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As I hadn't done any Munro's since 2005 I decided to pick an easy one and, as my wife Fiona still had a couple to finish off in section 5, we picked Meall Chuaich, even though I'd done it before a few years back. Driving up from Edinburgh the weather was quite nasty but at the start near Dalwhinnie the rain had stopped and it was fine.
As the first 2-3 miles to the hill is pretty flat and on a good track we used mountain bikes to approach - Fiona on her Inbred and me on my Cotic BFE (massive overkill but the only bike I have with flat pedals on). Cycling into the bothy was fine, other than one little lying-down on the track incident from Fiona.
With the bikes locked behind the bothy we wandered our way up the path which was a bit boggy in places. Conditions weren't bad, leading to Fiona taking off her waterproofs - not something that's all that common in Scotland!
We then wandered our way to the top with the last thousand feet or so being in the clouds so no view (shame as it's a good view point over Dalwhinne towards Ben Alder) and definite problems keeping my glasses clear (I knew I should have went with the contact lenses). We met one chap who was heading down after what must have been a very early start but arrived at the top alone.
Two other walkers arrived soon afterwards (also posters on here) and another a little bit later. We had a chat and some food then headed down, passing quite a few others who were heading on the way up. Picking up the bikes at the bothy we were soon back to the car. Total time was 3:24 according to my Garmin, with 02:40 of that "moving" time - so I think the bikes saved about an hour or so.
On the drive home it was raining quite heavily in places so I think we were lucky with the weather.
