A long day out - Creag Mhor and Beinn Heasgarnich

[johnbythell]

It's a long walk in and out on the hydro tracks, plus a lot of pathless wayfinding (aka wandering about trying to find a path) across heather and bog, but I was lucky to get a dry day and managed to get almost the whole way round with dry feet. Spectacular 360 views from the summits though, and the cloud base stayed above the tops the whole way, so another fine day in the hills.

Creag Mhor & Beinn Heasgarnich 8 Aug 2023.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

2km has been added to an already long day by closing the old car park, but a beautiful day shaping up, so the initial walk-in along the road was quite pleasant.

The pipeline down the Innisraineach Burn, along with several concrete and railing culverts along the track, give the walk-in a bit of an industrial feel, though still a beautiful glen.

Looking back down Glen Lochay

As the WH walk description says, the glen is dominated by Ben Challum at the far end.

The path gets a bit lost on the way up Sron nan Eun (or I lost the path) but it is fairly straightforward to find a way through the crags and the path re-materialises near the top of the ridgeline. Here looking SE to Meall Ghlas and Sgiath Chuil

Finally get to see Creag Mhor from the top of the ridgeline

I'm not sure what this is, nowhere near the top, but someone went to a lot of trouble to put it in..

From near the Creag Mhor summit, a spot for an early lunch stop. The buttress of Sron Tairbh below Stob an Fhir-Bhogha looking like a long hard slog (it was)

The Creag Mhor summit cairn

Again, there wasn't much if any of a path down to the bealach, but it was mostly easy going and not difficult to find the way with the good visibility.

Looking back to the bealch from part way up the opposite side, looking unpleasantly boggy, but it was actually fairly dry underfoot and the bog mostly avoidable.

The path re-emerged about half way up, but again it was pretty straightforward to pick a route up the mainly grassy slopes. It was a long hard pull up to the crest though

And after that it was a very long but easy ramble along the top of the broad ridgeline.

Spectacular views all around

The cloud base at the perfect height, just above the tops..

The summit of Beinn Heasgarnich (or Sheasgarnich, depending which map you're using)

The way down looked absolutely terrifying - definitely not what you want to see at the end of a long day out - pathless, seemingly endless bog, with the actual way not being very obvious.

And it was boggy, and pathless for the most part, but I actually managed to make it almost the whole way down without stepping in anything that went over my boot-tops (got distracted when I was near the road). Without a GPS, it would have been hard to find the curving route through pretty featureless terrain though.

Looking back up from the hydro track - the route goes, err, somewhere in there...

Then it was just the small matter of 5km back along the track...definitely a long day out!