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I have had a horrendous barren spell of a few months as the football season has kicked off again, meaning no walking at the weekends
I was dying to get out on the hills again, high pressure was noted and a holiday form was submitted then approved. I had to be in Aberdeen for an interview at 10am and was finished by 12 noon (Successful).
It was to to fire across to Glen Muick to finally see it for myself. The weather was pretty clear, the odd patches of cloud and much more wind than expected. I set off from the car park at Spitall of Glen Muick at 1:30 and set about heading along the Lochnagar path. Apologies for the quality of the photo's, I was armed with only my camera phone.
On a day as good as this, the gradual slope was a pleasure!I made pretty good time considering the route said 7 hours and within 1 hour I was at the foot of Meikle Pap and after a short climb up a manicured path of stones I hit the plateau where the famous face of Lochnagar stared back at me
I then headed round towards the cliffs of Lochnagar climbing up the short climb to the summit, by this point I had run into a nice couple from Kirkcaldy who were up staying in Clova and they advised that it is VERY cold up there. I would later see them again.
I stoppped for some soup and sandwiches and sheltered away from the wind. In truth I could have stayed up here all day as I was completely within myself. Fantastic views over to Mount Keen & Battock etc I was planning to go back on the route I came due to time restrictions but I was at the Summit after 2hrs so I decided to head down to loch muick and make my way back along the loch.
As I made my way along the path I came across 3 chaps who were working on the path and emptying boulders fromt he stream into the path and packing it up again, seemed like very hard work and I pondered about how they got trailers and generators up there. As i was heading along the path I noticed some red blood, probably from a Deer.
approaching loch muick. StunningI bumped into the couple from Kirkcaldy again and I nearly missed the stunning waterfall! Thankfully they pointed this out to me
I really fancied going for a dip in the pool but I decided against it!!
After having a nice chat with the couple I had to burst off as I had to be back for dinner! I began to approach Loch Muick and the views were incredible with the October sky!
Stunning!![/img]
Loch Muick was incredible and I will definetly be back with the tent!!
I headed round the nearside track toward to Boathouse and constantly looked back at the evening drawing in over Broad Cairn.
[i] Maybe not today, but def anotherA great day for it. 4.5 hours and back at the car. I would have loved to have camped out!!