Tracks of my deers

[JohnJS]

Lovely quiet day out on the hills. Not sure why it should have been so quiet with the track up to the final bridge being so straightforward. Maybe it's because it's tucked away of the main track and looks a bit further away than it is. Not been back to Glen Tilt since last year and had forgotten just how bonny is can be, particularly at this time of year. Even the scoot up the A9 was pretty once the sun came up.
Cold and clear start with a few wee deer even down low not far from the car park and red squirrels running about like a tourist board ad. Further up the glen things started to look more and more like a pencil sketch with the everthing outlined with frost and thesnow from earlier in the week. Took the path through the firing range which will be clear til March and this allowed for a quick tramp to the wee 'secret garden' gate in the fence before Gilbert's Bridge.
The picturebook quality continued all the way up with only the odd splash of colour from a birch or rowan. The bridge at the end of the track really is a pretty spot, worth coming back in the summer I'd guess. Just before that there were flocks and flocks of what might have been fieldfares I think.
Once over the bridge their chuckles were replaced by the roaring of any number of stags. initially I thought this was from a group I could see over on the top of Beinn a Chait but one popped up about 100 or so yards away at the top of the ridge I was heading for. It did make me wonder how territorial these beasts could be but my extreme pechin' appeared to resuure him about my limited threat potential and off he galloped to noise up one of his pals. Their roaring was a feature of the day from then on. Apart from them and a few ptarmigan I had the place to myself. Like Eckfaebirnie I'd say that the track up this hill is pretty much where you find it. Directions were useful though and the snow lined lots of deer and stalking paths quite helpfully. Don't bother following any of these round the side of the hill though it doesn't get any less steep. Just take the 'best line for the top' as old Mr Poucher used to say ( usually describing about 2 thousand feet of hill )
The path does come and go so lots of 'hooray' moments and it gets clearer higher up but after false summits galore the 'nearly' summit cairn is a real relief as it peeps up in the distance. I left the final metre for another day. It is a magic big flattish space on the top through and with hardly any wind a really pleasant spot. Felt really remote with all the space, salt and pepper hillsides and low clouds lit by a wee wintery sun shining through the odd spot. You could spend a fair bit of time up here in high summer. It would be a right trudge up if it was wet though.
Anyway the snow made going down fairly easy and I steered for the trees near the wee bridge having taken a note of them on the way up. Deer still chasing each other about further below and I just overshot the track down to the bridge by a few yards. Once over the bridge it was a straightforward chudg back to the car. Is that really a shortcut after the wee diamond gate? I'm sure I came down that way another day and it never felt shorter.
A grand day ,all in all thanks to whoever put this on the site. The walk to the last bridge would be pleasant enough in itself if the plowtering higher up isn't your bag