Meall Mór bike and hike

[Hills4dogs]

This hill has interested me because you can just about see it from our house. Having been told to rest my knee I decided to take advantage of the wood and windfarm tracks from Loch Glass by cycling most of the the ascent on track and then hiking the last bit of ascent on what looked like a reasonably gradual incline. There had been a bit of snow the night before but not too much and all of it was fresh on this hill.
Cycle up 53 mins, 376m 7.13 km
Hike 2.15 h, 236m, 6 Km
Cycle back 44mins

I parked up at the forest gates close to the end of the Loch Glass road from Evanton (google maps 57.686968, -4.437192). Just room for a couple of cars. It should be noted they have upgraded the road over the winter, completely resurfacing it, so it was a pleasure to drive unlike previous journeys which mainly involved dodging the massive potholes. Once parked up, got the bike off and the dog out the car and set off along the forest tracks. The windfarm track was also very easy for cycling although covered in a wee dusting of snow. It was quite a meandering route to get to the very end of the track closest to the hill but we got their eventually!

activity_8568968768.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Start of the forest track, just after the gates with the edge of the Ben Wyvis hills off to the left on the other side of Loch Glass

Coming out of the wood and starting to enter the windfarm

At that point I got off the bike, locked it up against the last wind turbine and then set off. This first part of the walk was by far the worst, full of peat hags for 50-100m or so. Not boggy but just awkward to circumnavigate. When looking down from above it was as if the last wind turbine was like a flag on a golf green surrounded by a complex series of bunkers to protect it!
But once past the peat hags the rest of the route up was relatively gentle, which was good for the knee.

activity_8568968774.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

What you doing down there dad?

The gentle route up beyond the peat hags

Loch Morie off to the right

Càrn Chuinneag in the distance (I think). If you squint real hard you can see some of the Assynt hills in the very far distance, including Suilven

It didn't take too long to walk up to the top even with a light dusting of snow.

Dill at the top with BW in the background

From the top we walked westward to the edge of the summit which was close to a very steep drop into Loch Glass

Best view of Ben Wyvis from the edge of the summit plateau

Looking north west to the end of Loch Glass and Wyvis Lodge, with the Beinn Dearg hills in the distance

Then after a quick bite to eat it was time to return home

The return back over the heather to the windfarm

Overall another great day in the hills

[ZEbbEDY]

I was up the same day pacing up and down looking for my lost tent pegs