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Today turned out to be an unexpectedly good day!
Just the one slow human again today; the fast border collies left at home again, for several reasons that I won't go into...
Not too early a start (just before 06:00 from home) saw me driving south to bag Càrn na Caim and A'Bhuidheanach Bheag. I decided to stop for a McDonald’s breakfast en-route: not a good idea on so many levels as it left me feeling over full and because of the delay, I missed the best light on the mountains – beautiful pink light on the eastern facing slopes whilst driving down the A9, virtually gone just as I reached the car park - that will teach me! Or maybe not!
- All that was left of the good light from the starting layby.
Having reached the car park at 08:15 and spent 15 minutes faffing around with this and that, I started walking at 08:30 – it was a beautiful day, the clouds were high, the wind was light, and the sun was shining.
- Looking ahead near the start of the walk.
There was a light dusting of snow at low level and a few icy patches on the track, but nothing that couldn’t be avoided. The track is wide and stony – very easy to follow.
- Looking south-west towards Geal-Charn and A’Mharconhaich.
- Looking north about two-thirds of the way up to the plateau.
- Looking west – nearly on the plateau.
Once up to the plateau, with the A9 and civilisation no longer visible, the path heads out over wide-open ground that had a peaceful, remote feeling about it. The snow was only an inch or two deep, so no issues there.
- Looking at the route ahead to Càrn na Caim.
- Looking north-west on the way to Càrn na Caim.
It was a very pleasant walk, not least because it was obvious that the ground would have been quite boggy if it wasn’t frozen, particularly a section just before the summit of Càrn na Caim at about 910m.
- I could just about see the summit cairn on Càrn na Caim now 😊.
On the way up to the summit I crossed paths with another walker who asked if I was parked in layby 87 (I was) – he had tried to turn into it from the south and been barred by some cones, but I had approached from the north and there was nothing to say it was closed, although I was parked next to a large “works” vehicle. Looking at my photos afterwards, I could clearly see the cones at the south end of the layby – in my haste to get a picture of the fading light, I didn’t even see them! I was slightly concerned that I’d be penned in by road works when I got down. Still, there was nothing I could do about that now, so I pressed on up to the summit, arriving at 11:00.
There were 360° views from the summit and the cairn was covered in some very pretty ice patterns. I stayed long enough for a few photos and headed off to the second objective of the day, A'Bhuidheanach Bheag.
- Looking south-west from the summit of Càrn na Caim.
- Looking east from the summit of Càrn na Caim.
- Càrn na Caim summit cairn.
After returning to the top of the initial ascent path, the track dips down a couple of times and after the second dip there is a cairn at 870m – it turns out that this marks the point to take a left turn, but I ignored that!
There was a track and footprints carrying on past the cairn and I missed the footprints going left and carried straight on! A little further on I realised my mistake and had to cut back down to the path – the descent was a little steep, but the snow was soft, not icy, so no difficulties.
- Looking south towards A’Bhuidheanach.
It’s quite a long trek between these two Munros and it took me two hours. I arrived at the summit of A'Bhuidheanach Bheag at 13:00 at the same time as two other walkers, who had also taken the same slight detour as me
. We chatted and had lunch before moving off – it was getting quite cold now.🥶
- Looking west from the summit of A’Bhuidheanach.
- Looking south-west from the summit of A’Bhuidheanach.
- Looking north-west from the summit of A’Bhuidheanach.
I took the correct path on the return leg and once back at the cairn, was surprised I’d managed to go wrong
– the path really was very clear, even in the snow!
Much of the track out to the second summit would have been very boggy if it weren’t frozen – I was very glad it was frozen.
- Looking east on the return leg.
- Looking west on the return leg.
- Looking west a little further along.
Once back at the turning point, I headed down to the van. The track is very stony and felt a lot steeper than the upward journey, especially where it was icy – not very good for the knees!
- Looking north just after starting on the descent path.
- Looking north a little further down.
- Looking north-east – almost back to the start.
It took me 2½ hours from the second summit to get back to the van, although I did stop for several photos as the light in the sky was looking good.
Nearing the bottom of the track I suddenly had an unpleasant thought that maybe I’d missed a “layby closed” sign and had caused problems for a construction team, which might have resulted in my van being towed away and a large fine to get it back.
Fortunately, my fears came to nothing, and my van was still there; the layby was fully open, and there were no construction vehicles in sight.
It was 16:00 when I got back to the start and time to drive south to Perth, where I was staying the night as I hoped to climb Meall Chuaich on the way home tomorrow. Not such a good forecast (higher winds, but not too high), so we will see what tomorrow brings.
Bye for now!
