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Beautiful weather, though I didn't know what the snow would be like on the munros - I'd been in this area the previous week and the high hills were still pretty white, with snow melt causing burns and rivers to run high. I decided Creag Rainich was a good option as there were no "difficult in spate" burn crossings, it would give a good view of the surrounding mountains, plus I might as well try and do hills from popular walkers car parks, this being the last week before travel restrictions were lifted.
There were a handful of other cars but still room for a couple more even at my lazy lunchtime arrival. A couple were canoeists heading for an afternoon on Loch a'Bhraoin, I assume the others were people doing the western Fannichs as I didn't see any other walkers on my side of the loch.
- Heading along the lochside track
- I left the track by this white post, but I immediately lost any faint ATV track and so just headed up and across the hillside, nothing difficult with the terrain.
- Loch a'Bhraoin was like a mirror, great day for the 2 canoeists who'd set off from the car park at the same time as me
- Looking ahead to Creag Rainich from near the minor top of Meall Dubh, Fisherfields now in sight too
- Creag Rainich's summit is a great viewpoint for An Teallach, had a lot less snow on it than I'd expected
- Looking back east to the western Fannichs
- Another look at the Fisherfields on my back down, not sure why I don't have any better photos of the view to the south / south west
- Saw a few puddles with frogspawn in on the way down
- Different descent route to the way I went up, headed directly down towards the house and bothy at Lochivraon to rejoin the track at the end of the loch
I pretty much just followed the Walk Highland route description, so not much else to say. It was a nice straightforward walk, great views back to the Fannichs on the way up, and then of An Teallach and the Fisherfields from the summit. I then descended to the bothy (unlocked, stuck my head in for a look) before heading back along the lochside track.
(When I did this walk in these conditions I thought winter was well and truly over, but nope, I'm writing this a few days later in May and we're still getting more hail and snow since that sunny day!)