Walkhighlands

My first report, so here goes. Weather forecast today was to be excellent acording to MWIS, and they were right, it was and turned out a proper cracker . We arrived at the parking area at Glen Clunie A93 Grid ref 138832 at 0930hrs, hardly any wind, dry and excellent walking conditions. This was the first time I had been up this hill in twenty years and the tree plantation at the car park was a lot larger than I can remember it. We went through the gate and crossed a bridge and then took the left fork in the landrover track which passed by Baddoch lodge, climbed a stile at the rear of the lodge and dismissed the bridge over to the track which went up the NE shoulder of Sgor Mor and carried on up the landrover track passing over another bridge. The track was undulating but good to walk on which was fine as we were to be returning this way from further up the glen. We branched off the landrover track at a path on our left going up the Coire Fhearneasg crossing over the burn in the process and headed up the NE shoulder of Socach Mor. Path started well but was more indistinct and got wet and muddy in places. On the top of Socach Mor (1h 15m) there is a distinct cairn which you can see from well down the climb through the heather. After leaving Socach Mor there is another rather muddy section but soon becomes more stoney as you progress West to the top of the East top of An Socach, as your climbing your seeing wonderful veiws of the Cairngorms and surrounding hills. There is a large stone shelter erected on the top of the East top where we stopped for some refreshments. The actual top is a further 2.5k along a rocky flat topped broad ridge all very easy on a fine day like we had but maybe less so in low cloud where the compass and map might be in order. There is another shelter on the top but the actual cairn and top of the munro is a further 30m or so further to the West. From the summit you can see wonderful panoramic views in all directions, hopefully my photographs will show you the true splendor of the area, views of Glen Ey, Cairncorms and Loch nan Eun to name a few. We decided to back track along the summit ridge to the bealach to grid ref 092802 and take the track heading SE towards the Baddoch Burn, this turned out initially a well worn track but soon dissapeared and the last 1k turned out to be head off to the landrover track where we joined at grid ref 106794 . This we followed all the way back to the starting point.[img][img]

Hi there , that's not a bad first report ! It was nice bumping into you again at the summit , what a glorious day it was . I hope there was some nice cake left at the cafe as a wee reward for the troops,
Gavin

Hi there Gavin, made a bit of a mess up with the photographs as you can see. Yes it was great bumping into you again, as you said on the hill, hope to see you again on the hill sometime. By the time we got back there were only a small selection of cakes, and NO CHIPS, never mind, an absolutely fabulous day on the hill.