Deepest Letterewe Fisherfield Forest Expedition

[SunnyAdventure]

Attendee: Sunny Solo with her Big Agnes.
Sunny first 2 days, persistant rain and wind on day3.

3days Bikepacking Start from Poolewe into deep, 8 hills(Beinn Airigh Charr 792m, Meall Mheinnidh 722m, Beinn Lair 859m, Beinn a' Chaisgein Beag 682.3m, Beinn a' Chaisgein Mor 856m, Beinn Dearg Mor 906.28m, Beinn Dearg Bheag 820m and Beinn a' Chlaidheimh 913.96m)

Friday 6th May, after night shift Sunny drove up to Poolewe car park and settled for the night. Plan was 4 days but after checking the weather forecast in the morning, rain coming on day 3, so last minute decision to shorten the trip to 3 days instead of 4. A bit of juggling the hills order rearrange the routes to squeeze them all in 3 days. The statistic figures of each day below is not accurate as I recorded in one big track instead of stop it each day, at the time I remembered how many rest hours, planning to do the report once out the forest, but never had time to do it, now its too long to trace back the time lag. So rough ideas below.


Day1--7th May: 34.2k 1980m ascent 1693m descent 12hours. After made decision, rearranged rucksack for 3 days supply, set off on the bike at 8am from Poolewe along the track, after out of the wood (around 8k) NG91103 78679, the track become a path which is not ideal to cycle on. for mountain bikers yes but I am not a bike fun of bike, so change of plan again to leave the bike here and walk into deep first ( Loch Beinn Dearg NH 02817 78415) to set up camp and do Beinn a' Chlaidheimh 913.96m. leave the 3 Letterewe hills to the way out rooute. The path is easy going, took me just a shy 6 hours to get to Loch Beinn Dearg, pitched the Big Agnes, and heading to Beinn a' Chlaidheimh 913.96m, the going was better than I expected, just over 3hours to get to the summit and returned to Big Agnes just before 8pm. filled up water and had a bath at the river on the back to tent as had about 15 ticks bits again. Settled for the night.

Loch Beinn dearg 1st night pitch

Day2--8th May: 28k 2300m ascent 2050m descent 10hour 40 minutes. Packed up camping gear left at the site, walk up to Beinn Dearg Mor and Bheag with a light rucksack. I made a mistake to go up the ridge before the pinnacles, end up having to drop a bit to the coire and contour round to the main summit. What I should have done is to ascend diagonal up the south sloop aiming to the ridge north of the pinnacles. Apart from that mistake the walk for the two corbetts are straight forward with good path on the ridge. Returned to the campsite in about 5 hours, packed up camping gear and on way to Beinn a' Chaisgein Mor 856m and Beag 682m. good path then easy gentle sloop up the summit then nice grassy ridge walk. Dropped down to Fionn Loch east bank and followed a good path to Carnmore Stable, settled for the night.

Carnmore stable

Beinn Dearg Mor- Should have go up the sloop aiming to the ridge left of the pinnicals

Day3--9th May. 25.7k 1850m ascent 1800m descent 7hours. packed up after breakfast crossed the causway and headed up to Beinn Lair 859m, was easy going this hill good path then grassy upper sloop. Rain started to get heavy and wind picked up after the summit. The second hill Meall Mheinnidh 722m was the hardest for going down due to high wind. The 3rd hill Beinn Airigh Charr 792m was nice and easy up a long gentle sloop, weather improved after the summit. the GPX tracking somehow stopped at the summit, I did not realize until I reached the bike. so it is a straight line from Beinn Airigh Charr summit to the bike. The cycle out was quite challenging at points due to high wind. Well deserved a beer when got back to the car.

[Graeme D]

Epic country!