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The last weekend of February brought me a lot of stress, both mentally (the war so close to Polish borders!) and physically (a bad case of migraine and sore tummy). I wasn't able to do much on Saturday and on Sunday, I just about managed a local Sub. Originally, we had planned to climb Cnoc Corr Guinie from Strathrory car park, using forest tracks to do "some kinda circular" but I was in no shape to do any forest bashing today, so it was just the simple up-and-down the quickest route.
We parked at the entrance to the forest near Strathy junction - there's room for several cars if parked carefully. The day was sunny but quite windy and we were glad to be protected by the forest. Some snow on the ground but it was all melting quickly:
Kevin led the way, making sure we took the right way on junctions. I felt like a zombie panther today, just following him wherever he was going...
After about 3km, we reached the spot where we should leave the wide track and take a minor path to the summit...
- It is here somewhere...
...but we were surprised by the number of firebreaks and rough tracks, all leading up in the same direction. Pick the best one if you can!
- Is it here?
Having dismissed a few entrances as too much rough going to our taste, eventually we found the right path. It can be recognized by a large tree stump to the right hand side (see picture below):
- The right path!
The path was covered in melting snow and in warmer times it might be boggy but we were glad to have an easy approach to the Sub summit, rather than practice tree bashing (see Mount Eagle!).
The path vanishes on the summit area, which was once covered by dense forest. I said "was" because Cnoc Corr Guinie is currently undergoing extensive tree-felling operations that even the very top couldn't escape
We found a good spot for taking a few snaps just west of the large summit cairn:
- Beinn Tarsuinn
- Ben Wyvis
Kevin on the summit. Our sub no. 65.
From the cairn, the only reasonable views are to the south and east...
- Cromarty Firth and the wintering oil rigs - the sleeping giants...
- The neighbouring Sub, Cnoc an t-Sabhail (West) also affected by tree felling
After a short break by the cairn, we had a look at a possible circular route, descending NW to another forest track, this one along Allt na h-Iolaire. This track then could be followed around Druim nam Fiadh (the lower top with TV mast). On another occasion, we might have had a go at it but today I was feeling knackered... The fact that we'd have to cross a large area of freshly felled forest didn't help...
- Ehm... No, thank you...
If you decide to be more adventurous than us, please be extremely careful when going of piste on this hill. The forestry work is still going on an on the day we visited Cnoc Corr Guinie, the newly cut trees haven't even been collected. The approach we used is safe, but any attempts of a circular might be problematic.
- Beinn Tarsuinn and the felled trees
Summing up, not a hill I'd be eager to return to, maybe in full winter conditions as a short walk. But winter is nearly over and I'm looking forward to more ambitious stuff now - bring on Corbetts and Munros!
My wishes were granted the following weekend. Weather was superb and we managed two fantastic higher mountains - both routes we had done before, but wanted to repeat them in winter/early spring conditions. I dropped my yaktraks and almost became snowblind, Kevin marched up snowy slopes in shorts
and for a couple of days, we were living in a different world. TRs in progress.