A prickly time on Mount Eagle

[Alfachick]

Due to the snow locking me out from the higher hills still, I decided that I would go out to the black isle to bag its only hill and a few trig points that I might pass along the way.

Not really a very exciting day but a day spent mostly outside so thats always a bonus. I thought that this hill was going to be nice and easy track straight to the top perhaps a small walk into the plantation woods to get to the top and the trig....

our_route.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Well I was mostly right. There was a track pretty much all the way to the top and there was a short walk through the plantation woods to get to the trig at the top. However.... The plantation around the trig is only a few years old, and that means that the trees are REALLY close together, almost impenetrable. There was a bout 80m of this to go through in what I hoped was the correct direction to hit the trig point. Gladness yes I can see it! I can see a mound with a trig on it hurrah.... surrounded by dense gorse! Nooooooooooo.

Well whats the point in coming this far if a little bit of gorse is going to put you off? None, so I battled through it. Thankfully (?) my legs were so cold by this point that I couldn't really feel the scratches and pricks and I made it to the top with most of my blood still in my body.

Touched the trig had a look around at, well the trees... And then figured that I had better go back as it was now starting to snow, wonderful.

So back through the gorse thicket into the trees, I did manage to find a track of sorts on the way out of the dense new plantation trees.... Back onto the track proper and a quick jaunt back to the car. Another blue balloon, but at what cost! Once my legs started to defrost I definitely noticed all the scratches and pricks. I think I need my head examined!

Forestry track almost all the way to the top.

This is the kind of stuff you have to bushwhack through to get to the next level...gorse.

Trig surrounded by gorse.

Cor what a view....

[PeteR]

So, not a hill to do in shorts then

[Alfachick]

Uh no, I think you have to be pretty "keen" to get to the top of some of these smaller hills you know.

[Sgurr]

Think it has got EVEN WORSE since we did it. We did have the bonus of meeting a woman stuck at the top in her car, as she was going to meet up with her husband after a while, having given him a start on his bike. They were then going to put the bike on the rack and drive back to Alness.......except that he had the car keys in his pocket. We promised to stop any bike we saw on the way back.....but we didn't. We left her with an energy bar and the hopes that he would realise what he had done before he got home. Then he would have to bike all the way uphill again, wouldn't he?

[Alfachick]

Think it has got EVEN WORSE since we did it.

I read your report as part of my research for this hill and I think yes the trees around the top have grown up a lot and are much harder to get through.

I wonder what happened with that couple and the bike and the car keys?

[gld73]

Your report was timely thanks, I was thinking of heading out to do this hill tomorrow afternoon - think I might aim for somewhere a bit less scratchy instead now