Geal Charn (Monadhliath)

[Kenny Monaghan]

A 3 hour drive to get to the start point for Geal Charn had us hoping for a good walk and some decent views, and it was to be Johnnys 100th Munro. This hill offered neither, it was a bog almost all the way this was made worse by the clouds appearing to be parked on the summit so we never got to see the views. From the start it looked ok a road then an ATV track, but almost as soon as we left the road to join the path we were walking in boggy conditions, we did see a herd of stags which had me thinking this could be a good one for wildlife, but other than the deer we saw a grouse and a raven. It was a walk we had been leaving for a day when we needed a short quick walk, so it served it's purpose from that point of view. Definitely a walk for gaiters, we ended leaving the path that followed the river due to the amount of water on the path, my advice to anyone doing this hill is, leave it till either a decent dry spell or a good frosty or snowy day.

[Doginabog]

Short and to the point - a little like this mountain! Just a quick update - there are major building works going on at the Spey Dam and up towards the military road to build a new electricity sub station. We were advised by a workman (who admitted he'd rather have been joining us a for a hike!) that there's a security check point not far up the Glen Markie route. He wasn't sure that the track would welcome walkers due to the massive trucks rumbling up and down. We decided it'd be safer to tackle the Garva Bridge route.

Oh - and saw a Golden Eagle hunting fish near the dam - boost!

Happy walking!