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With an initially poor forecast and the weekend before we're away for a fortnight tramping amongst the wet and cold hills, it seemed reasonable to cut some slack and do 3 easy hills over the weekend. Beinn Dubh was the one remaining of the Luss Hills; Meall Odhar by Tyndrum was one I'd done but Allison needed to play catch up with; Creag Garbh was a last minute idea out of the handful of Grahams we have left around that area. I also fancied a campsite where we could pitch and stay for more than one overnight, rather than more wild camping, tbh. So Strathfillan Wigwams would meet the needs on that score.
For some reason I had it in my head that Beinn Dubh was longer than it is - hence we left early at 7.45, arriving at Luss around 9am and parking by the Village Shop - no charges at this time of year. Over the A82 on the wooden bridge by the school and onto boggy hillside (this would be something of a theme for the weekend). A clear path ascends over the back of Beinn Dubh giving an easy gradient to the summit. We were passed by a couple of hill runners who turned back at the muddy summit - not the Graham, of course - that's the 657m blip further round the circuit. Weather clearing, but windy high up. We continued on, dropping to 600m before easily climbing again to the small summit cairn and onwards over Mid Hill. It was only just after 11am and we were starting to descend! We continued on the loop descending the SE shoulder of Mid Hill which returned us at the place we'd parked a few weeks ago when climbing the other 3 hills up Glen Mollochan. Today we walked back down the road, stopping to have lunch in a clump of trees off to the right. Back at the car before 1pm. What would we do now???
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Al, on Flickr
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Drove up to the Wigwams before Tyndrum and happily it was dry and bright when we pitched the tent. Decided we needed to walk a bit more and with no kit/map set off to follow the Sheep Trail path from the Wigwams. However we got a bit lost as the waymarked poles ran out and there looked to be a sizeable river to cross - we were wearing trainers - so we decided to climb up the hillside a bit instead. One of those occasions where the summit is always just over the next rise. However on this occasion it turned out that we were actually walking up Beinn Challuim - that was a bit more than either of us had in mind
It looked like rain was on the way too, so we headed back and enjoyed an afternoon beer before making our evening meal in the cookroom and turning in as the rain had started. And it did rain - lashing down all night. Around 9pm a couple of guys turned up and had to pitch their single person tents in the heavy rain - not the most fun.
Just like last weekend, a night of rain at ground level meant snow on the hills. Yesterday there had been no sign of snow on all but the highest peaks - now everything was white above 300m. Great! We had a leisurely start, waiting for the rain to stop as much as anything, drove the 2 miles to Tyndrum and set off along the railway tracks to Meall Odhar. Into the trees and onto the scree from the lead mines - we met the snow about halfway up. To Sron nan Colan, heavy snow now falling around us. A wet crossing of the ground beyond, the wind whipping up drifts as we stumbled towards Drochaid an Droma, where we paused to have lunch, using the bothy bag. Then we skirted the coire edge and made for the summit of Meall Odhar. I had hoped to include the southern summit of Beinn Chuirn in the route but on a day like this with poor visibility that wasn't going to happen. So we headed down to the SE, making for a fire break in the plantation and thence to the track at Cononish, back to Tyndrum by 3.15pm. Another early finish! We dried off at teh Wigwams and had some chili which improved the inner feelings. Another night of intermittent rain, colder than the night before too.
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Al, on Flickr
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I had been trying to work out a route for next week taking in some of our remaining hills in a logical manner, leaving nearish-by ones for other weekends. We had 2 hills south of Loch Tay to tackle - Shee of Ardtalnaig and Creag Garbh. I thought if we did the nearer today- Creag Garbh, we could start our next-week adventure on the Shee before driving up the A9 to exotic locations around Dalwhinnie. So we packed up a soggy tent and headed along the road. The South shore road was rather busier than I had expected, we got to Ardeonaig and parked just at the start of the minor road that the route heads up, beside a post box, where there's room for one car.
Rain was coming down lightly as we set off, but it felt milder - on account of the lack of wind. We passed the Adventure Activities centre and continued along the Rob Roy Way - the track becoming increasingly sketchy and wet as we progressed, but allowing height to be gained steadily and easily. As we climbed the visibility shrunk to little but whiteness. We met a large pipeline and joined a good track which led round to the south of Meall Odhar (Simm). We paused for lunch in the heavy snow before climbing a mere 70m to the summit of Meall Odhar in thick snow/heather tussocks. From here we had a short traverse on boggy/snowy ground to reach the bottom of the rise that leads to Creag Garbh summit. Not much height lost - we came across the summit trig - white on a field of white.
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From here it was a matter of dropping down to the NE and making for Stuc Mhor. Easy, but for the zero visibility and the presence of peat hags, which made navigating an invigorating challenge. But we got there eventually and slid downhill to rejoin our outward route. I'm told the views from these hills are fine, but will need another visit to experience that. Back at the car before 3pm and down the road at a reasonable hour.
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Al, on Flickr
