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I know the title will attract interest and it is only my opinion.
The majority of the Crianlarich hills are approached from the west and anyone who has done that (thousands of you) will agree that normally it is a complete and utter bogfest.
So on my second round I thought why not try and tackle the 2 outstanding Crianlarich hills from the east. Having tackled Stob Binnein & Ben More from Inverlochlarig I looked at the possibility of approaching the southerly 2 from there. There is a fairly good track so I suggested to George that we take our bikes which would save a 5km walk each way.
We left Fife just before 8am and timed it just right as we got the last parking spot in the car park.
Car park full, we got the last space and still vehicles were arriving
The way ahead for us on our bikes
Looking back along the road, there were cars parked on the grass verges on our return
The way ahead, not a bad track for cycling - been on better and much worse
I didn't realise how much more uphill bits there were on the way out - the joy of an "E bike"
New bridge - to nowhere, must be farming related
Looking back
The way ahead
A gate that we opened and closed carefully, as well as passing the animals warily
Another small gathering of cows with their little ones
We arrived at another gate, this one was locked - at this point we decided to change our ascent route, my plotted route had us cycling for another half a km. We opted to head uphill keeping to the right of a fairly new deer fence that was protecting young trees
Bikes secured, George doing a bit of limbering up before the real hard work begins
Bet you are all really jealous?
George loving it - I am glad I didn't keep a count of how many times we stopped on the ascent
2 fences now heading uphill, we would climb over the one on the right as it wasn't high
Yes that is the way up
Looking back
A wee lochan making an appearance to the south
Very little water in the burn we were kind of following uphill
We had topped up our bladders at a wee dribble of a waterfall as the heat meant we were drinking far more than we had anticipated
We had reached a relatively flattish area, after a wet spell this area would look very different
We scanned the area ahead and picked our route, heading uphill to the left - the summit is still in hiding
Arty shot for the day
Looking back down on what is normally probably a larger lochan
Looking south again at the lochan I showed earlier
Not far to the summit of Beinn a'Chroin, we would head up towards the obvious gap
The final push to the summit, as the photo shows it was a tad steep
We made it, Beinn a'Chroin. We opted to have our lunch on the summit, however we had hardly started our lunch when we were invaded by midges looking for their lunch. So it was a very rushed lunch!
The way off and down for us, the path heads down to the bealach between Beinn a'Chroin & Cruach Ardrain - so we would have to improvise
A lovely little lochan - kind of shows the lack of any breeze
Cruach Ardrain
The path, we thought it was heading in the wrong direction so we had to investigate - it went that way to avoid crags and a rather steep drop
Looking across to our next hill Beinn Charhair, we would lose about 300m and then struggle up pathless grassy slopes
A bit of a step, George elegantly demonstrating the 5 points of contact
Concentration and stretching, the joys of having short legs (both of us)
Nearly done
Looking across to the low point for us whilst still descending a'Chroin
This is what a badly eroded path looks like
Cruach Ardrain, we would be turning left before the lochan
Looking back up to Beinn a'Chroin
The way ahead for us, just a matter of picking our way up and avoiding the crags
Looking back to Beinn a'Chroin, we kind of traversed across the grassy slope ensuring we wouldn't be adding extra ascent on to what we already have ahead
Looking down on the River Larig and the way we will be heading back down
Looking south from the southern and highest point of Beinn Chabhair
The northern top
West
Interesting shadows on the hillside
Another very still small lochan
Looking back up to the cliffs/crags we had avoided by descending to the right
Interesting very worn rock formation, very little water to do any more eroding
Barely a trickle
We were tempted to have a paddle
Another fantastic but very tough day, we certainly appreciated the paths when we encountered them. Descending on grassy inclines is a doddle ascending them is the complete opposite. It is 8 years since I last tackled the Crianlarich hills (apart from the 2 big ones) and my lasting memory was of varying degrees of bogginess. I had forgotten how much fun they are and we definitely appreciated it more this time around.
