The closure
Friday afternoon and nothing too exciting is happening when the phone rings. "Didn't expect you to be there" said a friend "Why aren't you down at the West Highland Way at the Landslide?"
"The what?" I ask.
"The Landslide someones trapped. The Rescue tender has gone out from Stirling and we are at Stirling on Standby".
"Right well I had better see what's happened"
So slightly apprehensively I tell folk in the office what I have heard grab my hi-vis, hard hat and stick on my steel toed boots and head out to Killearn.
Never had this happen on one of our paths before and I wonder what I will find. The possibility of a wind up crosses my mind, but as I near the West Highland Way I spot walkers on the road and not the path. You can spot a West Highland Way walker easily. They are the ones with big bags on their backs! Looks like it is true. I pull in where the Way crosses the main road and the this) picture meets me. Yep something happening here, but no emergency staff or vehicles so after a quick update call to the office I hit the road again and head to the next entry point.
Glancing at the Way which is visible from the road nothing is obvious. As I turn onto Killearn Station Road I find the people and the vehicles Water Board and fire engine. I put the light bar on and join the car park. Then I realise that there are no police, no rescue vehicles infact not what you would expect for persons trapped. I turn the light bar off.
I speak to a passing fire fighter and discover that the water board folk are up the path and that no one is hurt or trapped. What a relief.
Heading along the track I meet the local Water Board folk I know and discover that the Way hasn't avalanched and no one has been trapped. What has happened is that the rain combined with a stream has caused a small landslip on the side of the West Highland Way where the pipeline runs from Loch Katrine to Glasgow and this has caused a stop valve to break and send an impressive fountain of water into the air.
Now with the neighbouring stop taps turned off, there is no damage to the Way and we can reopen it. Oh and tell the office and my "friend" what is actually happening! Much relief all round. Now all we need to do is get the path closed to allow the Water Board to repair the pipe (above pic). Four days later and you would never know it had happened!
The moral to the story? Don't believe everything that you hear!
The closure
Friday afternoon and nothing too exciting is happening when the phone rings. "Didn't expect you to be there" said a friend "Why aren't you down at the West Highland Way at the Landslide?"
"The what?" I ask.
"The Landslide someones trapped. The Rescue tender has gone out from Stirling and we are at Stirling on Standby".
"Right well I had better see what's happened"
So slightly apprehensively I tell folk in the office what I have heard grab my hi-vis, hard hat and stick on my steel toed boots and head out to Killearn.
Never had this happen on one of our paths before and I wonder what I will find. The possibility of a wind up crosses my mind, but as I near the West Highland Way I spot walkers on the road and not the path. You can spot a West Highland Way walker easily. They are the ones with big bags on their backs! Looks like it is true. I pull in where the Way crosses the main road and the this) picture meets me. Yep something happening here, but no emergency staff or vehicles so after a quick update call to the office I hit the road again and head to the next entry point.
Glancing at the Way which is visible from the road nothing is obvious. As I turn onto Killearn Station Road I find the people and the vehicles Water Board and fire engine. I put the light bar on and join the car park. Then I realise that there are no police, no rescue vehicles infact not what you would expect for persons trapped. I turn the light bar off.
I speak to a passing fire fighter and discover that the water board folk are up the path and that no one is hurt or trapped. What a relief.
Heading along the track I meet the local Water Board folk I know and discover that the Way hasn't avalanched and no one has been trapped. What has happened is that the rain combined with a stream has caused a small landslip on the side of the West Highland Way where the pipeline runs from Loch Katrine to Glasgow and this has caused a stop valve to break and send an impressive fountain of water into the air.
Now with the neighbouring stop taps turned off, there is no damage to the Way and we can reopen it. Oh and tell the office and my "friend" what is actually happening! Much relief all round. Now all we need to do is get the path closed to allow the Water Board to repair the pipe (above pic). Four days later and you would never know it had happened!
The moral to the story? Don't believe everything that you hear!