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When is a gate not a gate?

When is a gate not a gate?


Postby Bmg99 » Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:30 pm

Route description: An Caisteal and Beinn a'Chròin, near Crianlarich

Munros included on this walk: An Caisteal, Beinn a' Chròin

Date walked: 20/07/2020

Time taken: 6 hours

Distance: 15.5 km

Ascent: 1249m

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Glasgow Fair Monday is the weather looked ok, so four of us headed to Crianlarich to head up An Caisteal and Beinn a'Chron. After stopping for a coffee at The Drovers Inn we parked up in the lay-by just south of Crianlarich and booted up to head up the hill.

There quite a new looking small gate with one of those big leaver type handles to open it just at the start of the walk and this leads to the path which takes you under the railway.

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The bridge across the river looks rather new as is the Hydro Sub Station just to the right as you cross the bridge.

We headed up the construction road, and the gentle gradient was a nice start to the walk. We soon came across a gate across the road with the a lock on it. However, the wooden fence at the side was easy to climb over. The question was, "Is this the first gate, with another further up the track, or if we count the wee gate at the beginning is this the second gate?" The faint path off to the right looked wet and boggy, so we decided there must be a second gate further up the track which would mark the turn off to the path up to Sron Gharbh. The second gate never came and the construction track "ran out" where a new wee dam has been built.

We'd two options, (1) Do the route anti-clockwise, which is not what we had planned, or (2) head up to the right and eventually we'd find the path on Twistin Hill. We took the second option, and while the ground was wet under foot there was enough grass cover that you're foot never really sunk down in it.

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We made our own path up the hill and while steep it was not too bad.

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The views over to Beinn a'Chron were great and beckoned us on.

Eventually we found the path toward the summit. We'd come up just south of Sron Gharbh.
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It was once we reached this path that the strength of the wind became apparent. Later in the day it got strong enough to nearly sweep me off my feet!

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There's a gnarly wee dip in the path with an easy scramble back up with the summit a short distance beyond. Just as we approached the summit cloud rolled in, but thankfully we managed to miss the rain showers we could see falling elsewhere.

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I'd my hood up at this point to stop my hat from being blown off. It was too windy at the summit for lunch so we headed on and dropped some height till we found some rocks to shelter behind.

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As we descended the sun came back out, but the wind continued to whip up. As my knees get older I'm finding that going down hill is harder than going up. I know not everyone is a fan, but I've found walking poles to be a great help in taking some of the strain of my knees.

There were some wonderful views across to Ben Lomond and the photos don't really do the view any justice at all.
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The path up to Beinn a'Chroin swings off to the right as you start to climb up. This leads to a short near vertical section, perhaps about 20 foot high, which we scrambled up. There are good foot and hand holds, so this is not too stern a challenge .

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Not long after this we reached the top of Beinn a'Chroin and followed the well worn path.
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As we started to thread our way down toward Stob Glas Bheag the wind got even stronger and the path boggier.
It was nice to reach the relative flat of the glen as we crossed over the river. The ground was very wet and despite trying several different paths all were equally wet.

All in all it was a grand day out.
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Bmg99
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Posts: 68
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Re: When is a gate not a gate?

Postby kirstyfc » Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:43 pm

Glad I'm not the only one who had gate troubles! :)
kirstyfc
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Posts: 27
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Joined: May 7, 2019
Location: Glasgow

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