The Kilpatrick Braes are wonderful. Not just the getting there, (freedom is nothing, becoming free everything!) but the actual being in them. Indeed, for someone like myself who resides in Govan, the getting there is as important as the being there. I almost always cycle, though often I will jump the train from Partick to Dalmuir as a sort of springboard push to help me on my way. In the less cold months, I might take the southern route by the river along to Braehead (meditating on the braes as I go) and get the little raft across the river, before continuing along to Clydebank and joining the canal. This 'getting there' is of extreme importance, and sets you up quite nicely for 'a clear communication' with the hills themselves. I have in the past been ferried in a friend's car to the hills, but the difference has been so palpable as to force me to reject the car entirely as a mode of transportation. On the one hand, with the bicycle (and the body), you contemplate the coming - the be-coming of the hills - whilst on the other you contemplate nothing whilst having your ear bent by some mindless idle chit-chat. I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it until I move on from this plane, that the car (and its internal combustible engine) is one of the reasons man is in so much existential trouble.
Anyhoo...
This little foray enters the braes through a little ridge route that veers off the Loch Humphrey Path just before its steepest part (aka. The Bastard). There are plenty of overhanging old growth trees, plenty of waterfalls too. Indeed, such is the power of water falling at this time of year I propose a new name for February: Water Falling! (or maybe, Februa, as the feast of purification, is this water falling. At the very least, I have purified myself through using my own engine).
Anyhoo...
This little foray enters the braes through a little ridge route that veers off the Loch Humphrey Path just before its steepest part (aka. The Bastard). There are plenty of overhanging old growth trees, plenty of waterfalls too. Indeed, such is the power of water falling at this time of year I propose a new name for February: Water Falling! (or maybe, Februa, as the feast of purification, is this water falling. At the very least, I have purified myself through using my own engine).
The beautiful canal lending us views of our destination as we go...
The bottom of the valley never provides the clearest view.
This is the gate leading into the braes and the one of the ridge paths along them. You can easily walk along it for a kilometre or so and either head deeper into the hills or head back down onto the Loch Humphrey Path.
Coffee with Carlos above the City
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