Two Cairngorm Munros and the Boggy Bog

[mrssanta]

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here is a link to the previous day's walk up carn a'Mhaim. http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67641
We camped near Derry Lodge which gives a long night at this time of year. We had a really good long sleep and woke up ready to tackle two of the less famous Cairngorm Munros with the famous Bog between.
This was promised to be quiet weather with possible sunshine and high cloud so we were looking forward to great views and we were not disappointed. We even got to walk in our shirtsleeves!
We had a leisurely breakfast and set off from our camp site at 9.40am taking the right of way up the East side of Glen Derry all the way to the Lairig an Laoigh. We decided to do this walk clockwise which is the opposite of the WH recommended route. For starters we thought it would be disappointing if we were unable to cross the Glas-allt-mor at the end of the day. Secondly we thought a long walk-in was psychologically more betterer than a long walk-out. And also it would save us having to worry about finding the "unobtrusive" path up to Beinn Bhreac from Glen Derry.
The path up Glen Derry climbs fairly quickly up away from the valley floor giving lovely views over the regenerating pinewoods. After a while it rejoins the valley floor where there is a bridge across the Derry Burn allowing a return down the other side of the glen for anyone who might wish.

Sgurr an Lochan Uaine, Stob Coire Etchachan, and Beinn Mheadhoin from Glen Derry

a wee puff of early mist

bridge and path down the other side

The views up the glen to Bheinn Mheadhoin and then opening up into Corrie Etchachan are fantastic. The summit of the Lairig an Laoigh at 740m means there is only a 100m or so of steep climb onto the gentler slopes of Beinn a'chaorainn and you are just about there!

upper Glen Derry

and another

yet another

no trouble crossing Glas Allt Mor

Coire Etchachan with the Hutchison Hut in the middle

First Lunch just before the top of the pass

Looking north from the Lairig an Laoigh

Looking over Coire Etchachan to Sron Riach and the cliffs of Coire Sputan Dearg and Beinn Macdhui behind. Fab

We had a long stop at the top of this Munro to brew up a hot drink and have second lunch. Having failed to get the water boiling on the gas yesterday we brought the liquid fuel stove this time and a cuppa was made in no time.

Rudolph on the top of Beinn a'Chaorainn, views to the north as far as the Moray Firth I thought I saw.

can't beat a nice cup of tea!

From the summit we could see the Boggy Bog we had to cross (Moine Bhealaidh) a large flat area with peat hags and shining with wetness! We could see a lochan about 1.5km south west of the summit and there looked like a decent place to cross the headwaters of the Glas Allt Mor a little upstream of this, then onto some drier looking ground just to the east of the highest part of the moss.

To Beinn Bhreac across the Moss. We are aiming to cross the burn just off the left hand side of the picture and keep to the yellow grass as much as possible

crossing the Glas Allt Mor again

As it happened we came across a path which took us about half way and then we were onto tussocks and flat brown peat. We have crossed worse bogs, but it probably helped that there had been quite a long dry spell before the recent rain, as the peat was firm and could be walked upon. All the advice I would give would be keep to the east as most of the awful hags are on the west side of the moss.

this was about as bad as it got. Quite manageable really

Beinn a'Bhuird. That's the one Rudolph has climbed but I haven't.

The East Top of Beinn Bhreac is the higher, and it has a sneaky wee false summit and a strange cairn with a fence pole loosely stuck in the top.

sneaky false top on the right. proper top straight ahead

Lochnagar. The weather starting to get a bit hazy now.

me on the top of Beinn Bhreac

and Rudolph

We didn't linger long on this summit but set off on a bearing initially, aiming for the strange ring contour at 054961 which marks the watershed between the east and the west side of the hill.

Beinn a'Ghlo

Strange feature at the watershed and the start of the path down to Glen Derry. If there was a path from the summit to this point we didn't find it.

From this point the very wet path is easily found which squelches its way over the grass, down hill nice and gently into the woods and back to the Glen Derry path.
The WH route description describes an "unobtrusive" cairn at the bottom of this path. On our outward journey it was there but on our way back it looked like someone had knocked it over, so we rebuilt it.

lovely sunset through the trees

Returning to the tent we were treated to a brief but beautiful sunset while eating our tea. And so to bed for another 12 hour sleep.

[mrssanta]

and a few more pics of plants and other interesting things we saw

map lichen on a rock

fruiting body of something wierd and fungal I think, on the path

club moss with some "flowers" or the closest a moss has to them anyway

the Happy Mug - Sadly Rudolph forgot his and had to purchase an inferior and less cheerful item in a local hardware shop. His coffee did stay hot though!

matchstick lichen

some rather wonderful slime.

the rebuilt cairn. was a bit shoogly and may well have fallen over.

some rowan berries lying randomly on the path. we saw quite a lot of these, but no rowan trees anywhere. So we are hoping that in a few years there will be rowans growing here as well as pines.

.