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This hadn't been the plan. We'd set forth from Glen Mhuic, having admired the audio-visual capercaillie experience in the visitor centre, with the intention of doing Broad Cairn and Carn Bannoch. The mist loomed low over Loch Mhuic as we headed west past the lodge.
The Balmoral estate is unusually well maintained - the lodge had new gutters, a well maintained roof, drains on the track were in perfect condition and we were passed by a shiny estate land rover. It's almost a relic of how these estates must have been 100 years ago when their owners had enough money to keep them going (apart from the land rover and the fact that 100 years ago we would have been chased off by men with guns). I hope that highland estates don't start to become a status symbol for Russian oligarchs - we might see those days return.
Anyway we carried on past the lodge up an excellent path towards the Dubh Loch.
The mist was right down - not such a good day for photography.
At this point one of my companions developed a muscle strain and was having trouble going uphill. The other two went down. Having done Broad Cairn and Carn Bannoch (a very long time ago with Dundee University Rucksack Club) my thoughts turned to the unclaimed munro of Carn a Coire Boidheach.
This meant following a faint path along the Allt an Dubh Loch and into the upper corrie. Amazingly on this rough rocky path there were mountain bike tracks. Visibility was nil now and a line of old fence posts provided a route through the boggy headwaters. Eventually the burn curled round and a short climb led to the Lochnagar path.
I made a bee line for the summit - a flattened rock strewn dome with a small cairn on it.
It felt like a strangely pointless objective - an unremarkable random point in the landscape - no reason to go there apart from the fact that it is on a list. I wondered briefly if this is what reaching the South Pole feels like. The cloud was thinning and I briefly entertained hopes of another inversion - but it was not to be.
Time was pressing and I skirted the top of Lochnagar before picking up the excellent path down to the lodge.