How to get a hill view. Without climbing a big hill.
That was the challenge Dave set me and I pondered a few options. I thought of some small hills in the area with big view such as the Lomond Hills and Ben A’an. The OS maps were scoured for hills I hadn’t heard of that were small and out the way but might give some magnificent views.
And with that in mind we arrived at the Blairadam forest car park and rambled along the forest tracks and paths to Cowden Hill. Not a lot of ascent, but the drop on the other side was perfect to try and get a look at Kinross, Loch Leven and the previously mentioned Lomonds.
The view was great, even if the clouds were trying their best to hide our vista.
We’ve vowed to come and camp on the hill at some point in the future. But we had part two of our day to be getting on with. We started wandering back towards our start point with the idea of finding a spot to play around with tarp set ups and maybe cook some lunch.
It was probably a total fluke that we found an ideal spot, by a burn, and surrounded by small bumps on all sides. Someone had been just as flukey as we found an old fire pit and a DIY fire reflector or fence.
We put up the tarp in a plough point formation and played around a bit with the height, pegging and knots. we are definitely not pros when it comes to tarps but days like today when we can learn what works best are just what we need to improve our skills.
Our tarp view. Definitely room for two.
After a cuppa, we had a wander round the gully and although it felt pretty secluded and protected, forest roads and paths were not too far away.
Lunch was cooked and we chatted about the state of the world and how gorgeous our spot was with the midday sun filtering through the trees.
We finished the day in silence, secretly competing with each other to see who could whittle the best spoon 😂.
Definitely an average spoon. Definitely an above average day.
Challenge Kev Outdoors 