Easy but unspectacular

[Oldman]

Fancied a walk but working to a schedule. Ben Chonzie seemed the best prospect. Although I was up there last year I never saw it as it was in solid cloud, 20 yards visibility, gale force winds and horizontal rain. I thought it would be nicer in the sunshine which the forecast promised. We felt that a nice easy pace with a good stop for lunch at the cairn would keep us easily inside our 5 hour deadline. So off we set at 9AM in cloudy almost calm conditions.

Dull with prospect of some sun

The walking is easy if a little hard on the feet and the views back are quite nice.

Looking back

As we walked the weather got brighter and cloud began to burn off the hills. Just past the dam the track steepens but not all that much - it's the surface that gets a little bit harder on the old feet - I knew I should have worn my other less worn boots!

Just past dam - keep left

At last we got to a little cairn on the left - thank goodness, onto the hill with grass to walk on - soft and cool.

Some decent walking at last

By now the sun was shining and it was getting a bit warm for me. As we progressed up the path we seemed to be heading a bit left - just a gut feeling. We were about to check our position and heading when we saw another walker a couple of hundred yards on our right heading down hill at great pace - clearly he was on another path and heading for the track we had just left but a short distance further on. We cut across to that path and could clearly see the path ahead up to the fence line. We could also see where this path joined the track below.

path down to track

Should we maybe have gone on to a second cairn? Anyway it was all very pleasant and easy and I even made a new friend on the way.

a new friend

Anyway we finally got to the most unspectacular but nice top where daughter insisted on a high five as usual.

High five Oldman

The visibility was very poor in haze (mayby 5 miles or so) as can be seen from the pic of Loch Turrett.

a hazy Loch Turrett

It was very peaceful at the top and we lingered quite a long time and finally headed back down taking exactly the same route because I knew there was a wee burn near the track where I could cool my feet before murdering them again on that rough and rocky path.

that's better

I spent some considerable time with my feet in the water - it was just so good - and then it was back to the car. As the weather really got to heating up, convection got going and the cumulus clouds were sucking up the haze to give better, but not brilliant visibility on our way down and I still had enough enthusiasm to take more pics.

better visibility now!

And so it was back to the car to get the air conditioning on. It took us five hours exactly including two long stops and frequent short stops - a good use of our 5 available hours. In summary a very enjoyable ramble without being anything demanding or spectacular. Nice but no WOW factor!

[mountain coward]

To be honest, in bad weather, gales or whatever, I prefer something unspectacular so I think it was a good choice! Love the socks pic!

[siobhan_flute]

The views would have been better later in the day, I think, but it was a pretty boring walk with little reward at the top! And we only had a fleeting glance of a mountian hare (after seeing no deer at Stuchd an Lochain the previous week too!).

[NickyRannoch]

I know a lot of peope find Ben Chonzie a bit boring but on a crisp clear day with some snow cover I think it makes an excellent winter walk for those of us without too much winter experience with spectacular views to the surrounding hills.

[walk aboot]

Nice report. I too like the toe-dipping photo .

Mountain hares ...knew you'd see at the very least one .

[monty]

I agree its not the hardest munro but all in all a nice walk in reasonable weather.

[walk aboot]

I agree it's a perfectly pleasant walk (um, don't think I've got a least favourite/dull hill...well, okay, maybe Ben Vorlich...although the bowls of soup and huge pots of tea in the Ardlui Hotel do get the ...but the beige carpet in their lounge doesn't ).

[LeithySuburbs]

Nothing wrong with easy . We can't do epics every week.

[fingeez]

Nice report

wondered what the top looked like lol

did this back in march with deep snow and thick cloud as my first Munro (see my report for pics of snow and cloud lol), going to go back and do it with my nephew and sister at some point and hopefully get some nice weather to see the views.