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A fairly small group today due to holidays, better plans for later, lack of hill credits & reading the weather forecast.
My friend Glen who had not been on the hills for 18 months due to loss of mojo, Campbell (meatball) who I walked with in Kintail & Alice (savagealice), whom I had never walked with & madly agreed to join 3 complete strangers in the middle of nowhere.
A fairly uneventful drive up leaving the rain of Glasgow for the rain of loch Lomond, then Orchy, then Glencoe, then Fort William & finally arriving at Fersit where it was not raining. Yeeha!
For ease of parking I had suggested that we meet at the road end & also I knew from a previous visit that there was a path taking you up onto the ridge.
We took the small path from the side of the parking area which immediately drops down onto a small boggy area, which was pleasant as we have had so little rain lately. As we crossed my history with bogs was mentioned to which Alice exclaimed ‘oh was that you’, but to her credit she did not run away. We climbed a bank into some trees & then came to an old railway track that seemed to go over a stream with a rather nasty looking barbed wire fence, so whilst I studied this to work out the best way over Campbell suggested we go under the thing were the fence was flattened. Dooh
We then followed a faint path that emerged on the side of the ridge & we decided to carry on along as there seemed to be a drop before the ascent of Meall Clan Dearg. After a while we came upon a path that is currently a stream. We followed this & it took us to the lower of the two hydro trigs.
By this point the rain was on & we were all fully waterproofed up & facing the steep ascent of MCD. The path up is pretty good, eroded in parts but not too bad. We were also doing well ticking of all the things that helped Glen lose his mojo, pathless terrain, boggy shite, rain & steep ascent. The other thing, spending most of the day in the clag was fast approaching.
Once up about the 800 meter mark the ridge levels out & broadens. We looked for a relatively sheltered spot to have a bite to eat. At this point Alice was explaining that she had walked with a guy who was studying botany as part of an outdoor course & started naming some of the flora around about starting with ‘lady’s mantle’. You can imagine how the conversation went from there.
Onwards & upwards to the first Munro of the day Stob a’Choire Mheadhoin which also happened to be my 142nd. Half way around. It felt good even though we could see heehaw & it was pishing down.
Quick photos & off we went, its only about a 10 min drop until the low point before Stob Coire Easain where we left our packs (including my GPS so my track is short) & headed up to the summit. The top is quite small with the cairn fairly close to the edge & I’m sure its impressive if you can see.
As Johnny Corbett put it so beautifully a while back, up stob, doon stob, up stob, doon stob & up stob again!
On our way back the rain eased off so we stopped for another bite to eat & as soon as we did the rain came on again.
We came out of the clag on the decent of MCD & the views inevitable started to open up, but the clag just clinging to the last 50 meters of the munro on the other side of Loch Treig.
From the hydro trig we took two slightly different routes Campbell taking a line straight ish to the track above the Loch & the rest of us taking a more diagonal line to the same track a bit further along where we all met up again, before which I had a close encounter with a deep marshy pool. Just the one leg I’m pleased to say.
A case of I’m sure this is a lovely walk if you can see, but a good day out with good folk.
Combination of photos from Campbell & I, my lens got damp so some of the pics look worse than it actually was. Honest gov!
![008 (1280x960).jpg]()
- Looking back to the car
![009 (960x1280).jpg]()
- Hydro trig & Meall Clan Dearg
![010 (1280x960).jpg]()
- nearly in the clag
![011 (1280x960).jpg]()
- Stob a Choire Mheadhoin
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- Stob Coire Easain
![022 (1280x960).jpg]()
- Descending Meall Clan Dearg
![Campbell1.jpg]()
- The Borrowers
![Campbell2.jpg]()
- Laggan Hills
![Campbell3.jpg]()
- The higher of the two Hydro Trigs
![Campbell6.jpg]()
- Stob Coire Sgriondain
![Campell5.jpg]()
- A better looking day now!
