Glas Maol and Creag Leacach
Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 7:58 pmHad these two on my to-do list after seeing another walk report on these two. So today, with the forecast while not looking great but good enough and a dog who was driving me mad wanting a good walk, we set off. The plus side to these two, I could scan the hillsides for sheep and seeing none, the dogs could just be left off-lead. The parking area is easy to find just before the ski centre (coming from the South) and the track up clear to see. Up we headed amongst the ski lifts , ski fences, ski runs...following the track in pretty much a straight line heading towards Glas Maol.
The summits weren't looking promising, both of them shrouded in cloud but we kept on going up and up until we passed the end of the ski lift and onto a grassier track heading towards the slopes of Glas Maol. The path was steeper than it looked from a distance, but we headed on up and were soon on the summit plateau. For a moment the summit was in sight, and then it vanished!
And it stayed that way for the dogs summit photo...Munro 18 for Millie, Dottie and myself and 13 for Moss.
The dogs had a play around not far from the summit, and then tried to find the path we should be on to head to our next target which in the poor visibility wasn't easy, but for the first time I actually got to test out my Viewranger and sure enough it got us onto the path! I was actually tempted to just turn back, the wind was pretty strong and we'd be walking almost straight into the wind but we just kept going.
It wasn't the clearest path to follow, but the cloud vanished and our next target came into sight including a marker cairn and the wall, so we just headed towards that.
From there it was a case of following the wall to the summit (cutting off a corner on the way)!
Though there was a couple of pauses for some wall-agility with the dogs jumping over sections of the wall that were free of rusty old wire!
It was getting windier as we went up, so there was just time for a quick summit photo before heading back. On the way up I spotted a path across softer boggy ground, so we dropped a bit lower down and found that path that was a bit easier on the dogs paws and a bit easier for Moss, who didn't seem overly confident on the bouldery bit even with big sis there.
It was getting windier and winder as we descended and at the cairn took the path to the left to head back down, and it was getting darker, so we didn't hang around much and made it back to the car after 3 hours 40 minutes walking! Just as we made it back to the car, it started raining so perfect timing. Dogs well exercised, two more Munro's and overall a good Sunday afternoon walk!
The summits weren't looking promising, both of them shrouded in cloud but we kept on going up and up until we passed the end of the ski lift and onto a grassier track heading towards the slopes of Glas Maol. The path was steeper than it looked from a distance, but we headed on up and were soon on the summit plateau. For a moment the summit was in sight, and then it vanished!
- Hey, where'd the summit go?
And it stayed that way for the dogs summit photo...Munro 18 for Millie, Dottie and myself and 13 for Moss.
The dogs had a play around not far from the summit, and then tried to find the path we should be on to head to our next target which in the poor visibility wasn't easy, but for the first time I actually got to test out my Viewranger and sure enough it got us onto the path! I was actually tempted to just turn back, the wind was pretty strong and we'd be walking almost straight into the wind but we just kept going.
- Summit playtime
It wasn't the clearest path to follow, but the cloud vanished and our next target came into sight including a marker cairn and the wall, so we just headed towards that.
From there it was a case of following the wall to the summit (cutting off a corner on the way)!
Though there was a couple of pauses for some wall-agility with the dogs jumping over sections of the wall that were free of rusty old wire!
It was getting windier as we went up, so there was just time for a quick summit photo before heading back. On the way up I spotted a path across softer boggy ground, so we dropped a bit lower down and found that path that was a bit easier on the dogs paws and a bit easier for Moss, who didn't seem overly confident on the bouldery bit even with big sis there.
It was getting windier and winder as we descended and at the cairn took the path to the left to head back down, and it was getting darker, so we didn't hang around much and made it back to the car after 3 hours 40 minutes walking! Just as we made it back to the car, it started raining so perfect timing. Dogs well exercised, two more Munro's and overall a good Sunday afternoon walk!