a nice wee striddle

[tomyboy73]

A hill fix was in order and with no real plan , decided to go for something near and easy. So we headed off early hoping maybe catch an inversion or a broken spectre. But the sky was already clear and so at least we were gonny have a decent day. Although it was a bit nippy, the sun shining on our back made us soon wish we had shorts and tshirts on, not winter clothes, but , hey they would always come in handy later.
Already, with just a little height the view onto the loch was great

first look at loch lomond

And the surrounding hills were no bad either.

hills

We had earlierheard what we thought was a cry of an eagle and i`m sure i saw one sweep by over towards the loch and away into the trees. As we headed up i stopped to pack my jacket away and Jim carried on into the tree area (forrest,jungle,wood) and i could see him point his camera off in the direction of two shapes swirling around. Right enough it looked like a couple of eagles and we managed to get a couple of decent pictures of them.

eagles (can`t get zoomed pic to upload)

They soon disappeared and we were on our way up again. The walking was easy going but the sun and winter trouser combo was a bit uncomfortable. The main sight of the hill was stretching in front of us and it began to get a bit boggy.

Beinn Dubh

We were getting decent views around us but the further north we could see was cloud covered from just a couple of miles ahead including ben lomond which was shrouded all day.

ben Lomond

As it`s a pretty straightforward hill with no real features it does seem to go on forever, but at an easy pace, and when you look back it seems a long way down.

looking back

The closer we got to the summit, the colder and cloudier it got. I was glad of those warm trouser now. We stopped at the summit and although the route around is simple enough, we got out the map and compass to practice our navigation skills. It was good because we`re quite lazy with it and also have never really needed it before, but we made a concious decision to start using them even when we don`t need to to gain confidence and trust.
As we crossed over towards mid hill, through the peaty bogs we met another walker who had come in the other direction. The cloud had lifted a bit and we got a view of Beinn Eich and the snowy ridges behind it.

Beinn Eich

We stopped halfway down for something to eat with a great view of the loch ahead of us. Soon we were joined by a couple of walkers and chatted for about 20 minutes about our love of the hills and they even found my snow basket which fell off one of my brand new poles on the way up. After they left we finished our lunch and headed down the hill, which wasn`t steep at all and caught up with them again and walked them back to the cars.

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2019593

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200520974417267&set=oa.378945675545658&type=1&theater

[pollyh33]

Nice one Tommy!

Great to see you’re out and about on hills again. That’s nearly a year since we had our roasty toasty day on Bynack More! Hopefully see you soon but if not I’ll see you and Jim at the bothy in May- yippee!

[Mountainlove]

That sounds like a lovely wee walk! Sometimes it is hard to let go of the Munro madness and climb some easier hills So well done

[tomyboy73]

Nice one Tommy!

Great to see you’re out and about on hills again. That’s nearly a year since we had our roasty toasty day on Bynack More! Hopefully see you soon but if not I’ll see you and Jim at the bothy in May- yippee!

Cheers P, i know can`t believe thats nearly a year since we went out Yeah can`t wait till May, hope we get the weather

That sounds like a lovely wee walk! Sometimes it is hard to let go of the Munro madness and climb some easier hills So well done

Cheers M, Its a great wee hill for views, which we didn`t get much of but did it before on a summers night

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11335

[lomondwalkers]

Nice one Tommy, I've lost count of how many times I've been up there, it's a bit of a slog up Beinn Dubh, but sure is worth it for the views