Meikle Bin

I haven't been out on the hills for a while, so I thought  Meikle Bin might fit the bill. Reasonably close to the home QTH and could easily be done in an afternoon. The last time I did this hill was two years ago in winter when there was knee deep snow at the top with a fairly strong wind, so I was hoping to get an easier time today as well as some better views.

There is a forest track almost all the way to the top and there are now some signposts which I don't remember from last time. So fairly easy going and not much need for a map. The last time I had to do a bit of investigating through the woods to get to the broad ridge up to the top, but now there is a signposted gravel path to get you through the trees. After 100m or so you are through the trees, the ugly gravel path finishes and you are on to grass all the way to the trig point at the top.

Got to the top after an hour, which I was quite happy with. The wind was up a wee bit, but the sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds so managed to get a bit of heat. Views were good and could see all the way over to Edinburgh and Dunfermline to the East. The views West were blocked off by the rest of the Campsies, but could see Ben Lomond et al over that direction. 

I rehydrated with some water and then got set up at about 1330 UTC with the Yaesu VX-6 and my Watson 2m/70cm antenna. Didn't manage to get anyone over to the West but was getting solid signals over to Edinburgh and Falkirk. GM0AXY and GM4YMM were first up. I noticed before I left the house that there were a few people going to be activating summits at about 1400 UTC. First summit-to-summit was Robin PKT who was on GM/CS-026 Meall Greigh which was his second summit for the day. Jack COX came on but quickly disappeared to fiddle with his rig. Paul GM0BKC was a new station for me and he was on GM/ES-046 Creag Bhalg. Jack came back to complete the contact and it sounded like he had a bit of time of it getting through the woods to the top of GM/SS-234 Dumglow. Sometimes the wee hills can be a total pain! 

Packed up and was back down at the car after about an hour. Good wee walk and looking forward to getting out again.