free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Alex and I set off as usual from Stevenston at 07.00 the weather looked promising so we headed for Killin. Our intention was to do the 2 hills we had outstanding in the area, Beinn-Heasgarnich and Creag Mhor. I downloaded the route from Walkhighlands on to the new toy a Garmin E Trex 30 so we could see how it worked. We took bikes with us so we could cycle into the start of the walk to save the trudge along the road from Kennock Farm, saved a fair bit of time.
When we arrived at the point on the road where the walk ends we locked the bikes and headed off towards Beinn Heasgarnich, the E trex done it's job beeping along the route every time we passed a waypoint. We did learn however that following peoples footprints in the snow and checking them off against the E Trex while the scale was set at 100 yards wasn't the best way to follow the route. We appeared to be following the route exactly until I zoomed in and found out we had actually strayed about 40 yards off the path, so with a quick adjustment and a lesson learned we got back on the path and headed on to the the top of Beinn-Heasgarnich . Due to the snow cover it took us 4 hours to get to the top so we decided rather than continue round to Creag Mhor we'd head back down due to the cloud cover, the time it had taken and the bitter cold wind.
Some of the views on the day were absolutely stunning due to that great mixture of Scottish, Sun, Rain and Snow all in the one day, but the highlights of the day were a Golden Eagle, 2 Stags and a group of 6 Ptarmigans. I dont often load photo's but this wee image of the Ptarmigans merits a wee look.
