first wild camp

[mr_mrsH]

we have been looking to do a wild camp for some time( got all the gear tent, sleeping bags etc) but every time the weather has changed for the worse at the weekend. so when the forecast was favourable for the weekend we decided to go for it.
the plan was to travel up to Glen Muick after work on friday walk for a couple of hours and pitch the tent and continue the next day. we arrived at the car park paid and displayed (£3) and set of.

lochnagar path

the path up was easy to follow and there were a couple of signs to point us in the right direction. there was low cloud on the tops but lower down it was clear and quite warm as we continued up we were wondering if we could make lochnagar before setting up camp, in hindsight it would have been better to make camp below the cloud level, we got to the summit of lochnagar at 10.10pm

summit of lochnagar 10.10pm

all we had to do now was find a spot to pitch the tent and as it was getting a bit mistier and darker we took the first spot we found, not great but it would have to do.
once tent was pitched and we were in time for a cuppa and a slice of homemade banana cake courtesy of mrs H

tent once it was pitched

cuppa

in the morning (very early morning 4.30am) and after very little sleep we had a quick bite to eat were packed up and on the path by 5.30.
first mistake was taking the wrong path down and it wasn't until mrsH thought we were going to low and i checked the gps and found we were at 700metres which was not right we were actually on the glen muick path to lochnagar!
note to self; listen to mrsH and trust gps.

mrsH on the wrong path

so after a slight detour, about a mile, we were back on track and heading for Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach our first of the day,second of the trip and our fiftieth overall. the time now was 7.20

summit of Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach

by this time the the cloud cover was beginning to break slightly but there was intermittent showers, we were on our way to munro no3 which meant crossing a couple of streams, this gave us a chance to fill up the water bottles and put a purification tablet in. we followed the path until we came to the path that leads of to the left and up to the summit.

path to Carn an t-Sagairt Mor

celebrating no3 well it was our anniversary

on the way back down the local bird life was calling out to get its picture taken even posing on a grassy hummock.

local bird life not sure what it was

on the way down and the weather was fine we decided to stop for lunch or was it breakfast ,but scottish weather being what it is a drizzle started not long after we'd sat down so lunch/breakfast was a very quick 10 minutes.and so it was on to the penultimate munro of the day Cairn Bannoch

view of munro no.4

celebrating again

and so it was on to our final munro Broad Cairn.

knackered

it was now 10 o'clock and all that was left was the long trek to the finish, 3hours it took us and we were both suffering from aching shoulders and sore feet.

mrsH viewing the long trek back

finally got back to the carpark at 1 o'clock and after a 2 and a half drive home fuelled by energy drink and chocolate got home at just before 4 all our kit was left in the car and we went to bed for well earned sleep.
all in all a memorable experience with some good lessons learnt;
1 find somewhere decent to pitch tent
2 listen to mrsH
3 trust gps

[Gavin Canavan]

That looked like a fun trip! I'm hoping to do a bit of wild camping soon myself! Don’t fancy pitching a tent in the dark though well done on 50 munros and congratulations to you both for your anniversary.

[trekker53]

It's good to get the first one out of the way. With the lessons learned you can enjoy many more wild nights out. Congrats with getting to 50 and what a different way to spend your anniversary. Not many woman would settle for that.

[basscadet]

I enjoyed reading about your trip - This is home territory for me, so its always good to read about others adventures on the white mounth

As for the wild camping thing, you should check out geograph before you go. They have photo's of every grid square, so you can pick your campspot before you go

[Rudolph]

Well done both. Looks like you pitched right near the top so you can do anything now. Be warned - it's addictive and there is always a slightly lighter / warmer / smaller / more expensive bit of must have gear which will make it perfect.

I'm not sure your load distribution is really fair though. From the size of your loads it looks like Mrs H packed both rucksacs! Not something I'd want to catch on.