Three peaks

Interesting part of my track

Track statistics
. distance 16.33 miles
. speed moving 4.65 mph
. maximum altitude 707m
. altitude gain 991m

The goal was to "do" the three peaks Silsean, Moanbane and Black Hill in one normal Sunday afternoon starting from and finishing at home, on foot and barefoot of course. It was tight - I got back to the kitchen after showering at 17:50 ready to cook chips for a 18:00 dinner.  The mountain part of the run was glorious.  You can click on the images to view full screen.

Altitude profile shows the three peaks

The terrain

Towards Blessington from Silsean summit

Towards Valleymount and home from Silsean

Silsean summit cairn

Moanbane summit marker

The bottomless pit

There are shallow ponds on Silsean, but the pond at the very top of Moanbane is awesome. It is quite small - some 10m long and 5m wide - but appears to be bottomless. Leastways I could find no bottom, but swam end to end anyway. It is hard to avoid swimming in such a unique place and the water temperature was quite reasonable.

Moanbane from gap between it and Black Hill

The lake from Black Hill summit

Descent via the "Green Road"

The Green Road descent from Black Hill is one of those magical places - how does it persist from year to year without being lost to the general mountain herbage? Stony in places, for the most part it is like I have depicted so it is good to run down at full belt.  Half way down is this monument to a WW2 air disaster.

Black Hill behind the monument 

Moanbane and Silsean in the background

And so back to Lacken and tarmac and the long haul back home - at the fastest my legs would carry me so as to avoid Trouble on getting home too late.