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I didn't like the 'official' route of the EHW as in my opinion there's far too much forestry (like the Great Glen Way) and not enough wild country. So fancying a decent walk I made up my own route and having walked all the routes from Aviemore I decided to start in Newtonmore.
Day 1 – 36km, 500m ascent.
After a very pleasant overnight stay at the hostel in Newtonmore (
http://www.highlandhostel.co.uk/), a couple bacon butties, lashings of tea, it was out into a very frosty morning at 08:00 and the start of the plod up the road towards Glen Banchor following the route of the 'official' East Highland Way, at least the howling gales of the last week had abated significantly. At 11.6kg (4.5 kg of food and drink, 5days) the rucksack felt heavy on the first steep bit out of town but perhaps that was a little to do with the quantity of Cairngorms ale consumed the night before.
It didn’t seem to take long to leave the tarmac and LR track behind and be in Glen Banchor proper, ‘enjoying’ the brisk tail wind and occasional snow flurries; the Dalnashallag bothy soon came into sight and with the ground frozen solid crossing the normally boggy ground was a doddle.
Last time I was past here the ford across the Allt Madagain was raging torrent and I had to march upstream a good ways to find a spot where I was happy to cross, today slipping on the ice was more of a concern.
The splendour of the glen is short lived as a LR track provides a rapid descent to Balgowan and the start of a 5km tarmac trudge along the old military road through Laggan (pity that the shop here has closed, a cuppa would have been welcome) and up the Garva Bridge road to the crossing of the Spey.
Carn Dubh (767m) looking quite wintery.
The route through the Black Wood to Feagor is reasonably interesting (for a forest) and it does avoid a chunk of scary walking along the A86, as well as providing a sheltered spot for a lunch stop with a brew.
I finally waved bye-bye to the EHW to head off up the track through Gallovie and then followed the River Pattock up towards its source. The walk proved more interesting than anticipated; I find that on most routes my eye is generally focused outwards to the higher slopes and summits, here the river and intermittent woods of birch and Scots pine provided endless close range interest, it would need someone more skilled with a camera than me (that’s not hard) to do the place justice.
I finally decided to stop for the night at a stand of Scots pines ~2km before Loch Pattack (NN 544817), it was nearly 6pm, there was still a stiff easterly wind blowing with occasion hail/ snow flurries and the trees didn’t provide much in the way of shelter. The ground was frozen solid and I had to beat the pegs in with rock from a handy pile close by.
It was only in the morning that I noticed that the handy pile of rocks was what looked like the remains of a chimney stack and that the outline of a foundation could also be seen; subsequently found out that this was the site of the ‘Blackburn of Pattock’ bothy which apparently “burnt down some years ago.”
Day 2 – 21km, 350m ascent.
It was a late start after a leisurely breakfast and several mugs of coffee while tucked up in bed avoiding the -6.9C ! I finally summoned up enough motivation to break camp (or was it that nature called?) and get on the road around 9:15 with the temperature still below freezing and the odd snow flurry.
Next to Loch Pattock stands a lonely pair of gate posts, witnesses of the Victorian predilection for demonstrating ownership and perhaps domination of the landscape.
Beyond Loch Pattock the country gets wilder, the Culra bothy is out there somewhere.
I called into the Culra and enjoyed an early lunch before setting off up the glen towards Bealach Dubh.
The weather had improved steadily through the day, after a few snow flurries by mid afternoon I was enjoying alpine like conditions and the wind scoured slopes going up to Bealach Dubh proved a little easier going than I expected despite the stalkers path being invisible.
The view down the glen towards Loch Ossian was quite impressive; again no path visible so simply traversed quite high across the northern slopes of Ben Alder and Beinn a’Chumhainn picking out the consolidated snow fields where possible until finally descending to the river around half way down the glen.
The path to down to Corrour Lodge was the most difficult section of the day, although shown on the map the ‘path’ is really a collection of deer trails that twist, turn, divide then join, disappear altogether and then re-appear 100m further on. All this while trudging through 30cm of soft snow and occasionally plunging through up to the thighs, all good character building stuff but slow going.
It was nearly 5pm by the time I approached Corrour Lodge, I’d had enough and was looking for a campsite. I ignored a likely looking spot close to the footbridge over the Uisge Labhair (NN 417701), “there’ll be a better spot further on”, wrong! I ended up getting pitched up by the track through the forestry (NN 407689) which was very stony and frozen so I really struggled to get the pegs in.
Day 3 – 17km, 150m ascent.
Had a very, very, very lazy start to the day, even in the shelter of the trees watch registered -5.6C at 7am so I rolled over for an hour. By 8:30am the sun had defrosted and dried the tarp so I took the opportunity to ‘air out’ the sleeping bag (in winter I find that this needs to be done frequently to stop moisture gradually degrading the bags performance) while I enjoyed a relaxed breakfast in the sunshine.
The amble down the track along Loch Ossian and past the SYHA would be pretty un-interesting if it wasn’t for the setting; the bleakness seems to make it magical.
I was glad I’d chose to camp where I did, rather than press on the night before, as I didn’t see any good camping spots along the loch side. It did look as though there were some spots local to the SYHA and a few kilometres further on next to the railway underpass (NN 343680) but the rest of the ground looked boggy or thick heather.
Descending to Loch Treig I dropped below the snow line and was surprised at how dry the ground was, the loch looked low and on reaching Creaguaineach Lodge the Abhainn Rath looked low for the spring. The footbridge here isn’t for those of a nervous disposition; 7-8m above the river, rusty metal, rotten boards, holes and no handrails; no doubt it will outlast me.
Had lunch in the trees by the lodge before heading off up the FP towards Glen Nevis, after half an hour the Staoineag bothy comes into view.
To get to the bothy you have to walk up the south side of the river from the lodge, ford the river or in today’s conditions use the stepping stones.
A further hour’s dawdle and I reached my chosen spot for the night the Meannanach bothy after quite a leisurely day.
It made a change to go to bed with the ambient temperature above freezing, +2C (inside the bothy).
Day 4 – 22km, 160m ascent.
Just across the river is the now derelict Luibeilt and the LR track running down Loch Eilde Mor to Kinlochleven, today the river was fordable but not without getting wet feet, it is regularly impassable requiring a hike up or downstream.
Continuing west the path reaches the water shed around Tom an Eite, a fine piece of country with peaks towering either side of the glen and the Ben straight ahead
I stopped off for lunch and a bit of sunbathing by the Steall ruins and watched a pair of golden eagles soaring over the crags to the south probably nearly 1km away, all very tranquil.
Only a few hundred meters down the valley and the tourist hoards were present....hundreds of them. I was glad to reach the lower footbridge and escape to the solitude of the southern bank and then into the forest at Achriabhach.
The trog down Glen Nevis through the forest is quite boring but infinitely superior than hitting the tarmac (the Service 41 bus isn’t running yet) and the occasional glimpses of the Ben through the trees do break the monotony.
All in all a very enjoyable trip
