A long way for such a little hill
Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:48 pmWell it had to be done and what a fine day we chose. But it's a long way to get to such a little hill.
We started off on our bikes at Black Bridge and cycled 13 km to the foot of the hill. The weather was glorious with a slight breeze to cool us down. It's a long time since we'd cycled in this direction. What a fabulous place! Surprisingly we climbed 307 metres on the ride - we were so glad that we weren't walking as it would have taken forever instead of the 1 hour 11 minuted that it did (thank you Garmin for the stats). We left up our bikes just before the final climb to the highpoint and got ready to attack the hill. There was a tiny cairn at the roadside so we left the path at this point. Everyone says that it is very steep going up but what I haven't read is that the ground is naturally terraced and so it doesn't feel that bad. I was struggling today and so it took me quite a while to get to the cairn at the top. The SMC guide says that the views aren't that great - I beg to disagree. We had great views over to Seana Bhraigh (our last Munro), to Beinn Dearg and back to Beinn a Chaisteail that we'd walked up about five weeks ago. Going back down to the path wasn't that bad - you just had to be careful. And then it was back on the bikes to cycle mainly downhill for 55 minutes to reach the car at Black Bridge. A fine day!!
We started off on our bikes at Black Bridge and cycled 13 km to the foot of the hill. The weather was glorious with a slight breeze to cool us down. It's a long time since we'd cycled in this direction. What a fabulous place! Surprisingly we climbed 307 metres on the ride - we were so glad that we weren't walking as it would have taken forever instead of the 1 hour 11 minuted that it did (thank you Garmin for the stats). We left up our bikes just before the final climb to the highpoint and got ready to attack the hill. There was a tiny cairn at the roadside so we left the path at this point. Everyone says that it is very steep going up but what I haven't read is that the ground is naturally terraced and so it doesn't feel that bad. I was struggling today and so it took me quite a while to get to the cairn at the top. The SMC guide says that the views aren't that great - I beg to disagree. We had great views over to Seana Bhraigh (our last Munro), to Beinn Dearg and back to Beinn a Chaisteail that we'd walked up about five weeks ago. Going back down to the path wasn't that bad - you just had to be careful. And then it was back on the bikes to cycle mainly downhill for 55 minutes to reach the car at Black Bridge. A fine day!!