In which

• The evil triplets abandon Donard plans in favour of a cairn
• John (Sco) finds a fiver , thats his drink money for the next year sorted
• Robbie “Utterly Butterly” doesn’t have a feeling for snow.
• John (Sco) has a clash of balls with bike , offers fiver for painkiller.
• More walking than cycling ensues as snow deepens
• Kenny “the navigator” directs us to the tunnel via cheesecake land , Robbie finds water again .
• Great fun was had from tunnel down , skis would have been nice.
• The two Docs tackle a second Cairn via switchbacks . Dr Seuss claims a very impressive clean run using the traditional route (apparently) .
• Met Mr Scullion who had a tickly cough which had prevented him from mounting his walking machine.

Garmin Here …dont follow this route .

Sean Kelly is reported to have said ” if you want to know if its too wet to go training , go training and you’ll know when you get back” . I have to disagree , when I looked out the window at 8 I knew it was too wet but I also knew Mr Power and co. would never let me live it down. So thanks their bullying/cajoling I did get up and go.

A wet suit might have been more appropriate gear , Mr Hull , Robbie and Dan D were also there . Cormacs plan involved fiddlers. viewpoint , trails to cairn ( of course) , down to tunnel and onto red trails. The trails were like rivers , my feet were like ice blocks, my fingers appeared to have been disconnected from my hands . However we got round and had mighty crack crossing the yellow water , Robbie took a nasty toss and nearly a swim as did Cormac . Kenny and I chickened and walked it .

And in retrospect Sean kelly was right.

Route Here

Poor attendance today with Kenny and Robbie both laid low with tickly coughs ,Paul had domestic duties which is low on the scale of acceptable excuses and LIz had a dodgy knee which Robbie had failed to cure despite a laying on of hands. Scullion was so late he never turned up . That left only Mr Power , Doc , Ross ,John (SCO) and COC to make up the numbers.

The three youngsters put the pressure on from the start , (without Kenny and Robbie to hold them back ) this put the two auld boys at the back under severe pressure and the cairnuary legs felt the pain ++ .

Giants pad , Fallow , Tunnell and then reverse bath…. almost with Cormac heading freestyle across the mountain . Bitter wind and absolutely freezing . Hard right at the shoulder of knockshee and back to post ….but oh no Mr Power had other ideas with more open mountain towards sallys yard and back to mast / Cairn . Then dropped down to forest office . Lost John here and nearly lost Ross who was shamed into another climb . By this stage the two Docs were on their knees with cold/bonk /cairnuary legs. But another cairn was needed in the bank so straight back up road/trails , pausing only to collect Mr Coyle on his very pretty boy titanium/ rohloff/belt drive bike which Tim immediately coveted. Watch the credit card bill Julie.
Quick cairn and straight down to thaw out .

ROUTE HERE

Photos fairly poor not because John took them but my camera froze.