Hunt Hill

[TheTortoise]

We were not sure if we were going to be doing this hill or not - the forecast for the day before was lots of snow and -5 on one forecast (do NOT drive up glen) and +3 and a little sleet on other forecasts (worth trying). So after finishing our visit in Fife, we checked the forecast again and decided to try. Up the glen we went, with a clear road and only a little sleet in the last few minutes. We parked the van in the large flat car park and settled down for the evening.
Overnight it WAS -5 and some water in the van had frozen. But luckily we had some in bottles, not frozen, so we set off happily in the early morning. Our previous Graham in Angus had been done a few years ago, mostly involving straightforward walking on tracks and a rounded hill. So we were unprepared for today's much more spectacular walk.
The view over Loch Lee to Craig Maskeldie was quite impressive. Our return route was down to the white house bottom left.

Looking across Loch Lee to Craig Maskeldir

Further on along the track we could also see the side of Hunt Hill.

We'll be walking up underneath the sweeping slope of Hunt Hill

We walked on good path to waterfall Falls of Unich

Falls of Unich

then continued on a slightly poorer path up valley.

More waterfalls

Looking up the valley with the waterfalls glistening in the sun

Close up of ice on the hillside

We got our spikes out after about two-thirds of the way up cos there was slightly slippy snow on the path.

Topping out of the valley, Hunt Hill in sight

Then it was a bit of a grind along over heathery bumps before an easier ascent of the hill itself.

Looking across to Mount Keen, on the way up Hunt Hill

There was just a thin layer of snow on the hill, we didn't spend much time up there cos it was windy, and cloud was looming around on the distant and nearby hills. So no photos here.
We descended to the col for lunch in a tiny bit of shelter in a peat hag, the sun even shone a bit.
Then we set off upstream to cross the burn, but it looked black and deep with patches of greenish slushy ice, and any boulders had snow on top. The bridge across it only had wooden sides on about one quarter of it, and the rest looked wet, slippy and missing some pieces. We did not fancy it. (back at home we found this trip report which clearly shows the condition of the bridge!) https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=110191We decided to continue up beside burn to see if it got easier further up, but it didn't seem to. We were reluctantly considering going back down the valley that we had come up, but decided to just go a bit further to where a track came down to it. As we had hoped, the river was wider and more shallow, but still seemed problematic. There were some large boulders across, possibly more as a marker than stepping stones which you would have had to be very agile to use, and they were icy. We put our spikes back on and decided to try to cross using the boulders and the buildup of ice behind them, but the first bit of ice immediately snapped. Then we decided to try to cross using the ice just upstream which did go across almost all of the river, with a very small gap in the middle. To our delight it held, and seemed thicker than most of the other stuff. We wondered if some of it was actually resting on the river bed but we couldn't see. Hurrah!, no wet feet, no backtracking necessary and just a track walk for the rest of the way back. Sorry no photos of the burn, we were a bit too caught up in trying to cross it and it seemed foolish to go back and be photographed doing it again, just in case it didn't hold.
Then a walk up the track to Cairn Lick

Looking back to Hunt Hill from Cairn Lick

before descending with some impressive views into the corrie and its loch on the way down.

On the way down to Invergrundie, looking back at the lochan

After that we retraced our steps by Loch Lee. The ice in the car park and the water in the van had melted confirming the weather forecasts, so we were obviously going to be able to drive out the next day. Good.
A great trip with just enough sense of adventure - maybe we'll come back and do Mount Keen from that direction one day, once the obsession with Grahams is finished with.

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[BlackPanther]

As a big fan of Indiana Jones, I'm actually looking forward to crossing the wonky bridge

We have Hunt Hill on our radar for a longer summer outing. There is an interesting plane crash site on Drumhilt/Easter Balloch just west of HH so we think we will combine the two. The plane was a de Havilland Mosquito, crashed on 17th of August 1943, during a flight to Sweden on a wartime 'fast freight service' mission. According to what I found online, there's still a substantial amount of wreckage on site though badly smashed. Of course we never take anything from crash sites (it would be a crime - they are protected by law) but just photographing and identifying parts of aircraft is interesting enough. So bring on the summer!

[TheTortoise]

So bring on the summer

Definitely bring on the summer. Or at least no gales.
Reading just some of your posts has made me aware of how much plane wreckage there is in the hills. Sobering but interesting. Enjoy Hunt Hill when you go.

[Gordie12]

Nice route this especially at this time of year. You got some really good photos of your day.

I was in the same area yesterday (along Loch Lee but then continuing on and up Glen Lee to Muckle Cairn), it was surprising to see the hills around Loch Lee with no snow on them yet I gave up on Muckle Cairn having spent about 45 minutes fighting my way through snow drifts of between two and three feet in places.