Path Work - Quoich Water, Loch Brandy, Glas Allt & Jock's Road

So my maintenance contract has come to an end for this year.  It's a sad moment as I've enjoyed most of it, but the season is now over and we're not sure what next year will bring in this area (mainly due to funding and things like Brexit).  Due to the end of season I only have two weeks to write about.

We finally finished the work on the Quoich Water path on Mar Lodge Estate that, I have to admit, was beginning to drag on a little even for my enthusiasm for being outside.  So that is a whole lot of area trimmed, dug to form a tray and then filled with cobble and surfacing, along with some landscaping on the old path and some stone work to help cross a stream.  It took a while but it quite stable now and, river erosion permitting, should last a few years.

Then I went on a weeks holiday whilst my colleagues carried on working on path maintenance.

The last week was mainly spent on the Balmoral Estate and boy was the weather different from the heat and sun we had been used to over this summer.  A lot of wind, a lot of fog, and a lot of rain.  Damp right through to your bones rain.

On the first day I headed up the Loch Brandy path and up The Snub to clear out the water bars and cross drains, and do some landscaping on some of the braids that had begone to more on the sides of the path.  

There were some issues with water erosion on the path, but hopefully, now that the drains are clear, that should be reduced for the coming year at least.

Next was Glas Allt.  I didn't get too many pictures on this one as the weather was so bad I was worried by phone would get wrecked by it.  First stop was clearing the silt traps at the top of the path.  These do a very good job at collecting any surfacing that washes off the path into the drains, stopping it from disappearing down the side of the hill.  Such a good job in fact that it took us quite a bit longer then expected to empty them all, but at least the paths look well surfaced again.

After that we spent time at the bottom of the path to deal with some really obvious and bad erosion caused by footfall and the amount of water that comes down this section.  It meant adding some step rises, doubling up the water bars, and landscaping some of the worst eroded sides of the path to hold the ground in place.  No easy feat seeing as there weren't too many stones easily available in this area.  But hopefully this will help fold the path in place from now on and help protect the path further down as well.  Despite the rain this was actually one of the most satisfying sections we have done because of the erosion issue. 

The last day was spent in what is my favourite Glen of them all, Glen Doll.  We were working on this side of Jock's Road, from the shelter beside The Lunkard down.  As before this was mainly about clearing out the drainage systems, but some step rises were need in certain areas as well and these were added.  

This really was the best place to end our maintenance season as, even in bad weather, this Glen is absolutely stunning and what I instantly think of when I'm thinking about the Cairngorms.  We even got to listen to the stags roaring as rutting season has begun.  

Path Work - Carn Crom, Derry Dam Bridge circuit, Clais Fhearnaig, Quoich Water path, Mount Keen, & Scolty Hill

We're now doing into are sixth month of maintenance and these few weeks as seen us doing a variety of different jobs, mostly on Mar Lodge.

Before

After

Before

After

Doubling a waterbar and adding a couple of step rises.

The last week in August was where we finished the work we were doing on Carn Crom of step rises and doubling water bars.  

We also cleaned the waterbars and cross drains on the Derry Dam Bridge circuit, 

and the Clais Fhearnaig path that crosses from Glen Quoich to Glen Lui.

That week we also carried out some work on what I am going to call the Glen Tilt path which works its way south from the Bynack Lodge ruin on Mar Lodge. 

Before

After

Stone let

This entailed clearing the water features but also adding in a stone let and raising the path slightly on a section that was having an issue with water logging on the path.

We tend to come across quite a bit of rubbish doing this job, just because of how we move around the sight, and never leave behind what we can pick up.  This is just a selection of the random things we found on that path - someone must have had a very bad bike day.

As well as cleaning the cross drains on the path to Carn an Fhidhleir (otherwise known as Carn Ealar) from the Geldie Lodge ruin.  We also checked the path to see if there was any damage which was not an issue right now but would need to be worked on in the future.  

Like many Cairngorm path this one travels from one estate to another and I love the way it just disappears as it leave Mar Lodge - like you're going into the unknown.

We also got to check out some amazing stone culverts put in by a contractor a few years ago.  Quite a piece of construction that is still holding up now and with stones found in the surrounding area.  That is quite a skill and I take my hat off to the people that put this together.

The next week saw us working on a construction contract rather than maintenance on a path beside the Quoich Water on Mar Lodge.  Here the bank on which the path sits has been eroded by the river, especially after the large storm a few years ago that caused large flooding in the area.  Walkers had made their own path through the area after the main path disappeared, but even this was now falling into the river and a completely new route was needed.  This has meant cutting a route through the heather, digging a tray through the remaining vegetation, roots, and peat, and then adding small stones, cobbles, and surfacing to make it a solid usable path which will hopefully last a while whilst the river carries on in its natural behaviour.  We're still working on this so I don't have any after pictures at the moment, but that will come.

The second week of September was another mixed week, with us clearing the waterbars and adding step rises to the south side of Mount Keen.  This meant me walking right up to the top as the waterbars start pretty high on this Ben and I don't think I've ever been so wind swept in my whole life.

We also worked on the waterbars on the paths around and over Scolty Hill near Banchory.  This is a lovely little selection of paths in a wooded area and is a little gem of the area.  However, there were a lot waterbars and a lot of ferns to have to shove yourself into the clean everything out properly.  I was very happy to not have to see another waterbar that week.

The last days were spent back at Quoich Water working on the construction of that path as was this week as well.  Unfortunately this week was cut short by Storm Ali with the sheer amount of rain brought in causing the river we have to cross repeatedly to get to the site rising beyond what our vehicle could handle.  We'll be doing a longer week next week and this will hopefully mean finishing this path so that it's completely usable for walkers again.  We'll just have to wait and see.  At least the vegetation is getting the watering it's been needing these last few months.

Deer and mist over the River Dee

I have no idea what these gelly like globs are in the little lochan
found on Glen Derry.  If you know please let me know.

As usual there were stunning scenery to look at, even in bad weather, and wildlife most of which I have no idea the identify of.  

Even the hostel we have been staying at in Braemar has its little visitors that make any bad weather worth going through.