Lough Dan Hike
Date: 15th March 2009
Starting Point: Oldbridge
Start Time: 11:00
End Time: 15:30
About to tuck into lunch by the shores of Lough Dan
Description: We woke up to a beautiful spring day and made our way to Roundwood. We all met up in The Heather Bistro where we received a lovely warm welcome. So much so the lads treated themselves to a lovely cooked breakfast (any excuse!)
We then kitted ourselves out with our boots, gaiters and back packs and started our hike from Oldbridge. It’s so important for us to protect our skin in all temperatures so we took couple more minutes to ensure we all had enough sunscreen. Here we also encountered a group of very enthusiastic scouts all setting out for a day on the hills as well.
The weather was amazing, hard to believe the same day last week, we were having snow ball fights and had to carefully make our way through the snow. We walked around the base of Kanturk and proceeded across the valley floor to make a crossing over the Inchavore River. Soon we decided to stop for lunch overlooking the beautiful Lough Dan. We found the most scenic spot (5 stars due to location, weather and surroundings) where we could bask in the sun and enjoy our well earned sandwiches. Shane can certainly vouch for that!
Mark was keen to keep us all on our toes so we set off again and picked up the Wicklow Way trail. This brought us through the Guinness Estate, below Knocknacloghoge and Luggala and then up the steep incline up to Pier gates. This was a steep ascent on tarmac which we managed pretty effortlessly. This hike presented some really spectacular scenery and with the spring day it really allowed us to enjoy it even more.
We continued on the Wicklow Way through the woods of Sleamaine and Ballinafunshoge before making our way back to Oldbridge. We met up again with the scouts who were funnily enough still very enthusiastic and looked like they had an amazing day as well.
Roll call: Ann-Marie, Eoin, Mark, Peter and Shane
Distance: 16km | Ascent: 400m
