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I'm determined to choose titles from records for my posts this year, so I'll start with Adventures Close to Home by The Raincoats even though our activities this weekend were not especially adventurous, nor were they that near to home. I suppose relatively speaking Crieff is nearer than, say, Kintail. So there you are.
Anyway I was really fed up on Thursday trying to determine where we should go. More heavy rain and big winds forecast - yet once more. Plus Allison's back being a bit dodgy meaning that big pack walks were not perhaps advisable. I did think about going south and doing things Border-y, but was at a loss as to where we might camp in the promised foul weather. So once again we ended up heading to Comrie Croft as a kind of refuge from the storm. We didn't get away til Friday morning as Allison was having dental work done on Thursday night. The forecast suggested we'd have a window of dry weather from 10 til 2ish. I'd looked at a route that included Beinn Each for Allison, a couple of Simms for me and Sgiath a"Chaise as a bonus Third Round Graham.
A bit rainy on the way up to Strathyre. There were a couple of cars in the lay-by beside the start. Noticing a considerable amount of new white stuff on Ben Lomond and some of the surrounding hills I opted t re-attach the axes to my pack, just in case. Of we set through the woods - someone really needs to get out with a chainsaw and carve a passage through the fallen trees that block the path - they seem to have been down for ages. Onto the track with very little evidence of snow here. Last time we were up, doing Sgiath a'choose I think, the forestry clearing was just beginning - now virtually all the trees on the west side of the river are gone. Onwards to the way marked hill path up Beinn Each - no snow visible looking up. We met a party of four on their way down, then chatted to a lady from Blafron who was also coming down, surprised at how quick the ascent had been. She wondered about doing another hill and we suggested Sgiath a'Chaise as an easy add on.
CBA50EF7-0C26-4232-8769-B0AB772E548E_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
F625DA26-2B9E-4B74-A62B-46F993C2F91F_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Up to the summit of Each where there were some wee patches of crusty snow. Looking across to Stuc a'Chroin it was clear that there was more snow higher up. But we weren't going that way, we were off to the two Simms to the SE. We paused just down from the summit of Each to have lunch then followed a fence line and animal track across the first Simm, Meall na Caora and most of the way to the second. Allison was hopeful that we'd be Abe to just cut down the flank into the glen, but there's two ridges - Beinn Break and Meall Gobhlach in the way. She wasn't delighted to learn we would be retracing steps. We did head down at the bealach between Meall na Caora and Each, rather than have to re-ascend 120m more, and picked up the path for Each partway down.
7552D770-9901-4714-A9C4-D63736688CA3_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Each
6F95FEDA-016A-467E-900E-182C1D41BA41_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Toward the Simms
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Al, on Flickr
Linking ridge between Each and Stuc a'Chroin
C4D45CC7-D7BA-42A6-A92F-194BEAEE728E_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
42E642B9-8C32-4C30-9AE8-013F98B68536_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
It was now about 3pm and I was sure Allison would just give Sgiath a'Chaise a bye as it was of no particular benefit to her tally to climb it. Handing her the car key I saw the light of determination in her eye. "I'll walk with you as far as the fence line and see..." she says. And of course, being a stubborn creature she ended up climbing up anyway. The past twice we've done this hill there has been snow lying so it was quite nice to see that there is actually a path that skirts round the peat hags and reaches the cairn-less summit. Allison was thinking the further away 644m top was the summit and was delighted when I reminded her that was a Simm that we'd done previously, but we were at the 645m summit already. A quick trot back down, following our outward route, back along the track and into the trees, where we needed head torches in the failing light to avoid getting punctured by rogue branches. back at the car for about 5 and off to Comrie Croft where we pitched the tent by the light of the stars, which were twinkling through the canopy of tree branches.
Chaise
992AA8E6-EF27-45A1-9CB0-5BF8DB52B023_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Looking across to Each
84472FAC-5BFC-4BE1-A46B-D80750FE4587_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Cairnless summit of Chaise
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Al, on Flickr
161C6375-205D-4979-84E7-11417E2FFFE7_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
A bit later the rain started and poured down heavily all night. We got up around 9, went down to pay for our pitch, the office being closed by the time we arrived last night. The woman at the desk was checking back the computer for our details when I told her we'd been there last weekend. The girl that week hadn't asked our name, and had just put "lovely couple" which I had a laugh at☺️. Then we set off to do some real adventurous hills...
Meall nan Caorach and Meall Reamhar, just south of Amulree, are two of the easier Grahams to bag. There's really only one sensible way to do them, from Girreon Farm a mile or so south of Amulree, although I suppose you could also use the track that comes in from Glenalmond House in the south. We chose the Girreon route, as we have the previous twice. The second time we walked from the car park at Amulree village, as I'd forgotten you could squeeze a car in at the farm gates. Today we went from the farm gates. As we approached the farm house, a streak of black and white rocketed towards us - one of the friendliest, sweetest collie dogs you could wish to meet. fawning over us, giving a paw, delightful. Then his (or her) two buddies, less confident, appeared and came up to us, more hesitantly, but still very friendly. I think the dogs were locked in last time and barked at us for quite a while after we'd passed the farm. No barks today.
D8735E5A-6EA3-43E2-9663-3713B60935A4_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
We continued top the track, crossing streams in places and reached the highest point of the track, where we turned off to our left up a fairly grassy - as opposed to tussocky - bit of hillside that led to the top of Caorach. There's barely 150m drop between the two hills, and the track goes right to the bealach. From the summit we snuck off across the fence to shelter from the wind and have our lunch. The descent is steep through heather tussocks, but there's the fence to hold onto if you wish. At the track we paused for a breather before heading right back up on the other side - again follow the fence line to the summit. The weather was starting to come in, heavy clouds surrounded us and by the time we were halfway back along the farm track the sleet had begun, driven into us by the strong wind. As this was a short walk, I'd been inclined to stop and do the Simm Meall Reamhar that sits to the north of the Sma' Glen - there's a track most of the way up and it's been on my to-do list for ages. However, with wet legs from the sleet and with poor visibility and ongoing grim weather I decided to leave it (again) for another day. We headed back to the campsite and the shelter of our wet tent.
Caorach
4A300BFD-A76E-472A-B3E4-1A204E30E6D4_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Caorach looking over to Reamhar
B2303D67-C56D-4563-83DB-14AF78C7A0ED_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
A6E8ADD5-F5B8-4062-B9AE-0399C54D32F5_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Reamhar
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Al, on Flickr
CDF86C8A-CC87-44F4-9088-83714EDDCB34_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
It rained for a few hours and was quite chilly - though that wouldn't have been helped by our damp clothes. For the last two weekends we've had no "tent biscuits" - Manner hazelnut wafers which Amazon are currently out of - so we've not even had that small joy to look forward to. Huel and a square of chocolate was our lot. A bag of crisps later on and Allison had her whisky (I'm doing "dry January").
Sunday was brighter, indeed there was sunshine and blue sky when we got up. We've done nearly everything we can around Comrie, so today we'd decided to do Beinn na Gainmh from the Sma' Glen. Previously we've done this from the north, from Croftmill by Loch Freuchie, but I'd noticed a track heading up from the south and - as I like to vary hill routes where practicable - thought we'd try this. It would be possible to use the track up Meall Reamhar (Simm aforementioned) to get onto the plateau, but this would involve more tussock-traipsing than we were prepared for. So we parked up by the riverside lay-by in the Sma' Glen and crossed the bridge into Glen Almond. The surrounding hills were very white and it wasn't clear how much snow we were going to encounter ourselves. None at ground level, however and we walked unmolested by winter along the track. After about 3.5k we turned steeply uphill on a good bulldozed track. At about 450m the path became iced over, then under a few inches of snow. Hare and fox tracks crossed this way and that, sometimes running. We reached a hollowed out area at the side of the track and decided to stop for lunch. At this point I noticed the track seemed to dip away down into the valley. I consider that hill-tracks tend to go up hill and hadn't looked properly at the planning stage - this track quite clearly drops about 100m to the Henzie Burn, before regaining these metres going up into Corry Henzie. There seemed very little point losing such a chunk of height we=hen we could just head straight up hill, making for Sron Bealaidh and thence to Beinn na Gainmh. With apologies to Allison we set off steeply for the first 100m through heather tussocks, then onto much flatter ground where some of the snow had been either blasted away by the wind or frozen. We followed a leporine highway towards the fence line and ultimately to the summit of Gainmh. Jaundiced yellow light spilled from a sun surrounded by snow clouds. Arriving at the summit, the small cairn seems to lie outside the highest contour, according to our map. Anyway, we were there and I chose to re-trace our steps rather than descend into Corry Henzie and have the 100m incline to undertake.
2E23DE14-ED09-4AD3-A258-7A8B6389CBA8_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Auchnafree Hill is white
FC998CB2-866F-4F05-9899-7515145E662C_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
FB83F58B-D4BD-485D-A0E7-16DE55AC554A_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
4FDB2DE9-1509-4CCB-841C-3A88194021F9_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Gainmh
BB71BE72-869F-4DBD-9206-79F30A821587_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
5735F7C9-DA28-4A14-8CE5-CFAA0AFD7FF6_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Chonzie
4EAF8C1A-7EAE-41A0-9CBA-8A865ED34A73_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
3FC0812D-7F52-4C9B-8E76-DA6CC45CDCAC_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
BF0307CE-F735-44DD-B83A-86AF9FAE2AB1_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
B39806F5-BAB9-4623-90B7-9F5D1B6ED721_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
We were both quite tired on the walk out along Glen Almond, although the going is alright. By the time we were nearly at the car the wind seemed to have dropped several degrees, our faces grew cold. 🥶 A cold snap is predicted for the next few days it seems. We returned to the car. Passing Foulford golf course, we spotted one of the bunkers was now a pond, complete with a duck swimming on it. Like to see you get your ball out of that! Home via the A9, which was much easier driving in the fading light than going back by Callander/Drymen. Hoping for some nicer weather next weekend that allows us to wild camp, as we've exhausted the options around Comrie (except for fourth round Corbetts, but I don't want to think of that at present 😂).
