Three Munros to relax

[zatapathique]

This tale of three Munros is quickly told. After having done 10 Munros in the previous two days, my feet begged for a shorter distance. Carn Aosda, Carn a' Gheoidh and The Cairnwell were the obvious choice, with a high altitude start at 650 m, and not even 14 km distance.
Like most if not all skiing areas, Glenshee ski centre leaves the mountains with ugly scars, but good and broad paths in the summer.
By these, I reached the windy top of Carn Aosda in only 45 minutes. From there, the scenery improved with a beautiful view of Loch Vrotachan and An Socach behind it.

Loch Vrotachan, An Socach in the background

Animal life was abundant, and on my way towards Carn a' Gheoidh, I came quite close to these two little fellows:

Ptarmigan

So cute...

The walk along Creag a' Choire Dhirich with its two little Lochans and past Carn nan Sac was peaceful, protected from the wind, and with ever improving scenery.

Loch Vrotachan, Carn Aosda to the far right

The final ascent to Carn a' Gheoidh was the only section worth of qualifying as a "mountain walk", and with my tired legs I was happy to arrive at the top, which was again very windy - for my taste. The elder lady who had arrived at the top before me dismissed it as "just a wee breeze".
The way back to elevation 808 on the map was without event before the next more interesting section, the walk along the steep southwest slopes of the 873 m summit on a narrow path.

Looking back to Carn nan Sac, Carn a' Gheoidh in the background

The path below summit 873

Behind that, large paths again up to the summit of The Cairnwell, the most ugly Munro so far with all the decrepit buildings and structures on the top.

Instead of going down the slopes the directly way to the parking, as suggested by the Webster's guide, I took the long way home to save my legs the steep descent.

The Cairnwell and its "beautiful" summit structures

Looking down towards Glenshee

I was back at the car early enough to do some sightseeing in Braemar, where, almost inevitably, I ran into Bertrand the Belgium (name changed, see previous walks) again and we had dinner together to refuel for the following day.

Altitude profile created with GPS-Track-Analyse.NET