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Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait

Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait


Postby Huff_n_Puff » Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:03 pm

Route description: An Sgarsoch and Càrn an Fhidhleir

Munros included on this walk: An Sgarsoch, Càrn an Fhìdhleir (Càrn Ealar)

Date walked: 15/08/2020

Distance: 50 km

Ascent: 1226m

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About forty years ago three friends set out from Dundee for a weekend adventure in the Cairngorms. One of them had suggested a wee wander up An Sgarsoch for no other reason than it was a really remote hill (even by his standards, which seemed pretty extreme to the other two). There was no talk about visiting An Sgarsoch's wee musical sibling, just about a leisurely backpacking trip into a remote area of the Cairngorms. So one Saturday in June 1982 the trio set out with backpacking kit, drove up to Linn of Dee and wandered west. They camped somewhere above Geldie Lodge, and on the Sunday morning paid due respects to An Sgarsoch, wandered back to the tents packed up and then back to Linn of Dee, then home.

Two of the three friends at the summit of An Sgarsoch
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To be honest I can't now remember much about this trip, I enjoyed it, it was long but really easy and straightforward - I don't even remember any fuss crossing the burns. I can remember a heated debate about the merits and demerits of Milton Friedman's economics and the physics of acceleration when driving down a steep hill and round a bend :-? :-? . At the time none of us were munro baggers so that the fact we'd been up one of two neighbouring remote hills didn't register :roll: :roll:

BUT I haven't forgotten that we had climbed An Sgarsoch :wink: :wink:

Times have changed, one of the friends moved south, the other two stayed put and in the fullness of time became munro baggers :crazy: :crazy: . Eventually the time came to make good our omission of Carn an Fhidhleir, and given that our memories were of an easy walk up An Sgarsoch we thought we'd just bag the two, I'd never posted our first visit to An Sgarsoch in order to savour doing the thing properly the second time :lol: :lol: :lol: . Meanwhile I'd learnt a thing or two about the Fiddler, not only is it the meeting point of three old counties, Perthshire, Invernessshire and Aberdeenshire, it was also the site of a cattle tryst in the great days of droving. Given that the highlands were a lot less law abiding in those days a reason for a tryst on Carn an Fhidhleir was so that the drovers would be able to see potential ambushers - well yes on a clear day, but what about in the clag? :crazy:

Looking at our munro map we thought we'd combine this trip with a waltz up Devil's Point (which had inexplicitly been left out of previous trips to the area). So a plan was hatched, we'd park at Linn of Dee one evening, walk as far as the White Bridge and make a base camp there, the next day we'd visit An Sgarsoch and Carn an Fhidhleir, the following day pay our dues to the horned one.

So, despite the weight ravages of lockdown, a couple of ancients set of from the Linn of Dee car park ...
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It was a gentle sunny evening, the hills were purple and the walking along the Dee, easy.

Purple hills
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River Dee
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We reached the White Bridge and found suitable campsite between the Dee and the Geldie Burn

White Bridge from the campsite
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Roger is a great cook :wink: , even with the limitations of backpacking food so while I sorted the tent he started a meal
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Masterchef at sunset
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Another backpacker and his dog appeared and set up camp on ground closer to the Dee. We chatted about planned routes (his was almost the opposite of ours - which was reassuring given that the site of the base camp left us all with long days). The evening was balmy with just enough breeze for us to be complacent about the midges.

The following morning the mist was down, the breeze had vanished and the midges were there in full 'north-west' force - making it almost impossible to breath once we ventured out of the tent :( :o :shock: .
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This was the worst midge attack I've ever experienced - worse than the Fisherfields and Knoydart put together. It was almost impossible to pause long enough to collect stuff together for breakfast. We moved onto white bridge itself to find some (brief) relief to prepare food, but had to march up and down to eat it :evil: :evil: . To make matters worse although we had Smidge, and pyrethrum coils for the tent, I'd forgotten to pack the midge nets :( :( . By the time we'd finished breakfast we were chewed, itchy and irritable. But we knew that the forecast was for the mist to burn off and then really warm weather, so we determined that the midges wouldn't beat us and we headed off along the track beside the Geldie Burn. Surely the sun would eventually drive them off.

The track is very good and the walking is easy - on the move the midges were kinder to us, but they got their own back whenever we paused :( . Gradually the mist did burn off and the day was set fair. Once past the forest we followed the track that bears off to the right (west) past the derelict cottage.

Crumbling cottage
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It was here that I realised in fighting off the midges I'd accidentally knocked one of my hearing aids off and hadn't noticed in the peace and silence of the hills. I have a genetic condition that means I've been losing hearing since my late teens, but over the last year the decline has been pretty dramatic and without powerful aids I'm profoundly deaf so to lose one in fending off midges was a definite downer. We debated returning to look for it, but decided that we'd come far enough to not want to turn back and so we marked the spot where we'd realised the loss and planned to search the ground carefully on the way back.

Somewhat saddened we went on, but who can be sad for long in lovely country walking by a burn in increasingly sunny weather?

The Geldie Burn as the mist rises
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By the time we reached the first Allt Dhaidh Mor we were enjoying the long stroll, the water was low and there were no problems crossing with dry boots.
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The Geldie burn itself required a paddle, refreshing on a warm day
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The path on to Geldie Lodge with An Sgarsoch just above the ruin and Carn an Fhidhleir on the right
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The ruin of the lodge (or should that be a ruin at the lodge :lol: :lol: :lol: )
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It was here that we met several backpackers packing up their tents, chatting to one of them we learnt that the night before had been a midge torment so they and their lovely black lab were heading home. They were not happy :( . We commiserated but went on, not wanting to stop for too long - the midges took stopping as an open invitation.

After the lodge the path narrows and becomes rougher but it was still a good path - well by my standards :roll: . It took us gently down to the Allt a'Chaorainn.
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An easy crossing and a place for a food break. As the day was moving from warm to hot we topped up our water and ate, but I must admit I have a problem eating on a long hot day in the hills - it really becomes an issue of forcing down as much food as I can without gagging, knowing that my body will need sustenance. The midges were in no mood to be deterred by the sun so stripping off a layer (even with plentiful Smidge) did not seem like a good idea.

The route from the Allt a'Chaorainn up the flank of the Fhidhleir was largely pathless - oh yes we'd find a path for a while before it melted into the heather leaving us to make our way unaided over boggy, rough, heathery hillside. As for the midges, well ... did I mention the midges? What should have been a straight forward ascent was turning into a boggy, peat haggy, heathery, midgy nightmare. I thought of the people we'd met at Geldie lodge, those lucky people heading out, and I thought we were mad.

Of course there were photo stops, not that I needed a rest you understand! What could possibly be the problem with this innocuous looking landscape?
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An Sgarsoch
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The conditions sapped energy faster that we could conjure it up and by the time we reached the ridge that would take us to the summit were were both knackered, so knackered we didn't have the energy to be grumpy. A couple of other groups had passed us on the way up the flank of the Fhidhleir, but although they moved faster than we did they were moving pretty slowly, we didn't even have the motivation to try to speed up and certainly wouldn't have had the energy.

There was a long recovery pause on the ridge - there was just enough breeze to keep the midges away and help us get our temperatures down to something more normal. This was time for a stock taking, we were horrified to realise how long it had taken us not to get to the top of the Fhidhleir - did we really think we could go on to An Sgarsoch? Looking at the map we weighed up the prospects of hot, midgy bog between the two hills, followed by a 300m pull up to An Sgarsoch's summit - it was not an appealing prospect. But did we really need to? After all we'd been there almost 40 years ago - a summit is a summit is a summit and one that could translate into a blue balloon. There was absolutely no reason to go further than the one summit we had just ahead of us - problem solved we did only need to climb Can an Fhidhleir.

What a relief, revived we headed up the musical one to its summit plateau and cairn
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A long restful late lunch followed, and then some photos, of the southern Caringorm range again
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South west to Ben a'Glo
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The Glen Ey hills
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And even evidence that I was there
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Just before we left the summit we were joined by a someone from Aberdeen who had climbed An Sgarsoch first before coming onto the Fiddler, we chatted for a while before we headed down. The descent was so much better than the ascent, it's easier to make out a route going down because its possible to see where the path from Geldie Lodge meets the Allt a'Chaorainn so we had a point to aim for, and could then navigate the bogs and hags more efficiently. We were soon joined by the man we'd met at the summit who was happy to tag onto a slower pair just because we knew where we were going :lol: :lol:. Once across the Allt a'Chaorainn, he sped off and we plodded our way back to the Geldie Lodge, across the Geldie burn and back to the cottage where I realised I'd lost a hearing aid. From there back to the tent we scoured the ground, but without success. We reached the tent too tired to cook a meal, but we had enough cold food not to starve :lol: :lol: The backpacker we'd met the previous evening had gone, driven out by the midges? An Irishman we'd met along the way camped not too far from us, he too had been driven from further west by the midges.

Did I say the midges were bad?

Next morning we debated our options - bale out or go on - but despite the relief of heading out and away from the midges we decided to go for Devil's Point. The year before our visit to An Sgarsoch the same trio had walked from Avimore to Blair Athol via the Lairig Ghru and Glen Tilt so we'd taken the path that ran by the Corrour bothy to the White Bridge. My memory told me the path was fine, although wiser people on this site might disagree - Roger certainly did :? .

After watching 3 cyclists head off along the path towards Beinn Bhrotain we set off along the path towards the Lairig Ghru.

The path by the Dee
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it was lovely for a while but then conditions began to deteriorate and soon we were bog hopping our way north. Still it was a lovely morning and beautiful country

The crags of Beinn Bhrotain ahead
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We continued until we were just opposite the crags, when my quads rebelled, a combination of heat and distance the day before and lockdown lethargy were too much. I knew that if I continued the chance of me making it back to the camp in a reasonable time (and a reasonable condition) were zero. So we decided to call a halt to our ambitious weekend and head back to the tent, have some lunch then pack up and go.

On the way back I reflected on the disadvantages of a rose tinted memory :oops: :lol:

We were almost back at Linn of Dee when we met them, a group of 3 adults and 4 dogs, with the youngest adult (mid 30s?) pushing a child's buggy. No child in sight, but then I realised that one of the dogs was very old and his canine companions young and very active, so was the buggy for the old dog so it could go for a walk with its companions? How considerate if that were so. In a brief chat with one of the older adults I learned that they were from "just outside" Leicester - this was at a time when the Leicester lockdown was a main news item - so I commiserated on how badly the epidemic seemed to be handled south of the border. I kept my views on people travelling to the Highlands when their near neighbours had such a high covid-19 infection rate to myself - there may have been a justifiable explanation :shock:.

On the drive home there was a postmortem of the weekend. What happened?
Over ambitious plans, although we had had a couple of other trips post lockdown, we were still relatively unfit and very slow, and in my case lockdown 'treats' meant I was carrying more weight than usual :oops: .
A couple of years ago we'd had to bale a walk on a hot day for the sake of our canine companions so we should have realised from the weather forecasts that we would be walking in very hot, still conditions which very quickly sap energy. As for rose tinted memories - and the fact that the body does change a bit in 40 years - you could put this down to misplaced optimism :lol: :lol:

A fortnight later we returned to pay our dues to the Devil, and had a brilliant outing, but that's another story ...

... and general slowness means it's taken me four and a half months to write this report. Just in time to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year with lots of hill time :) :)

Our weekend route

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Re: Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait

Postby dogplodder » Thu Dec 31, 2020 2:09 pm

Maybe it's being of a similar vintage but I love this report and the way you link the two walks 40 years apart, with all that's passed since and the hills in their timelessness just the same. Well worth waiting a few months if this is the quality of your writing! :clap: :D
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Re: Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait

Postby Anne C » Thu Dec 31, 2020 8:46 pm

Wonderful report :clap: Felt very emotional reading it, recognising many of your feelings and observations! Time, yes, and getting older - age certainly doesn't come alone but oh, aren't we all of us so lucky to have known - and to still know - the hills?
We camped well up Glen Derry this year and had the worst time I ever remember with midges, the blighters. I agree, west is not always the worst for them! :shock:
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Re: Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait

Postby Sgurr » Sat Jan 02, 2021 9:46 pm

Glad you were runner up in WR of the month, since it drew my attention to this great report. We haven't carried heavy packs since we wandered up to Sourlies bothy seven years ago (74) and sad as it is, doubt if we'll do another camping or bothying trip...however, with all the extenuating circumstances it looks as if you are good for several years to come. The ones we HAD to camp or bothy for were Ben Aden, (Corbett) An Stac, Groban & Beinn Beag, Ben Armine & Creag Mor, Slat Beinn (Grahams). So if you are going to be needing these, maybe do them some time in the next 10 years.
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Re: Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait

Postby scottnairn » Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:13 pm

I suppose having the years (hopefully) on my side brings me a hope that in future, my friends and I will be able to revisit peaks and recall their timeless features, and remark on how we have changed (slowed down) :lol:

A great walk report and a spirited outing, minus the midges - I've heard of them robbing people of blood and sanity but a hearing aid? They are certainly a 'beloved' menace!

All the best, Scott
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Re: Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait

Postby Huff_n_Puff » Sun Jan 03, 2021 12:16 pm

dogplodder wrote:Maybe it's being of a similar vintage but I love this report and the way you link the two walks 40 years apart, with all that's passed since and the hills in their timelessness just the same. Well worth waiting a few months if this is the quality of your writing! :clap: :D

Thank you Dogplodder :D I hope others enjoy the musings of an oldie :lol: :lol:

Anne C wrote:Wonderful report :clap: Felt very emotional reading it, recognising many of your feelings and observations! Time, yes, and getting older - age certainly doesn't come alone but oh, aren't we all of us so lucky to have known - and to still know - the hills?
We camped well up Glen Derry this year and had the worst time I ever remember with midges, the blighters. I agree, west is not always the worst for them! :shock:

Yes we are lucky to have known the hills and I think my only regret is that I didn't take up rock climbing at an age when I might have become competent (and safe) but that aside I really think we are so fortunate :D :D

Sgurr wrote:Glad you were runner up in WR of the month, since it drew my attention to this great report. We haven't carried heavy packs since we wandered up to Sourlies bothy seven years ago (74) and sad as it is, doubt if we'll do another camping or bothying trip...however, with all the extenuating circumstances it looks as if you are good for several years to come. The ones we HAD to camp or bothy for were Ben Aden, (Corbett) An Stac, Groban & Beinn Beag, Ben Armine & Creag Mor, Slat Beinn (Grahams). So if you are going to be needing these, maybe do them some time in the next 10 years.

Thanks Sgurr, that's praise indeed :D :D and thanks for the advice about the others we need to camp for. To be honest we've slowed down so much we are now planning camping trips to break up long walks that we'd have had no problems with a few years ago :D :D

scottnairn wrote:I suppose having the years (hopefully) on my side brings me a hope that in future, my friends and I will be able to revisit peaks and recall their timeless features, and remark on how we have changed (slowed down) :lol:

A great walk report and a spirited outing, minus the midges - I've heard of them robbing people of blood and sanity but a hearing aid? They are certainly a 'beloved' menace!

All the best, Scott

Thanks Scott - I wish you all the joy of the future and grinning back at your younger self :D :lol: . Congratulations to you for WR of the month, very well deserved :clap: :clap:
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Re: Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait

Postby RML12 » Mon Jan 04, 2021 10:56 am

I love this report! As a fellow oldie and also dependant on hearing aids I think you did very well to carry on after losing one. Hope you had a spare at home or at the least managed to get a replacement quickly.
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Re: Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait

Postby Huff_n_Puff » Thu Jan 07, 2021 7:29 pm

RML12 wrote:I love this report! As a fellow oldie and also dependant on hearing aids I think you did very well to carry on after losing one. Hope you had a spare at home or at the least managed to get a replacement quickly.

Many thanks, the NHS were brilliant about replacing the aid, although I did feel that it should not have been a priority but someone made it so, to my advantage!
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Re: Forty years in the wilderness but the devil must wait

Postby cobwebs » Sat Apr 01, 2023 10:20 am

Thank you for such a wonderful entertaining story. I'm heading the end of April hopefully. I'm mopping up my last few mainland Munro's 40+ years after setting out, so I really loved you perspective on the passing of time, amidst the timeless hills.
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