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The Youth Of Today

It was always going to be a busy day. ptc*, Bobinson, Craig & Ian were the reduced WHW FallDoon Team mountainbiking (former 2) and running (latter 2) Stage 1 from Fort William to Tyndrum. The roadbike component of the Team had pulled out at the eleventh hour but it was still full steam ahead for the others. We had already organised to rendezvous at the ever wonderful Real Food Cafe around teatime ish to hear the tales of the day but before that we had Jamie to pick up from the airport and introduce him to certainly my favourite hill The Cobbler.



It was a crisp morning so I had my usual kit dilemas of "what to wear?" Footware was easy. I'd wanted an excuse to give the 5:10 Camp Fours a UK outing as they'd only been out to play in Italy on some via ferrata. I don't like getting too hot or too cold. Rain wasn't on the cards and I figured it was day oot for the phd Ultra Vest. I needn't have worried, the sun was shining and dam all in the way of wind. This however meant that everyone and their dug was also thinking it was a good day to do The Cobbler. Even Jamie who is more used to the Lakes & Peak was surprised at the numbers. It didn't stop him from having a muck about on the Narnain Boulders



That was only the beginning of the playtime. Before too long we were on the right hand summit looking over to people "threading the needle" on the left hand summit. Steve elected to be chief photographer whilst Jamie & I joined the queue. It was worth it. It's been a few years since I've thread the needle and the rock is certainly more polished than I remember it.






We were meeting Sandy somewhere on the track to then head to Tyndrum. He'd been off wildcamping on Ben Lomond. Stories were exchanged including the meeting we'd had with a young cheeky chappie. We'd met Kieran not far from the beallach on the eastern approach up "the front" of The Cobbler. He seemed very enthusiastic and took great delight in telling us he'd conquered this on his own. I did question him on this but he said none of his family or mates were into hillwalking so he'd come on his own. He said he lived in Arrochar so essentially this was his playground. Lucky boy we thought and good on him for getting out. The chat continued and I discovered he didn't have any food with him so I said I'd give him a Snickers Bar once he got to the top. As we continued up and we were becoming more enthralled by this boy's ambitions. He said he wanted to do Ben Nevis next year. We told him that he really needed an adult with him for that one. We got to the summit and he got his Snicker Bar.



 We all headed back to the the central summit and advised Kieran that he'd be better to go down the stepped path off the back whilst we went off to thread the needle. We were all encouraged how this 14 year old was so keen on being outdoors whilst most kids were couch potatoes. As we were en route to the car we met Kieran again. This time he was with another boy, two women and a dug. The women shouted his name. We looked puzzled at one another whilst Kieran gave us a very worried look and came out with a very cheeky "What took you so long?" Me thinks this boy had been on his own little adventure though not as solo as we had been led to believe. Bet he thought he was onto a real winner when he got the Snickers Bar out of me - oh the youth of today.......................

Got to The Real Food Cafe about 1730 but there was no sign of the WHW FallDoon Team. We had limited technology but were able to access Twitter where we could see the mountainbikers were behind the runners @ Kingshouse. Fish & chips were scoffed and began working on our pressure sores on the sofas next to the fire. News came through around 7ish they were at Bridge of Orchy. We were very relieved when the mountainbikers eventually appeared at 2045 with the runners about 30 mins later. Time for refueling





Amazingly ptc* is still smiling



What a day :-)
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