South Cairngorm Run

I've not managed out for many runs recently so a combination of days off and a good forecast meant that I headed for the Southern Cairngorms for a longer run on Monday. I'd run the route before, 2 years ago in April, it was about 30 miles, but then 11 of those miles had been in deep snow - it had been torture, taking 7 hrs 30 mins !

My route was from Inverey, east along the Dee, north through the Slugain, across the Clais Fhearnaig to Derry lodge up to Corrour, down to White Bridge and back.

The route

The first few miles up to the Sluggan used to be part of a Bronze Duke of Edinburgh route that I tooks kids out on a few years back. It would invariably take a day of grumbling to walk it, but too me a leisurely hour and 20 mins.

There must have been a lot of rain fall in the Cairgorms the previous day cause the river levels were clearly much higher than normal. There appears to be a new path on the north side of the Quoich Water but I couldn't get accross to it, the river was far too fast and deep. Eventually I found a spot which although not idea (especially on your own) got me and the dog accross. The water was up to my thighs and ice cold and the poor, wee hound came out the water a good bit further downstream than where he started!














Looking back down to Derry Lodge, Lochnagar in the distance

I then crossed over to Derry Lodge and up to Luibeg Ford where another deep, fast river crossing was necessary. I didn't go up to Corrour Bothy, but cut over to the White Bridge Path. Last time I had done this run it started to snow heavily at this point and the lacing system on my Salomon shoes broke so I had to seek refuge in the bothy to fix them.

Devil's Point & Cairn Toul from just south of Corrour

The path between Corrour and White Bridge has been greatly improved from the muddy swamp it had previously been and after 24 miles I passed my first person of the day. From White Bridge it was a simply case of back to the Linn 'o Dee and along the road back to the car. I felt pretty good over the last 3 - 4 miles which were all comfortably under 9 min/mile pace and would have liked to continue the run.

All in all it was 29.5 miles and took me a comfortable 5hrs 45 min, but there was a lot of very rough ground covered so I was happy with my 5.1mph average. I plan one last long run before the race and that will hopefully be a 43 mile jaunt next Tuesday.