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Met GordonC & Trevor at the S Ballachulish hotel and we transited to Druimnavuic in Gordon's car.
We drove past the end of the track as a gate had been installed since the GE images had been taken, which confused us. Found the layby to park up near the gate.
- Start of the Alt Buidhe track at Drumnavuic
There were two gates on the track which had a side-gates fit to hold back elephants according to GordonC ! There were certainly the most substantial that I'd ever come across. Probably installed by the contractors who had constructed the Hydro system on the Alt Buidhe. The track had obiously been improved recently with fresh material.
- Loch Creran from the Druimnavaic track
GordonC and Trevor diverted from the track at the arrow marker and cairn to strike off up the ridge towards Beinn Sgulaird - their objective for the day.
I coninued up the track in the blazing sun passed the wee dam and into the back of the corrie. The new track diverted up the north slope at the back of the corrie to reach the bealach, so I struck off up to the ridge of Craig na Cathaig. This turned me into a greasy spot as I toiled up the slope under the blazing sun. Once on the ridge, it was a bit knobbly until the descent into the notch before the main haul up onto the summit ridge of Creach Bheinn. I was glad to see the summit trig ! Tried tob see if G & T had reached to top of Sgulaird, but I'd ditched my binos's to save weight, so couldn't see any sign of them.
- Beinn Sgulaird from the Creach Bheinn ridge
There was a welcome cooling breeze on the top so I sat and soaked in the views across to the Etive hills and down towards the Firth of Lorn. There had been no early morning cloud so the atmosphere was really clear.
- Creach Bheiin summit
- Trig point erosion on Creach Bheinn
- Firth of Lorn from the top of Creach Bheinn
I decided to descend via Meall Garbh to reduce the distance back, so traversed over to find a route down. I threaded a route down through the crags on the east side of the burn that descended to the hydro dam. Half way down the rib, I spotted G & T descending the ridge opposite from Sgulaird. This looked like synchronised arrivals, so I continued down until I hit some tussocky stuff fairly low down. By now I'd only limited control over my aged legs and couped over a couple of times, rolling around like a feeding crocodile. However, I used my judo training from many years ago to ease contact with the ground. On reaching the dam, I decided to refill my water bottle which had acquires some silt from it's last burn filling. As I stooped down fill the bottle my phone, spare battery and glasses slipped out of my unbuttoned top shirt pocket and dropped into the water. I can testify to Samsung that it's phone does indeed survive a a dookin' ! I recovered the offending items and laid them out on the dam wall to dry out in the sun after mopping the surface water with my snotty hanky..
Trogged down the track to G & T's kick-off point and was surprised they weren't waiting for me after all my shenanagins at the dam.
I laid down beside the hydro surge shaft next to the track, knowing that they wouldn't be long, as I could see a pair of ravens in mobbing mode above the ridge in that direction. Soon they kicked me awake and we proceded down to the car. They had had a strenuous day out too, so we were glad to get back to base for a beer.
