Return of The Mac !

[tomyboy73]

I couldn`t wait for this day to come and it was perfect. Hadn`t been out for two months and was getting really itchy feet. But on a wet sunday morning walk in Eaglesham with my mate Tam Mac, who got me into hillwalking & who hadn`t been out with us for god knows how, long we decided on walking up The pap of Glencoe. A bit of a random stab but that`s what the man wanted to do. So the date was set, we enlisted Jim (of course) & Tommy from work and fingers were crossed that we`d get decent weather (hahaha). Knowing that it was a long drive for a small hill we were really banking on the weather gods being kind to us.
It was to be a fairly late start and headed from Glasgow at 8 am, arriving in Glencoe about tennish. From the outset we could tell it was going to be a great day. The sky was blue, the car was fast and the banter had started early. Excitement was high and we were like a bunch of kids on a school trip as we ooh`d & ahh`d at the white tops of Ben Lomond, Ben Vorlich, the Crianlarich hills & Ben Lui.

Ben Lui (taken at 70mph)

Driving by Criese & Meall a Bhuiridh, which were almost completely covered in snow was great & as I secretely wished we could go up a Munro, it was pretty obvious winter was here & a fine 5 months of it lay ahead. But we stuck to the plan and found the car park for the Pap and got ready to go.
Of course the walk wouldn`t be complete without us going the wrong way somewhere, so we got that bit out the road and headed by the path on to higher ground and long grass before heading back down to the roadside path, and i also left the map here

Pap of Glencoe

We soon found the gate leading to the Pap, and were met by a few locals.

Jim & a cow

The path pretty much leads you all the way up & the higher we got the views just got better.

Nearing the summit

As we approached the summit `mound` the ground did get a bit boggy , with a few wee lochans and some small rocky bits to clamber over.
Tommy and myself waited here for the two old yins to catch up and met a guy on his way back down, we joked with him to tell the other two to hurry up but when they arrived he had turned the joke around on us, Tam asking if we were alright because the guy had said that we looked knackered !
We argued with them that they were bullshitting, and eventually gave in thinking the guy would be walking down with a wry smile on his face
We walked up and round the back way instead of scrammbling up, we didn`t notice the cairns marking the ways off the path until the way down. There was a bit of snow lying around and Tam pulled a sneaky by getting us all to stop just before the final ten metres to look along Loch Leven, whilst he nipped up on top first !

Summit pic

Tam`s 1980`s track top

Loch Leven

Loch Leven & Loch Linnhe

We hung around on top for a while just taking in the views and enjoying the sunshine, found a couple of memorials to people`s loved ones and just loved being there to be honest.
Tam headed off the top first for fear of slowing us down, (just scared of falling in front of us ) , but we soon caught up with him and had some great banter between uss all on the way down the hill. We passed a couple of small groups on their way up and we wondered if they`d be down to catch the sunset.

Stob Coire nan Lochan

Jim catching me unawares on the way down, great picture

Cow has a go at Tam

Once back down and into the car we headed into the Clachaig for a quick pint & then to the Kingshouse for dinner.

Feeding time

Here, one deer fed out of my hands, chocolate raisins too hard to resist.
All in all it was great to back on the hills and a day I`ll remember for a long time not just for the hill or the conditions but the craic on the day between us especially Tommy & Tam, who had me in tears all the way home. I haven`t laughed so much in a long time, thanks to all 3 of you.

link to Jim`s everytrail route & more pictures
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2403713

[jogilv16]

the weather was great banter superb,and great to get the mac back out,,,,and the views were superb.well put together tommy.