Trip Report: Slungie Hill (Long with photos)

[Brian]

Decided to make the best of the fairly decent weather today and tackle
Slungie and Black Hill, just outside of Milnathort.


http://photobucket.com/albums/v298/BrianInnes/SlungieHill/?action=view&cu
rrent=slungiehillroute.gif

Drove the bike up to the forest car park at Blackhill Forest (1), and
decided I would do the route around Slungie Hill, taking the track SW,
and then NW to climb up to Slungie Hill.


From the forest carpark, cycled SW to point 2 climbed the short rise,
and then stopped to see a descent followed by a very very hard climb up
to the summit of Slungie Hill:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v298/BrianInnes/SlungieHill/?
action=view&current=AscentSlungie.jpg

Cycled down the descent, keeping my eyes peeled for the stream across
the path, which I carefully carried the bike across - I had been aware
of the stream before I cycled this route as it had been mentioned on the
Cycle Kinross webpage - would be easy for someone to not notice it until
their front wheel vanished!


Now it was time for the ascent. Manged to cycle part way. Didn't have
enough momentum at one point so I felt myself falling sideways, and in
one smooth movement came off bike, laid bike down, parked my rear into a
bit boggy grass. Damp cycling shorts are not very comfortable!

Walked the bike most of the way up to the summit of Slungie Hill (3)

Cycled east from the summit, stopping to take a couple of pictures:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v298/BrianInnes/SlungieHill/?action=view&cu
rrent=SlungieSummit.jpg

and a view of the small pond:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v298/BrianInnes/SlungieHill/?action=view&cu
rrent=SlungieDam.jpg

Heading towards point 4 I chickened out and walked the bike down a steep
dropoff, and cycled my way to the dam, where I spotted this:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v298/BrianInnes/SlungieHill/?action=view&cu
rrent=Shag1.jpg

Wanting to get a closer look, I lifted my bike over the fence, and was
able to get a bit closer:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v298/BrianInnes/SlungieHill/?action=view&cu
rrent=Shag2.jpg

Unfortunatly I couldn't get any closer as the bird flew away.

Photos taken, I stopped for a bit to eat, then made my way back to the
car park where I decided I'd continue cycling and head around Black
Hill.

Cycled SW from the carpark to (5), where the path around black hill
turned off.

Followed the path around (stopping and walking the bike at parts as the
path was partly uncyclable) until I saw a nice bench (6) where I decided
I'd stop and have a bit to eat and take some more pictures:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v298/BrianInnes/SlungieHill/?action=view&cu
rrent=ViewfromBlackHill.jpg

Food eaten, I made my way back, hit a maximum speed of 23.8MPH
descending from Black Hill to point 7, then joined the main track back
to the carpark.

Total distance around 5.5 miles.

An enjoyable day's cycling.

--
Brian