by bran5358 » Thu Jun 28, 2012 6:09 pm
Date walked: 24/06/2012
Time taken: 3.3 hours
Distance: 5.5 km
Ascent: 720m
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Sunday morning, forcast is ok no rain but lot's of mist. mist to lift as day goes on. Had decided yesterday to walk Beinn An Lochain at Butterbridge. Arrived 9.30 am no cars in the layby. [unusual] I was going to have the hill to myself. The mist was right down could just see the start of the first ridge.
Off i went, across the burn, two jumps, one to the island and second took me across. Walked across the bog, easy enough, feet dry. Started up the ridge into the mist. had'nt been up an Lochain for about 15 years, forgot how steep it is, almost like walking up a ladder .As i got higher it was very difficult to gauge where i was in relation to the top. Could only see about 10 meters.One good reason to keep a note of my start time. I could look at my map and get a rough idea of where i was. Arrived at the first cairn after 2 hours of walking through the mist. Strangely most of the way up there was a good wind blowing and i did'nt expect to spend any time at the top .Wrong. There was no wind at the top. So i sat at the cairn with a wonderful feeling of peace surrounded by swirling mist and enjoyed an early lunch. Did'nt think i was going to get any photo's today.[ Wrong again] Had only started down when things started to get lighter, from dark grey to light grey. The sun was trying hard. decided to stay put for a while and let the sun do it's work on the mist.After about 10min, bingo. My first sight of blue sky. out came the camera. I spent about half an hour on my way down taking various photo stops. All in all it was a good day out. [hill to myself] not often that happens. Also on a hill like an Lochain it is no bad thing to have a bit of mist.Sometimes it is better not to see what is in front of you. Just get the head down and go.