85: imperceptible hill in freezing rain
i started before dawn. the pavements were frosty but not too slippery. i marched out beyond the retail park and into suburbia. kids were walking to school, apparently slgihtly more perturbed by the presence of the weird bloke in a cagoul than either the cold or the revolution afoot. then again they weren't in the other 1% who were about to be usurped.....
most of the ascent was over when i entered clatto country park. dogs and recently fallen trees made more of an impression than the hill after that. it seems there's never a good time to avoid dogs in a "country park" but 8:30 in the morning seems particularly bad. the summit of gallow hill (175m), the highest point governed by dundee council, was difficult to ascertain. perhaps on the fence line next to the unexplained pillars or perhaps somewhere around the edge of the water tower. either way it wasn't competing with dundee law.
after the summit and the morning's most intimidating canine a fairly lengthy shower dawdled through. i continued through templeton woods to the coupar angus road (or so the map claims). by the time i had reached the trig on the roundie, a lump that looked a bit like a hill fort wedged between some fields with a trig and a few trees, i was pretty wet but the rain had petered out. here there were good views of the sidlaws and up the tay. i have a tendency to maintain long term mental links either between a place and events i was thinking about at that place or between places i was recollecting when i heard about an event and the event itself. thus the section between the two just-about-summits is connected with the death of christopher hitchens (which happened on the same day although i'm not sure whether i was first aware of it beforehand or afterwards) and last year's pdc world darts (which i was anticipating working on when we got home). if i think of those things i picture walking through that shower. i can't help it. that's just how my brain works. hills can be connected with fat bastards and alcoholics.
i returned through camperdown country park (naturally more dogs). after passing camperdown house the pavements were extremely icy. evidently the rain had frozen fairly quickly. there was no need for the ice arena marked on the map this morning. i was slip sliding the couple of miles back to the travelodge. with the pavements ungritted, i walked mostly on the road. one dundonian looked me in the eye as he deliberately changed lane and drove at me. he got the finger.
most of the ascent was over when i entered clatto country park. dogs and recently fallen trees made more of an impression than the hill after that. it seems there's never a good time to avoid dogs in a "country park" but 8:30 in the morning seems particularly bad. the summit of gallow hill (175m), the highest point governed by dundee council, was difficult to ascertain. perhaps on the fence line next to the unexplained pillars or perhaps somewhere around the edge of the water tower. either way it wasn't competing with dundee law.
after the summit and the morning's most intimidating canine a fairly lengthy shower dawdled through. i continued through templeton woods to the coupar angus road (or so the map claims). by the time i had reached the trig on the roundie, a lump that looked a bit like a hill fort wedged between some fields with a trig and a few trees, i was pretty wet but the rain had petered out. here there were good views of the sidlaws and up the tay. i have a tendency to maintain long term mental links either between a place and events i was thinking about at that place or between places i was recollecting when i heard about an event and the event itself. thus the section between the two just-about-summits is connected with the death of christopher hitchens (which happened on the same day although i'm not sure whether i was first aware of it beforehand or afterwards) and last year's pdc world darts (which i was anticipating working on when we got home). if i think of those things i picture walking through that shower. i can't help it. that's just how my brain works. hills can be connected with fat bastards and alcoholics.
i returned through camperdown country park (naturally more dogs). after passing camperdown house the pavements were extremely icy. evidently the rain had frozen fairly quickly. there was no need for the ice arena marked on the map this morning. i was slip sliding the couple of miles back to the travelodge. with the pavements ungritted, i walked mostly on the road. one dundonian looked me in the eye as he deliberately changed lane and drove at me. he got the finger.