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A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.


Postby RicKamila » Thu May 24, 2012 7:26 pm

Route description: Loch Kinord circuit, Muir of Dinnet

Date walked: 24/05/2012

Time taken: 3 hours

Distance: 8.4 km

Ascent: 100m

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A spectacular failure by these two intrepid walkers today, and we couldn't have chosen a worse day to have one. We've had planned for a while now that today was going to be the day that we bag our first Munro. After much deliberation, we settled on An Socach. We set the alarm for 5am with the intention of getting there by 8am to try beat the predicted heat. At 9am we rolled out of bed, annoyed for our late start, but decided that seeing as it stays light until late, that it wasn't an issue.

We had breakfast and finally set off at 1030am, and after a stop at Braemar, arrived at the plantation parking area just before midday. There were threatening clouds forming to the north, but the car said it was 24C and if felt it. A quick change of shoes and we were on our way. We went through the gate and followed the track along to a field with some horses roaming freely. Branching off to the left, we got a great view down the glen and stopped to admire our challenge for the day, quite excited about what we were about to achieve. We passed the old farmhouse and came to a small footbridge. This is where our day came crashing down.

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We're on our way!!

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Old farm house


The walk description on here says "Beyond the farmhouse the track soon crosses a bridge over the Baddoch burn and continues up the other side", so we crossed this little footbridge and then saw a path going up to a waterfall, so we followed it and then it came to a sudden end. Rick pulled out the printed out walk description to check the map he printed off with it, only problem being that the map he printed off was for Creag nan Gabhar. "Don't worry" said Rick, "I've got an OS map in my bag, we'll navigate off that" and with that, Rick opened his bag and to his horror, realised that it was still sitting on the sofa at home. We saw a fellow walker on the path below heading to where we assumed we should have gone and spent a few minutes watching him until he disappeared whilst trying to decide what to do. With a walk description, no maps and more clouds building up, we decided that we better play it safe and walked back to the car extremely disappointed with ourselves for not double checking our bags before we left. We did spot a deer on the walk back, temporarily taking our mind of what idiots we were. We realised once we got home and looked at our map that if we tried to push on, we would have ended up climbing Sgor Mor instead.

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Old rickety bridge


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We got in the car and decided on the way home we would stop at Loch Kinord. This turned out to be a great decision as the weather in Dinnet was even nicer than in Braemar.


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We arrived at the Burn o'Vat car park at 1:45pm and stopped at the picnic tables to have our celebratory lunch planned for An Socach. After a bit of a rest in the sun we set off on our walk around 2:15pm and followed the waymarked path along to the banks of Loch Kinord. It was baking hot along this part of the walk and there was no breeze. Finally though, we got to the Loch and the breeze picked up cooling us down slightly.

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Reflections in the water


There wasn't much to see in terms of wildlife on the south side of the Loch, just a Mallard and his partner, so we carried on our way quite quickly to the northern side. Lots of gorse in full flower though.

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Gorse everywhere


We reached a gate with a sign that said the next 500m is a nesting bird zone and immediately saw Swans with their Cygnets. Passing a farm, we got startled by a Goose, who darted into the water, followed by its Gosling. It joined a much larger flock of geese in the middle of the loch. There were a dozen or so more geese sitting in a paddock just watching us from the long grass, so we assumed they were nesting there.

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We finally made it to the Celtic Cross where Rick took some photos and then found a bench higher up where we did some sun bathing for a short while. This was a perfect spot as the breeze hit us directly and cooled us down.

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Loch Kinord

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Celtic Cross

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The bench and tree


The walk back was uneventful and we reached the car at 4:15pm. It started off disappointly with our Munro fail, but Loch Kinord more than made up for it.
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby sloosh » Thu May 24, 2012 7:47 pm

Although I completely understand why, it's a shame you didn't keep going for An Socach as it's a very straightforward walk in good visibility.
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby RicKamila » Thu May 24, 2012 7:52 pm

sloosh wrote:Although I completely understand why, it's a shame you didn't keep going for An Socach as it's a very straightforward walk in good visibility.


We seriously thought about it, but when it doubt its better to follow your head than your heart. It will be there for us again anyway, so it will be done.
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby dogplodder » Thu May 24, 2012 8:42 pm

You got a lovely loch walk instead..... and you're not likely to leave your map behind the next time! :lol:
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby sloosh » Thu May 24, 2012 8:55 pm

RicKamila wrote:We seriously thought about it, but when it doubt its better to follow your head than your heart. It will be there for us again anyway, so it will be done.

I can't fault that! :)
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby rockhopper » Thu May 24, 2012 9:20 pm

Ah well, at least you had a nice walk in the end. Hard lesson but you won't do that again, I guess. Given you were in doubt, you made the right decision - cheers :D
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby Graeme D » Thu May 24, 2012 9:33 pm

Confucius say "The road to compleating is paved with bad hill days!" One day, many moons, metres of ascent and gallons of petrol from now, I hope you stand on the summit of Munro number 283 (or whatever bloody number it happens to be at that time!) and look back and laugh at this minor mishap!
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby RicKamila » Thu May 24, 2012 9:39 pm

Graeme D wrote:Confucius say "The road to compleating is paved with bad hill days!" One day, many moons, metres of ascent and gallons of petrol from now, I hope you stand on the summit of Munro number 283 (or whatever bloody number it happens to be at that time!) and look back and laugh at this minor mishap!


Im sure you are right. Just annoying that the first failure we have had our on the hills just happened to be the day we decided to step up a level. :roll:

dogplodder wrote:You got a lovely loch walk instead..... and you're not likely to leave your map behind the next time! :lol:


Thats what we said sitting by the tree, at lease we had a lovely walk today. As for the map, its already back in the bag!!
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby Jonay » Thu May 24, 2012 10:36 pm

Should have headed down to the Glenshee area and done one of these!

Could have join me, I didn't start walking until 1235!

Least you got a nice walk out of it :)
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby RicKamila » Thu May 24, 2012 10:43 pm

Jonay wrote:Should have headed down to the Glenshee area and done one of these!

Could have join me, I didn't start walking until 1235!

Least you got a nice walk out of it :)


Hope you scored some decent weather for your walk. Looked a bit murky towards Braemar, but nicer down Glenshee way.
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby LeithySuburbs » Thu May 24, 2012 11:00 pm

RicKamila wrote:we would have ended up climbing Sgor Mor instead.


Sgor Mor is a worthwhile wee jaunt anyway :)
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby Jonay » Thu May 24, 2012 11:10 pm

RicKamila wrote:
Jonay wrote:Should have headed down to the Glenshee area and done one of these!

Could have join me, I didn't start walking until 1235!

Least you got a nice walk out of it :)


Hope you scored some decent weather for your walk. Looked a bit murky towards Braemar, but nicer down Glenshee way.


The heat was relentless, really humid and just beating down all day. Even through the cloud, which cleared about 1445 making our ascent of Carn a'Gheoidh tough. The haze kinda cleared at 1600
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby kevsbald » Fri May 25, 2012 8:50 am

I commend your sensible approach.
You rarely get experience from doing things the right way.

Don't worry about the 'step-up' - all in the mind.

Look forward to your first post of the Munros in due course. Ye could aye pop along for the WH meet on the 10th August in Braemar and hook up with me for a Munro attempt on Beinn Bhrotain??
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby RicKamila » Fri May 25, 2012 9:01 am

kevsbald wrote:I commend your sensible approach.
You rarely get experience from doing things the right way.

Don't worry about the 'step-up' - all in the mind.

Look forward to your first post of the Munros in due course. Ye could aye pop along for the WH meet on the 10th August in Braemar and hook up with me for a Munro attempt on Beinn Bhrotain??


We were thinking about it, but both have commitments then so can't unfortunately. Maybe one day though :wink:
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Re: A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.

Postby BlackPanther » Fri May 25, 2012 9:15 am

Guys, I think that every hillwalker has moments like that. And it is better to be safe than sorry :wink:
Last year, me and my second half climbed a Munro by accident... We intended to do Fuar Tholl, a Corbett in Torridon, but we missed the right path (it was a misty day) and only realised half way up Sgorr Ruadh that we were on the wrong mountain! :lol: :lol: A couple of months ago, for a change, we parked at the wrong layby on Drummochter Pass and started our walk up the wrong glen! And all this with Kevin having over 20 years of experience with navigating on the hills...
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