Diem Horribilem for a Royal Visit

In which his Hughness and consort pay us a visit and Mr Power goes AWOL.

The forecast was as stated so we decided to stay in the lee of the mountain to miss the worst of the considerable breeze . PS had hurt his back carrying his wallet , Kenny has dissappeared again Mr Scullion and DocL presumably on youngun duty .
The abscence of our regulars was more than compensated for by a Banbridge delegation in then regal form of Mr Suffern ( blessed be his name ) and his security detail Mr M .

Giants Pad , Fallow loop , trails . Lost Liz to hypothermia an entrance to slieve meel. Over to yellow water where lesley in his exuberence ran over a poor beginner cyclist . The rocks over the river provided me with a spectacular dismount ,how I landed on my feet I’ll never know .

Up to sheep pen just to put some distance on and back down Penti . Mr P was down Penti well before us and when the three of us got to the bottom he was nowhere to be seen . Now in my innocence I insisted that he would NEVER just head on without us and that something must be wrong . We headed back up to the ford and then split up for the descent , one on the trails one on the road and one on Penti in an attempt to relocate our friend who we would NEVER leave behind.

Back at the bridge still no sign of said Mr Power so with no phone signal we headed back to Glen to see if he ws there , if not we would head back to yellow water . So imagine our “surprise” to see MR P toasty warm innhis car with the heat on full as we nearly expired for the cold and rain .

all I can say is……. NOTED !

Next week is walk from Davys to Carlingford .

Slip Slidin away

With Kenny off on a foursome we had our own sixsome for an extended castle bog loop .Tim,Cormac,John ,Paul, Coc and Liz

giants pad , where the new river crossing beat everyone bar Tim , up green road to slieve meel trails and over to yellow water . Dropping down road to ulster way and Batts wall . Johns new line on the Rocky road provided 6 clear rounds ..rare indeed . Tim came to grief shortly after on the rocky descent , thankfully no injuries . The race up castle bog was between Tim and Cormac , I wasnt close enough to the froont to tell you who won ,my only concern was the scottish heavy breathing behind me all the way up . Liz arrived at the top some time later commensurate with her friday night fluid intake.
The top of the bog was boogy with added snow and slush , hard work .The descent was treacherous but no fallers . Liz having aquired hypothermia headed straight home with the rest of us going home by the trails .
Looking ahead
Carlingford on 12th December
Santa Run 19th December

January Kirroughtree day?, Djouce day ?

eXtremely good cake

Great turnout despite the atrocius forecast. Which never really came to fruition , it was actually quite pleasant with light drizzle at most , not the biblical downpouring we expected.
Some old faces back again , Horse and Hound were laste as expected , Trailbadger Farr even later but a good job he came to keep his Horseness right . Hugh was lost after about 30 seconds . Seamus White was back on his old 26er ..anyone want to buy a trance?
Trails were lovely if a bit greasy on the roots. Bruce Hull was back and in tremendous humour . He was kind enough to help me re-enact my fall into a gorse bush ..cheers mate . Karma I suppose .
Only dissapointment today was the abscence of JOD as we all wanted to fondle his Following .
Lots of runnners out on the 26 eXtreme race and we did benefit from some lovely fruitcake courtesy of Ian .Cheers!

maybe a Cooley spin soon? Or Ballinastoe/Djouce

Not The Sunday Swim

Forecast was for rain and for a brief moment I thought we had escaped , but by the time Scullion crested the switchbacks it was time for the armbands and snorkels. It was just as welltherefore that Kenny was still enjoying the antipodean sunshine as his pneumonia was sure to have recurred . We ( Power , Scullion, Eamon Mc , COC and Herself ) headed out the trails as the open mountain just didnt seem appealing . This may have been a miscalcuation as the trails were mostly underwater . By the time we made it to Fallow we were so soaked that even Mr power agreed to a homeward direction via the black trail.

Dont forget next week we are having a tour of tollymore led by His Hughness, meet at moneyscalp carpark at 9am.