SORC Drumglog Challenge

I was at the SORC Drumglog Challenge Event on Saturday 26th July. I had had an up and down week trying to get the fuel system running right as I had lost alot of power. With that hopefully fixed I headed down to the site on Friday night.
Saturday morning came and fed and coffeed a few last minute adjustments to the truck and I was ready.
There had been 22 punches (in the end we found out there were only 20) laid out across the site so we had been told. Clumped together in groups of about 4 or 5.

The Tay Forest Challenge is in 4 weeks time so I wanted to take it easy but I was definately going to try and get as many punches as I could. We set off well getting 3 punches quickly without getting the winch out.


We managed to lose a couple of waffle boards in the deep bogs over the day that we had to find and winch out.

Later on in the day we really enjoyed a few of the forest sections which may well be close to the Tay Forest Challenge. This punch was a good one. I teamed up with Mike over the day as we are competing together for the Tay. So we got a chance to work together.

Mike watching as I winch lower off the last punch of the day.

We had to winch off a bridge to get the attached punch card to the punch hanging from the bridge.

Dirty and wet at the end of the day. It was a great day and I hope SORC can run more of these over the year. I would love to get a small series of the events running over the year.

Scottish Hill Rally 2008

I was at the Perthshire Hill Rally this Friday and Saturday. I have marshalled before but this year I wanted more involvment. So I got the job as Management Car for Team Disaster Management. This is made up of Malc and Jim Miller. Malc competes in a 200 tdi 90 with a few tweeks. Jim has a 3.9 V8 rear engined Sug Bug.
My role was fairly simply be there at the end of every stage to ensure they have enough fuel or spare wheels to get to service. The Sug Bug is fairly thirsty so lots of fueling went on. Malc's Tdi was far more frugile.
Malc did have one issue at the end of SS10 having cracked the steering arm bracket and bend his chassis. Badger and Sandy their service crew managed to weld it together before The Legend SS11.
Well done to the whole Team, we got both cars home and Malc and his Co-Driver Adrian got 3rd in class.

Team Disaster Mamangement at the start of the weekend.

The 2 cars in park ferme before the start.

Jim was getting good at this. He managed to wreck 3 wheels over the 2 days. 1 might be repairable. Not this one though.

Service on day 2.

The Legend Stage. SS11

Jim and Scuba at the end of SS11 The Legend after 2 days racing. We had to change the front right wheel before he drove back to Perth. So I never got a picture of Malc at the end of the final stage.

John Cockburn the winner of the event giving it some on SS11

Biking Round Ski Areas.

I had some time off and took 2 days to ride past all the ski areas in Scotland. I didn't set out to do that it just happened. I left Perth and headed up to Aberfeldy to met Ali. We headedout toward Glencoe. Ali joined me for about an hour and then had to head back. I carried on and headed down towards Oban before heading up Glen Orchy.

Then it was up to Rannoch Moore and down into Glencoe. The picture above shows the new section of road by the meeting of the 3 waters. It was an awesome day and a great way to travel through Glenoce.
It was up to Fort William and past my second ski area for the day. Fort Bill was busy with the Mountain Bike world cup on at the weekend there were alot of people around.
From Fort Bill I headed to Spean Bridge and along the side of Loch Laggen where the photo above is taken.

It was time to start to look for somewhere to stay. The bottom of the River Pattack has a great wee spot. It is a Community Woodland Campsite that doesn't cost anything to stay at. The problem of course was the Midges.
In the morning it was up and off to escape the midges. I headed into Newtonmore and fueled up. Then it was up Cairngorm for breakfast. Above shot is taken on the road up to the mountain carpark.
From Cairngorm it was off to Nethy Bridge and then up the road towards The Lecht. A quick stop there and the off towards Braemar and finally passing Glenshee. Above is on the road from Braemar to Glenshee. It was an excellent 2 days and the bike performed really well. I passed it's 600 mile point at Glenshee and so it was in for it's first service the next day. Now the engine is run in I can now see what 7000rpm is all about......

Canyoning

I had a day out last week with Dave from Source Paddlesport We headed up to Acharn on the south side of Loch Tay and went Canyoning on Acharn Falls. It was a great sunny day and it was great to get into the canyon and do some rope work again.

Looking down 35m of Waterfall. I'm down there somewhere.

It is a stunning series of Falls with the biggest being 35m We realised it was this height when we I didn't quite get to the bottom on a doubled 50m rope. Ah the last 10m was easy climb down anyway......

Top and Back Shandon

This weekend I finally got the chance to go to the SORC event Top of the Hill near Shandon on the west coast. Just up from Helensburgh. It has taken 4 years for a SORC team to make it to the highest point on the site and this year I was pleased to be part of the team who got there. Click here to see the plotted route from one of the cars with GPS mapping.

The site is incredably boggy and driving in it is a very different experience. You must drive so softly so as not to break the surface. As soon as the surface tension is broken that's it you sink. It can be as deep as your tyres. Not just up to the axles.

The weather was excellent in fact a bit of sunburn was had. Witht the weather so good the views were awesome down over Helensburgh and Faslane.
At some points all you saw were stuck cars.

But it was worth it to get to the top.

The way back down was not any easier with some interesting trails. There was a bit of damaged sustained. I for one will have to replace my winch cable, fit a new alternator and sort out a fueling problem. The scratches and dent to the body work I'm not too bothered about.