I’m off with my motorcycling buddies this weekend up to the Northeast (Portsoy) and then Fort Augustus and home via Aberfeldy.
I’m hoping to manage some SOTA as well. Candidate hills include Bin of Cullen GM/ES-084, Tap o’Noth GM/ES-054, Knock of Braemoray GM/CS-115 and perhaps Farragon hill GM/CS-081 on the way South on Monday.
All this is weather dependent and also what the rest of the M/C gang of “Old Gits on Tour” pick for route choices.
I’ll post alerts when I know which hills I’m doing.
Hopefully there won’t be too much diversion due to “Golfing” this weekend with it’s associated palaver.
Andy
MM7MOX
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Back from the M/C SOTA weekend to the Northeast, after 629 miles and 4 hills I have a bit of the “John Wayne walk”.
We had some nice lunches and found some good roads, I particularly liked the A97 and A940, which merit another visit on the bike sans luggage.
I managed to activate Bin of Cullen GM/ES-084 and Knock of Braemoray GM/CS-115 on Saturday. Highlight was an s2s with Fraser on Bin of Cullen. Knock of Braemoray was burnt from roadside to the top except the path which must have been a bit damp and slightly less flammable. I wouldn’t like to have been there when it was burning.
Sunday started wet and the rest of the gang headed South, I headed up to Ord Ban GM/ES-074 to try and get the point I missed last year. Surprise there was an s2s with Tobias 2M0TFF who was only 9km south of me. I got enough QSO’S this time for the point.
Monday started much brighter so I headed over to Pitlochry and Glenshee, the A924 was fun except meeting the log truck on the bends above the distillery.
The Cairnwell chairlift is operating in the summer so I took that up to the top and then walked in to Carn a’Gheiodh GM/CS-030. 26 qso’s locally on 2m and further afield on 40m and 20m.
From the top I was able to scope out the walk up to Glas Maol GM/ES-012 which is another summer target for me. But I need to factor in the 90 mile ride each way on the bike for that one. The hot chocolate and cake at the cafe were a nice treat before the ride home this afternoon.
Uploading my log this evening I have made it to “Demi Goat” which I’m quite pleased about in just under three years. I never realised SOTA would be quite so addictive when I started.
Andy
MM7MOX
7 Likes
Is relatively easy for the points on offer. Park at the Southernmost car park and there is a track at the Southern end of the carp park. It’s a bit steep in places, it just starts and there’s no gentle break in. It approaches ski tows and then parallels them to their end. It descends slightly to a lochan and can be a touch soft here then there is the steep path up the side of choire. It only takes 10mins or so and you come out on the plateau. It’s enormous and featureless so make sure you know how to find the trig point and the path down in the mist as there’s no obvious path across the plateau. 1hr20 - 1hr30 to the top. It can be heaving with walkers on a nice weekend day.
I’m not sure if you need to pay for the Southern car park now, you do for the Northern ones. Fraser @mm0efi may know. I think you can avoid the parking charges if you buy stuff there. That may exclude money spent in the cafe.
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There is a machine to pay for parking at the Southern car park near to the track start or you can pay in the cafe.
When I parked yesterday the price was included in my ticket for the chair., otherwise free for 50 mins and 4GBP per day after that.
The view from the top of the chair was very good yesterday over to Glas Maol.
Andy
MM7MOX
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Congratulations on the half goat! My situation was unique. I had Meikle Conval as a drive on sunmit tor the day, thanks to me helping with safety cover for the Dufftown hill race. The runners cross the two Convals and then run up Ben Rinnes. They then run all the way back again!
I had time for a quick HF activation before the race, highlight being S2S with @DL1CR Chris on a poor 40m band, then managed to snatch VHF summit to summits with @2M0RVZ Chris, as well as you Andy, during the race.
on Meikle Conval GM/SS-051, looking to Ben Rinnes GM/ES-021
descending Meikle Conval, with GM/ES-057 Little Conval ahead of me
We had vehicles on all three summits, so I need to try and get a full set of drive-ons over the next few years. 
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Fraser, Land Rover question: what are businesses using now ‘proper’ Defenders are out of production? I see plenty of the new models driving in and around Edinburgh but they seem a little pricey for working vehicles and all appear to be carrying kids and wet dogs about. Has the world moved to Ford Rangers (and the wet belt engines that self-destruct) or Japanese pickups (HiLux, Navarra, L200) ?
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Hi Fraser,
Thank you for the s2s and the LandRover picture.
Now that I see it, I remember passing you (opposite direction) on the A97 just a few miles north of Logie Coldstone on Friday afternoon. I did wonder at the time if it was you.
40m wasn’t great on Saturday and Sunday but was better yesterday.
No hills for me this weekend , I’m laying race marks out in the Forth for the 707 fleet racing but will have the Quansheng with me for /MM QSO’s if anyone is in range.
Andy
MM7MOX
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And I remember passing a bike. I had the 110 out for a test drive, having replaced a seatbelt, a rubber exhaust mount and nipped up a couple of wheel bearings. Today is MOT day.
Come in for a cuppa next time.
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In Teesdale it seems to be a variety of different Pick-ups including the Ford Ranger. I’ve only seen the new Defenders used by the punters to get to the shoot not the Estates. There is the odd RAM appearing which seems to be slightly wider than the roads it is driving on!
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This is thought to be the most brutal hill race on the Highland Games circuit.
I walked most of it years ago (cut up through the golf course to Little Conval) for an Activation, couldn’t do it now!
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As the big estates 110’s get a bit long in the tooth, they are generally replacing them with pickups. On my side of the Cairngorms, lots of Toyota Hilux can be seen. When I was in Glen Feshie last week, they were running Ford Rangers. I spoke with the head ghille, and he said they were happy enough with them.
When they need to change the cam belts on them they may be less happy with the price! They seem to be well received apart from that.
My mate sold his 19yr old Defender 90 with a 5cylinder diesel and 130000miles for £3000 more than he paid for it 2012 
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Congrats Andy with the Demi Goat. Not surprised its taken 3 years as it is a lot of plodding uphill wherever you live but especially in your part of the world where you have to work harder for every point and the hills are often far apart. Hope you enjoyed the views from Bin of Cullen and very sorry to hear of the devastation of Knock of Braemoray which we never managed to reach. Very envious of your 2s2s from Ord Ban - did you really get 4 contacts on 2m VHF from there? I shall not be returning for another try! I am sorry to see that you didn’t ascend GM/CS-030 in the proper manner - which,is, anway, rather reduced by the height at which you start and Rod would envy you the hot chocolate and cake as none of this was available when we visited a few years ago in May. However I was duly grateful for the toilets being open (and the car park free). Very glad you are enjoying your SOTA addiction so much but don’t expect the urge to stop when you reach MG - there is always another one and another and…
73 Viki
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It is in my log or 15th May 2024 
73,
Rod