3.75 miles 1hr 54min ascent 262m
A nice short walk, but best done during a drought. There was a deer standing in the car park when I arrived, as there was the last time I parked there.
I had set off from home intending to walk the dogs along the forestry track at Kissock, but Lotus Hill was too tempting. About half a mile from the car park the forestry track divides and I turned right up a gentle slope. The first mile is on firm tracks but then degenerates into a boggy path that climbs to the bog that covers most of the summit.
I was picking my way across the marshy area with Sweep running along as point man when he disappeared in the tall grass ahead of me with a loud plop. The sound of a dog entering deep water. I was therefore forewarned to alter course.
View from Lotus Hill, Loch Arthur
From the summit we headed down through the heather then into a forest break. The first few metres of this break were muddy, and I mean muddy. Sweep ran into the mire and sank to his wedding tackle. A short burst of scrabbling and he was out the other side. Leo and I picked our way around the edge.
There are a couple of forest breaks that lead from this one to the lower track and I had decided to take the first one. Less muddy from memory. I came across a way marker and presumed it marked the first break.
I shouldn’t presume. The break was impassable with fallen tress so I went a few metres further and took that break mumbling to myself that the waymarker was badly placed. The way I took showed signs of others using the same route but eventually joined the more substantial path of the forest break I should have been on.
[osmap gpx=”http://www.screel.co.uk/walks/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/RK_gpx-_2012-09-02_1024.gpx”]
