Grahams around Cannich? Pahh!

[weaselmaster]

I messaged Allison to let her know what I had in mind for this weekend. After a series of long walks with big packs, I thought I'd give her a bit of a break and head up to the campsite at Cannich, one of the few campsites I seem to be able to tolerate now; take the big tent, have some proper food instead of Huel and use daypacks rather than overnighters. The downside - and there had to be one of course - that we'd be doing Grahams as there aren't any suitable Munros in the area - she wants to do the Mullardochs as a round again. Anyway "Pahh" was her reply. I should have taken it as a warning.

It is now at the time of year I really don't like as far as travelling in the evening is concerned, and the clocks having gone back today makes that even worse. Dark for driving wherever, dark when you arrive and have to find a pitch. Soon there will be the snow and ice to contend with as well. How I miss these long light evenings. Anyway we arrived at the campsite around quarter to nine on Thursday night, thankfully it wasn't raining. Gt our usual spot down amidst the trees, pitched and off to bed. The forecast had suggested that this area would miss the brunt of the wet and indy weather over the weekend, so I was hopeful that the Grahams would have some enjoyment value.

2021-10-29_0908 Raw.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

For Friday I'd chosen two hills down in Guisachan forest - Carn Mhic an Tosich (Mackintosh's Hill) and Carn a'Chaochain (? don't know what this means). As I hate out and back routes generally I'd decided to join them together with a wander across rather unholy swamp land. Now I don't particularly suggest this route - they would be more easily done individually as walk ins from Plodda Falls and Cougie respectively- but there you go, have a loop. We did park at Plodda Falls, the only car in the car park and set off along the first class track that goes all the way to Glen Moriston. You start high, just over 200m and the going is good. We left the track at the "Loch of the White Mountain" to climb the Simm of Carn an Earb then continued on to Mhic an Tosich over some wet ground. Mist lay as a light blanket over most of the surroundings, so views were not much in evidence today. We found something of a path leading west from the summit and took this some of the way to the track, before it disappeared into deer then spider tracks.

B33967F2-3F44-49F0-AFC0-29E24D0D45ED_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

947D9A03-8F22-4B25-A3B8-F12BB5FE929B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Affric hills to the North
15282DA8-6AD3-4DF5-A1AF-98356A71E95E_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

ECD07598-F2DD-49EC-BC68-C8C1A5AC61D2_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Carn Mhic an Tosich
53A36076-F392-4C31-9E0A-A212229B3B66_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Windfarm to the SE
F0C636AE-9FDE-48B1-80F8-373E7BCCB89B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

We now had a fairly soul destroying plod over wet tussocks and bog, contouring round Carn a'Choire Leith (a Simm previously done) until we could make out the shoulder of Carn a'Chaochain. This proved a slow climb, with the added annoyance of the summit being half a km away from the trig column hat one might have taken for the summit if the clag had been down and you hadn't looked at the map properly. And how annoying would that be when you got back to write up your report... Can't say I had any recollection of either of these hills from before. We returned to the shoulder and descended to the bealach and took the rather pretty path through the trees back to Cougie. Some incredible lichen on the old beech trees. Once at Cougie we had 5km to walk back along the road to Plodda Falls - which is probably better than driving it Actually there weren't too many potholes evident today, although I don\t like driving over either of the low bridges. Back at the tent, tired but with some sense of having had a work out.

Track back from Carn a'Chaochain
923CD641-D7DA-48A8-9B51-7115E2E18775_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

These likened trees would look real scary by moonlight...
4E1F6E0F-9CBE-43EC-B512-678DE1C69B2E_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

215597EE-CD02-48BE-8BD0-4E97E8138D96 by Al, on Flickr

Rain overnight and time to discover that the waterproofing on the tent could usefully be refreshed. I wakened up with a migraine and felt nauseous. Today's targets were two "quick" Grahams, maybe with the Corbett of Sgurr na Diollaid thrown in if there was time - but as we didn't get up particularly early that wasn't really on the cards.

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Carn Gorm sits just to the NE of Cannich . I had in my mind that this would be quick and easy - we'd done it with some Simms last time - but it didn't really turn out that way. Like last time, we walked from the campsite along the Struy road, turning uphill at a metal gate onto a steep ATV track. Lots of rust coloured bracken at the sides of the track. Then a boggy path continues, through woodland and onto the open hillside. The ATV track wasn't really going the way I wanted it to, curling this way then that around the nice straight line I had drawn on my GPS and eventually we abandoned it to head vaguely in the direction of the summit. This took a while, and I got kinda lost again heading off. We got back to the campsite for about quarter to one and had lunch at a picnic table there before setting off down Glen Affric to do one of the genuinely short Grahams, and also one of the smallest, Beinn a'Mheadhoin.

2D4A6080-3ACD-4B65-9954-117E57191C35_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

33DD6B34-F34A-4592-A385-13D51829BE6B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

AC3A0E6D-B8BF-4FD9-BDFC-621B6677A97E_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

7BFC222A-1385-40F8-9E56-491957E7FCDC_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

3554A9F3-9B21-49D7-9506-FE9D367BA805 by Al, on Flickr

2021-10-30_1353 Raw.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

We parked at the upper car park at Chisholme Bridge and I noticed a signpost pointing to the "Hill Track" - this was quite useful as it joined up nicely with the main track heading north. We set off up the flank of a'Mheadhoin when we reached the gate, the going not too bad over short grass and heather. We even had some sunshine, the southern Mullardoch hills looking pretty. On the way back down I found a deer track that was proceeding well until I decided to take a short cut off the side of the hill to re-join the track earlier. I though it would be nice to walk through the trees. This was not a good idea however, as the ground was really rough under foot and when one reached the trees there was also old forestry stumps and the like to be negotiated. I waited for Allison at the track and caught the death-ray glare she threw at me for my route choice. That rather set the tone for the remainder of the weekend.

35A7775E-0CCC-4A95-B925-78CD4442FE7A_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

452AF9CC-FBE5-4BA5-8E2C-EE0A3C0E2522_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Tom & Toll
15EEAF55-5D97-4011-AD08-FB22BCF96DE4_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

B1895804-58F9-4618-9962-4AD82A0B7DFD_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

D358FE53-69D0-4657-8164-0774B74BC2B8_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Tom and Toll looking moody now as the rain approaches
10FF8503-527F-44AA-8A9B-31677F765E9B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

553B326D-6850-46A0-994F-97DB0E0F3689_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

58653541-E273-4DA1-81E7-956E9DBDFE80 by Al, on Flickr

We were back at the campsite in time to have a shower and make our tea before the rain started up again. Another long night, with the clocks going back. I was determined to get up at the "old" 8am rather than lie in any longer. So we breakfasted, packed up and drove down the A82 to Alltsigh where I'd noticed there were roadworks going on - I hoped that wasn't going to interfere with our planned walk - Glas Bheinn Mhor and Meall Fuar-monaidh.

2021-10-31_0858 Raw.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

We were able to squeeze into the parking place at the start of the walk amidst the diggers etc, which I doubted would be working on a Sunday anyway. I remembered this route when we set off - until then I had an entirely different set of hills in mind I decided I'd reverse the order of the hills today, to make at least a small change (to be honest, I could have routed us in from Balbeg had I actually paid attention and looked at the WH route for this hill and saved about 6km). The weather was quite nice, dry and clear and I was hoping it might stay like that for our hills - sadly that was not to be. Anyway, the track up through the forest is alright, there's some swamp walking when you leave the path just before the dam until you reach the lower slopes of Fuar-mhonaidh. By this time the clag had come down , the rain had started and the wind was rather fresh. We paused for lunch just short of the summit, out of the wind. As we reached for the top I was astonished to see three girls in running gear emerge from the mist. When we were at the summit, we noticed the multitude of footprints and clear path heading SE. We want to go SW, but in poor visibility a track might be useful - might even turn the way we want to go...but it doesn't. I remember this hill having craggy gullies on its NW flank and indeed we find these once we abandon the good path. I don't much like crags in clag. We pick our way down and make for Loch nam Breac Dearga, which is virtually lost in a sea of mist. Then peat hags. Then craggy bits up onto Glas-bheinn Mhor.

F32B6065-1117-42A1-B505-8DA3B4D39223_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

View over to Glas-bheinn Mhor from Fuar-mhonaidh
17D3E741-1286-4B54-A1C3-EEBB92E69284_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

E92F429C-F958-4358-ACDC-4E303E9479B0_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

7EDD0F8B-6DB3-40F3-89E9-463410C102BF_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

We head off the hills keeping the Loch of the Fox, which we can see out of the mist, to our right. And back on the track - breathes sigh of relief. A wet walk back down to the car, still pleased with the way my Paramo jacket is handling days like this. I wish they made gloves, as my fingers have been cold and wet with the ones I've had on this weekend.

107A2996-4F98-4C3B-A747-701D5A8A0809_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

32069AAC-D788-4A2B-AA6E-CCA99F84296A_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

8207FB9F-4FCE-4A21-874D-8BC7BB2456BC by Al, on Flickr
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[prog99]

Like ships in the night .... we were also at the campsite this weekend walking the grahams.

[weaselmaster]

Like ships in the night .... we were also at the campsite this weekend walking the grahams.

Ah, small world. Which hills were you on?

[prog99]

Like ships in the night .... we were also at the campsite this weekend walking the grahams.

Ah, small world. Which hills were you on?

One a day, friday,saturday,sunday. Meall a' Chrathaich , Carn Mhic an Toisich(turned into a lovely day), Carn a' Chaochain (a quick dousing although an inversion on the way up)

Ordinarily we'd have combined a few like yourselves but the terrain + soggy weather was enough to just do 3 trips. Did a few touristy things too and visited a few attractions away from the hills like plodda and the chambered cairn.