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So after last weeks excellent walk at lochearnhead Rick and I agreed to meet up this morning at Inverarnan to tackle Beinn Chabhair. All was going to plan with a coordinated arrival at the Drovers Inn succesfully completed at 0915 and the rain holding off (MWIS and BBC News 24 were promising some sunshine of sorts through the day - lawsuit to follow for false advertising!!), however this "operating to plan" did not last very long at all. As per the WH walk report we attempted to go round the field to avoid going directly through the campsite at Beinglas Farm. We walked along the edge of the field and then found the path had turned into a substantial burn! A little back tracking followed until we eventually found a fairly narrow part of the burn and jumped across. We then missed the stile and started heading along the west highland way for a bit. Second back track of the day and it was only 20 minutes since we had started walking. Next mistake was to try and head up the right side of the burn which resulted in the third back track of the day. Had we known at this point that the day was to be scattered with little back tracks here and there and one big one at the summit I suspect the white flag would have been raised followed by a return to the Drover's inn for a hearty breakfast!
Anyway we finally got going up the climb which although absolutely stunning with the burn in full flow was very strenuous with difficult conditions under foot.
The next part of the walk across the boggy moorland was a complete nightmare. It was so difficult to stay on the path which had been badly broken up by the heavy rain in recent days and the walking conditions required full attention all the way. Even so we lost the path a number of times. We finally turned off north on the path which climbs up to the ridge west of Meall nan Tarmachan. At this point I was completely knackered and felt as if I should have already climbed 2 munros!! Rick (the Mountain Goat) seemed none the worse for the tough conditions and in fact I pretty much only saw the back of his head from a distance for most of the climb
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We finally reached the summit at approx 1.10pm, took a quick photo (thanks to very obliging French guy who seemed to be wandering about aimlessly in the mist) and started to head back down. (cloud cover was heavy so there was really no point hanging around up there). After approx 200 metres of the descent we bumped into an older couple - probably in their 70's- who we had met in the car park. We stopped to have a chat. The old gent then hit us with the sucker punch!! " there are 2 cairns and the summit is the second one further on" Well Rick and I couldn't remember seeing two cairns! After a bit of debate and some cursing we decided no option but to head back up...we did threaten the old chap (in a good humoured way) with serious harm if he had got it wrong
So up we climbed again - see walk route! - and low and behold what did we find about 50 metres before the summit but the first smaller cairn which we had walked right past without noticing the first time. I have decided that although good natured and well meaning, neither Rick nor I are the sharpest tacks in the box!!!
Now as far as the walk down goes all I'm going to say is that you have to expect tall people to fall once in a while! Actually I only hit the dirt (boggy ground) twice (using poles) versus Rick once (no poles). The issue being that when I go down it is usually spectacular. Rick certainly enjoyed my fall.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7REqsTmUfQ[/youtube]
We finally made it back to the Drovers at around 4pm where we had a well earned drink!
- looking up from the car park
- first glimpse of Beinn Chabhair
- spectacular falls
- Rubygirl in a usual pose
- yes it was the summit - we hope!
- back down - think Ruby wants a pint!
