Ben Chonzie
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:41 pmI was leaving Braemar YH today and heading for Crianlarich YH to tackle a few Munros around that area. On the way I thought I would do Ben Chonzie.
The previous day while looking underneath the car I noticed the back box of my exhaust was not looking healthy at all. Not wanting to risk it falling off when I have to travel back to Bristol at the weekend I thought I would see if I could get it replaced in Perth on the way through.
I found a very helpful Kwik Fit garage on the main road through Perth so a few hours later and with a wallet nearly £200 lighter
I set off for Ben Chonzie a bit later than I'd hoped.I arrived in the area and initially parked too far down the road, just by the entrance to the Scottish Water works site. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to go further so while I debated this a friendly well dressed game-keeper type chap passed by and advised I could carry on further where there is a car park right by the loch dam.
Got all kitted up and was off by 11:40. The walk along the track on the eastern shore was a bit undulating and seemed very long, with a couple of bits where it's necessary to easily ford some streams coming off the hill leading to the loch.
I reached the end of the actual path at 13:10 and picked out my intended route up towards Creag Dhubh an t-Sileidh.
Great views back down the loch.
As I started up the slope from the end of the path I changed my route and decided to keep going straight instead of bearing left. The intended slope looked steeper than the one I actually took but shorter to the ridge line, and I think it was probably easier even if it meant a slightly longer walk along the ridge later.
I got onto the ridge at 13:50 and turned left picking up a path which seemed to follow a line of old fence posts for a while. I managed to lose this path somehow and found myself following another path lower on the ridge. A quick check on the GPS enabled me to take a more direct line to the summit. It was at this point that I realised I was going the wrong way round from what I had intended. I had meant to go clockwise round the route. Thinking about it I probably inadvertantly got it right because as the tops were clear today the walk along the eastern shore gave me great views towards Ben Chonzie all day. If I'd gone the other way it would have been obscured by Carn Chois until I'd cleared that.
I got to the summit at 14:20 just as two other walkers were vacating the shelter and it got a bit greyer, but still no rain yet. Lunch was taken and I tried in vain to identify some of the hills I could see. I'm no good at that yet, need a few more trips out first.
I left after 20 minutes, walked in a general SW direction for a bit then headed for Meall na Seide, then Carn Chois. The path was quite boggy in places but more or less follows some more old fence posts for quite a long way. When I'd past Carn Chois with it's trig point, having been blasted by a quick 10 minute shower, I picked out a route down the grassy slope which would take me down to the short bit of track on the western shore of the loch. There was a fence half way down the slope but a handy open gate to show I was going the right way.
Eventually got down onto the track at 16:30 and had great views back up the loch.
Back to the car at 17:00 ready to head for Crianlarich. Really enjoyed today even though I'd started later than I'd wanted. The route back confirmed to me that this is best tackled in an anti-clockwise direction - maybe!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OChdThzMo9k[/youtube]
This loop was how we'd planned to cover this hill but bad weather made the west side too dodgy for my 12 yo son and his friend. 
