Carn a'Chaochain from Cougie

[TheTortoise]

It was the last day of our socially distancing club weekend at Cannich, and we had a rather late start as we said goodbye to folk. From reading the SMC Graham book, we thought that we could drive easily to the Plodda Falls on tarmac but that then it would be better to leave the van there and cycle the rest of the way. The reverse was true! There is a long section of unpaved forest track, from soon after Tomich, to get to the Plodda Falls, and there are quite a few potholes on it, Having driven past and round these slowly and successfully, we decided to try to continue - and because almost everyone stops at the Falls car park, the track was much better after that. So no cycling today, we were pleased to have a shortish day and to make up the time spent chatting in Cannich. We parked by farm sheds, walked along a short bit of track then left up an indistinct boggy track through grass. There was a small cairn at the start, but it could be easily missed. As we went up, we left the bog behind, and the way was very attractive, overgrown in places, going through natural woodland.

Looking back from the track through woodland

Coming out of the trees

There followed a moorland section to a broad bealach. We left the track and set off up the ridge, going over all the knolls - there were a lot. The second knoll had a splendid cairn overlooking the valley, then we crossed to a parallel ridge and soon arrived at the lochan.

Approaching the lochan

Then another couple of bumps to get to the trig point, and a final traverse to the summit cairn.

Approaching the summit

It was very windy, so we ate lunch just away from the cairn in a slightly sheltered spot, looking across at the Affric hills. Toll Creagach had a little intermittent cloud on the top, and the Strathfarrar hills were slightly covered. No views in the direction of Nevis today.
On the descent we avoided almost all the bumps.
Finally - a dilemma. We met another Graham bagger going up as we were going down, who asked us to tell his wife how beautiful the ascent path was, and that she should go up through the wooded section. She had balked at the bog but it would be worth persevering. However when we got to their car, she was asleep, and stayed so in spite of us noisily getting into our van. Does one wake the lady, or not?
Here is our ascent route.

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