. Out power hiking and picking my way through boulders I'd probably have had more fun with a friend. I likely missed a few ideal cliff top viewpoints and even avoided a couple more technical sections just to be safe since I was alone. It gets extremely exposed in a few spots, even recommending rock protection and roped climbing for the faint of heart.
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| panorama |
The sun was hot despite being obscured by clouds and remnants of fog, mist filled in the distant bays. From one direction it's sheer cliffs pouring into Glen Rosa, the other it's open rolling hills into valleys filled with lochs and creeks. Very surreal, inhospitable, and likely a nightmare to travel through. Despite looking like an easy walk, underfoot can be inconsistent hidden bogs and grass. Far off in distance you could see the ocean and Holy Isle beyond Brodick in the sea-haze.
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| looking back at the ridge line |
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| looking at A'chir, Cir Mhor behind it |
I worked my way through the technical ridges, then ducked down a saddle back into Glen Rosa where a more runnable track was. It was nice to run gradually downhill alongside the beginnings of Glen Rosa Water. The valley is deceivingly long with Glen Rosa Water growing in size the further you get, varying from open and flat to a deeply carved out gorge.
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| much steeper than it looks, the track went down through the rocks |
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| looking back at the ridge line |
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| down into Glen Rosa, the left ridge line leads to Goat Fell |
Looking up at Goat Fell I regretted not continuing on however got over it once I realized I was out of water and I had still another 5 miles until Brodick just by taking the easy way out! The further down I got the wider the track became and more hikers were seen.
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| down Glen Rosa |
Soon I was back on pavement and working my way to the bus station at the ferry terminal. I was in a rush as I knew if I missed the bus I'd be stuck for a couple hours. I raced through Brodick in time, I had twenty minutes! So, I ran to the grocery store to get some food and water. Blueberries, watermelon, and a couscous curry concoction. It was so nice to have fresh fruit! I bumped into a couple of Minnesotans I had met the day prior. This was a whole story in it's own as they had known a close friend of mine, Britta, basically all her life! It was great to see them before they caught the ferry as day day before the even smaller world connection hadn't been made.
At the bus stop it arrived and I got on. I turned my phone on to let the wife know where I was at, turns out she'd come to town with the kids! I jumped to get off the bus before it left and headed to the other end of town to meet them. Overall a really fun run, but as I mentioned, I think I'd have preferred to do it with someone since it had all the more non-runnable sections.
The photos turned out ok. The light wasn't that great and all the selfies I took looked gray, I think my lens was dirty. I didn't mention the corbett names because they're in Gaelic and also with kids going nuts I didn't have the patience to! Sorry! This goes for the large format photos too.
A lot of the steepness and distance is hard to grasp. Below is the Strava data. If you look at it on my Strava page you can change the map settings and see the profiles and obviously a more in depth map.
