Scolty & Potarch

On the last day of 2021, Andy, Dave and Malcolm walked up Scolty. I was a late entrant but hadn't told them I was coming so I tried to make up time by taking the shortest possible route up the hill - rookie error. It was a scene of devastation all the way up and I spent so much time scrambling round, over and under the fallen trees:

Those photos were only at the start - it got a lot worse. However, I made it to the top eventually to meet up with the others:

Last Friday, Jeb, Vicky, Andy, Colin and I took the bus to Potarch and started to walk back. We picked up Dave (and Ruby) just short of his house and set off up the hill. Dave came to the top and looped back home whilst the rest of us carried on the normal route, stopping, of course, at the usual walkers'/cyclists' viewpoint:

No problem up to here but further on we were diverted by forestry operations and had to take the upper route back, which should have been OK but we came to a point where the large number of trees that had fallen across the track and hadn't been cleared yet made it totally impossible to climb over or under them. Initially we tried to go down the hill and round them and we might have made it had we been armed with machetes. Jeb, Colin and I headed back up the hill to see if there was a way round higher up - and we did get through eventually although it was far from easy. We found our way back to the main trail and spotted Andy and Vicky who had had second thoughts and carried on down the hill, fighting their way through the heavy undergrowth. All was well in the end - we got back in daylight and headed for the Douglas for some fine pints of Trade Winds. Here's the route and the stats: