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Jaxter out on her own again….

Jaxter out on her own again….


Postby Jaxter » Mon Dec 03, 2018 1:45 pm

Munros included on this walk: Ben Vorlich (Loch Lomond)

Date walked: 20/10/2013

Time taken: 6 hours

Distance: 10 km

Ascent: 1200m

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After the “success” of my previous solo venture, I found a free day and decided to take advantage of it! The forecast was awful; it was the tail end of a storm, but it was my only free day and I was determined. So off I went on the train to Ardlui :crazy:


To begin with, the weather wasn’t actually that awful. As I found my way under the railway bridge (fortunately signposted) and headed uphill there was even a bit of sun and some views 8)
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Due to my lack of car, I was climbing Ben Vorlich from the “wrong” side, a path less travelled than the usual route past Sloy dam. But I figured I was equal to a challenge and was by no means new to hillwalking!

About 40 minutes in I required waterproofs. Not unexpected so it didn’t dampen my enjoyment.... :roll: :lol:

The sun was really trying…
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…but Scottish weather was fighting back…hard…
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Continuing up, the weather got steadily worse and before long I was enjoying the inside of a cloud. The views were not impressive :roll:
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Mostly it was a case of going up, but towards the top I found myself somewhat confused due to the double summit…I must have gone slightly off course, or pointed myself in the wrong direction. But after a bit of trial and error, I found a summit cairn (as it turns out the other one is the real summit anyway :lol: )
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I had carried myself up a flask of tea so tried to ‘enjoy’ it, fortunately the lid was on when it blew off the cairn! Mingin weather meant that I didn’t hang around too long.
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A route suggestion had been to come down a slightly different way – hurray I hate out-and-backs – and come over Little Hills before heading back towards Ardlui. I enjoyed some water features on the way
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However….something didn’t go right. When I came out of the gloom I could tell that I wasn’t quite heading in the right direction!
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Deciding that my best course of action was just to head for the road, I bashed my way through forest, bog, fences and all manner of other things and reached a railway bridge which allowed me to pinpoint my location – about 4 miles south of Ardlui...


I decided that jumping onto the train from the bridge probably wasn’t wise…
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…so set off along the road at a quick march so I would make the train home.

Making my way through the roadworks at Pulpit Rock I stopped to chat to a lovely Irish road worker who promptly offered me a lift through the roadworks and then insisted on driving me all the way to Ardlui, saving me around an hours walk! My faith in humanity restored, I had a cup of tea in the bar before catching the train back to civilisation 8)
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Jaxter
Wanderer
 
Posts: 1486
Munros:229   Corbetts:152
Fionas:106   Donalds:49+13
Sub 2000:160   Hewitts:69
Wainwrights:81   Islands:40
Joined: Aug 8, 2011
Location: Glasgow/Inverness

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