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A favourable forecast over the weekend was too good to miss and with one of the trio unavaiable we were down to a duo. George flew west to Canada just before the weekend so I looked at Parminders red balloons and thought it would be a good idea to tackle the Creag Pitridh 3 - using bikes. I suggested this to Parminder and as much as he has been loving painting and decorating he jumped at the chance and 'volunteered' to drive, which was handy as he has a fancy bike rack that he attaches on his boot. I calculated that using bikes would save well over an hour time wise, as the track that takes you to Lochan na h-Earba is about 3 miles which is just about one hours walking.
The plan was for Parminder to uplift me at 7am, we would breakfast at Broxden (as usual) and we were off on our bikes just before 9.30. My main concern was the amount of daylight hours but I kind of guessed we would be back at the car in plenty of time, especially as we were saving time by using bikes.
The cycle in was a bit tougher than expected mainly because we were cycling into a strong breeze, once over the bridge at the end of the lochan the path starts to climb a bit too much for us non cyclists, so we dumped the bikes and the walking began.
Good track with our first hill Beinn a'Chaorainn in the far distance
Plenty of stuff for tracks/roads
One of the slight inclines, tough enough for us non cyclists but with the wind in your face - time to dismount
Bridge at the end of the loch, water level much higher than I expected
Looking down the lochan
Bikes parked/dumped in a slight hollow
Lochan again basking in the sun
Another shot, different angle
Not exactly a tricky crossing
Low level shot to the west
No path, headed up the shoulder towards the ridge
Looking back
Looking NW, not a cloud in the sky
Looking across to the summit, not much ascending left now
A couple of well fed locals, waiting for the white stuff to arrive
Summit again with a few walkers heading our way
[img]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4816/45203634304_3ca6739ad4_k.jpg[/img
NW from on high
Beinn a'Chaorrainn looking impressive
Video taken on the summit of Beinn a'Chlachair
One of my latest crazes is taking a panoramic video on or near each summit using my phone. One of the benefits of a video is that sound is also available, having said that the only sound is usually the wind and as we know that is a fairly constant and only varies in strength.. Obviously I won't be taking videos if the view is only of 50 shades of grey.
Parminder did comment on how 'bouldery' these hills are and he thought they were the worst to date!
From the summit of Beinn a'Chlachair we headed east along the broad ridge towards the very distant summit of Geal Charn, the path kind of disappears and appears. It wasn't too long before we started the steep descent, we were fortunate in that we knew exactly we were heading as we could see the uphill path on the other side of the bealach.
Just before we started the descent I had to be quick with my phone and try and catch a Brocken Spectre, there was only a tiny cloud passing through so I only managed 2 photos
2nd photo
Nice lochan
Shadow on the lower slopes of Geal Charn
Parminder taking in the views
Looking east during the descent
Summit of Geal Charn in the distance
Northish
Geal Charn summit trig, was a very busy summit about 10 other folk up there
Video taken on the summit of Geal Charn, panarama was limited so as not to catch the other walkers
Bit of a bogfest over that way, so we avoided it
Parminder looking like he is on top of the world
Looking west
Long shadows and plenty of lochs
Northish
North westish
West north west
The final video on the summit of Creag Pitridh, was a tad blowy
The descent off Creag Pitridh was just a matter of heading down the grassy slopes, trying avoid the boggy areas, we could see the track in the distance. Great care was taken, as amongst the long grass were rocks and holes.
Sun starting to set, time to get a wiggle on
Low level shot after uplifting our bikes
Final photo and an arty one
This turned out to be a fantastic day and the weather turned out to be nothing like the forecast of fog and low cloud. Huge thanks to Parminder for driving and assembling his bike carrying contraption on his boot.
