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I left the youth hostel well in time for the 9.30-ish train to Tulloch, so I could look back at Loch Ossian frequently.
- The youth hostel, Loch Ossian and Ben Alder hills
On the platform I got chatting to a lady whose friends were on an expedition on horsebacks to Newtonmore. They had stayed at the station lodge last night. It was very interesting to hear what was involved with an adventure like that.
A fantastic train journey back to Tulloch and then onwards in the car to Garva Bridge. A short walking day today as I had something more substantial planned for the following days.
I parked next to the General Wade’s beautiful bridge across the river Spey.
- General Wade's bridge
The route goes over the bridge, then along the river across another more modern bridge. Next over a low fence into a field following the Feith Talagain, reaching the moorland fairly quickly. The path climbed higher up, away from the river. It was fairly dry underfoot, but there were still signs of it having been pretty boggy: lots of paths going off to the left and right over the heather, coming back to the main path after a couple of yards.
The weather was ideal for hillwalking, a bit of cloud, a bit of sun, a nice breeze. Geal Charn looked cloud free, so far so good! If it was going to stay like this, I quite fancied continuing to Beinn Sgiath and descending along its south west ridge.
Higher up the path gets closer to the river again. Very pleasant. Where the Allt Coire nan Dearcag joins the river it was time for the real ascent. Crossing the allt was easy, finding the path on the other side was not so easy. Never mind. The hillside wasn’t too steep and I made steady progress. At roughly 650m I stumbled across a path, which made the walking a bit easier. The summit plateau is pretty featureless. In poor visibility it would be easy enough to look in the wrong places for the cairn.
- Hard to miss when visibility is good!
The summit is roughly 500 meters further to the northeast, across a slight dip which doesn’t show on the Landranger map. There is also a multitude of paths/ trails striking off in different directions and crossing back to each other, potentially adding to the confusion. Luckily visibility was good and I could see the cairn. It’s of a good size!
- Summit Geal Charn
- Looking back towards the south west
But it was all to change very quickly. I had only just got to the cairn, taken a few pictures, before the cloud rolled in and everything was grey. So no peeking over the crags to see Lochan a’ Choire and my plan visit Beinn Sgiath was also shelved. Just back the way I came. I took a compass bearing, to avoid getting confused by the paths.
At 700m the clouds had blown over and the views were back again. Ah well.
- Views are back, towards Carn Liath and Stob Poite Coire Ardair
- Looking along the Feith Talagain towards the Carn Liath family
On the way down I managed to stick to the path all the way down to the Allt Coire nan Dearcag. Result!
The weather was perking up and back at the car the sun came out (after a bit of drizzle)!
- Last look up the glen with some rain in the distance
