Meikle Bin

April 21, 2018

Meikle Bin

Been meaning to go and grab this one for a while and when Ryan and Jo did it with the Maps for Trail Runners gang, and I couldn't make it, I thought that would be a good excuse :)

I spent the morning actually not thinking I was going to make it out anywhere, I had the worst cramps I've had in years and spent the morning on the sofa with hot water bottles and naproxen :S but as the pain eased, I got better and got in the van and ended up doing a half marathon...! Nice.

The trail is initially easy to find, navigation was all good and well signposted actually along the forestry tracks as its a popular area. It all went downhill a bit when we got to the turnoff for the hill at the end, I intended to take a track between Meikle and Little Bins and approach it from the far side, and run back to the track, which was all fine. Was great up there, what a view.

I decided on the summit to follow the rough direction of the path marked on the map, there seemed like a reasonable wee trail so i followed that. Then as I descended toward and into the treeline, it got boggy and wet. And of course, now I'm in the trees with no vis. So the track too a line eastward so I followed that branch but it just came to a stop in a clearing and I backtracked to the junction where it took a turn. Then, looked downward but knowing that the track I want was now north and east of me, I decided to just scale back up the hill until I could get a decent view. I ended up traversing back through horrible tree stumps and things back to the track between the bins and following that back to the junction. Which also was not well marked. The trail between the bins is on there but how on earth you access Meikle Bin from the south I have no idea. So then I start running back the way I came, when I realise after 10 mins that I Was supposed to go the other way back to complete the loop - bugger. Back I go uphill to the junction, which again, is not even marked to join the other track, the other track is there but on the 1:50k there is no link between them. Anyway, all smoothly from there, aside from stops for photies and my calf giving me jip it was all good. Got back to the van and did a wee loop from the car park around the block to cover an extra 800m to get a half marathon out of it, it was only a 14km route...lol. 6k of getting lost, exploring tracks and going the wrong way back, ah well! :D it was GORGEOUS!