Sow - an easy balloon

[Fife Flyer]

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The final day of the WH meet usually means try and tackle a hill on the way home The weather forecast in the NW was yet again doom and gloom and looking out of the window, for a change it looked as if the forecast could actually be nearly right. Showers were blowing through and the cloud was low, however a bit further east, in fact much further east it didn't look too bad So I persuaded my walking colleagues from Saturday and a gatecrasher (Jelena) that we could romp up The Sow of Atholl. Not only were we passing the front door, it wouldn't take us long and we may even get some good views
We said our goodbyes to everyone at Aultguish after Jelena had rounded everyone up for a few photo's





Great photo's Jelena, are you sure you don't want to swap camera's?

The drive down to Drummochter was very routine, I was leading the way with Karen following behind. My phone was already in 'Flight mode' and loaded for the walk, as a result I didn't realise Karen had sent me a text suggesting we stop at the "Black Isle Brewery", sincere apologies Karen, it would have been nice to break the journey
The walk up The Sow of Atholl starts from a small parking area on the road to Dalnaspidal Lodge, the next major obstacle is crossing the single track railway, looking left & right to make sure the weekly train isn't approaching If you happen to be walking with an employee of Network Rail you had better be on your best behaviour or else


The Sow clear of cloud

Initially the track takes you SSW then west alongside a man made water feature before heading towards our eventual destination.


Man made water feature


The end of the track

At the end of the track there are various land rover tracks that go in all sorts of directions, we followed the occasional one if it was heading in the right direction - uphill. The majority of the uphill trudge was over damp heathery grass, but as we started above 400m it really wasn't difficult


The view west, the clag had arrived


Looking back


The south & the A9

Just before we reached the clag/drizzle waterproofs were donned, the camera was rucksacked and then we reached the summit cairn. The summit plateau was surprising large as from the A9 it looks more pointy than flattish We didn't hang around on the summit it was just a matter of congratulations and then turning round and heading down.
We arrived back at the cars in just over 2 hours and said our goodbyes to Karen and David The next challenge was to turn right onto the A9 and a challenge it was, the Sunday afternoon traffic was almost non stop
That concludes the Summer WH meet, maybe next year we may even get a summer
A big THANK YOU to Charlie for organising another great gathering, the baton has been passed onto Gill and Tomsie and Torridon here we come

[The Rodmiester]

That's the busiest ive seen the A9, traffic from the Music Festival at Muir of Ord, i was stoped about 15 mins by the police allowing what seemed like hundreds of cars lorries campervans, caravans when I cut off after Contin to my daughters House. Going through Inverness was very slow and that was at the back of one oclock. Fine to get another blue balloon on the way home, as you say an easy one. Another Great weekend, hope your signed up for Torridon

[Grahame37]

I used Dalnasipdal crossing in June and thought it should be noted that it is double track, not single, so trains can approach from either side at the same time. As it is on the Highland Mainline between Perth - Inverness there is a regular passenger service each way along with other workings that are not in the public timetable. Also the line speed is likely to be higher than the A9's 70mph for dual carriageway. Take care crossing (like all crossings of the railway).

Added the Sow on when returning to Dalwhinnie from Beinn Mholach having stayed in Duinish bothy so it was an easy balloon to collect. Descending north meant that I didn't have to use the crossing again and saved a bit of the plod along the A9.