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Feshie-tastic

Feshie-tastic


Postby basscadet » Mon Apr 29, 2013 11:47 pm

Route description: An Sgarsoch and Càrn an Fhidhleir

Munros included on this walk: An Sgarsoch, Càrn an Fhìdhleir (Càrn Ealar)

Date walked: 27/04/2013

Time taken: 15 hours

Distance: 51.3 km

Ascent: 1423m

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An Sgarsoch and Carn an Fhidhleir – Too remote for a days amble, too dull to be bothered to arrange a trip.. :wink: There are many options, Linn of Dee way, is good with a bike, but is not the most scenic walk in the cairngorms. Tarf Hotel way means that foot crunching walk along the Tilt :think: So it was a no brainer – Bonny Glen Feshie all the way! :thumbup:
The usual rush to get away from work on a Friday saw me driving over Speyside on a beautiful evening. Stopped in Aviemore where the fine weather turned to snow… :problem: At the end of the road in Glen Feshie, it was coming down in clumps the size of my fist.. :( I had expected a poor start to the weekend weatherwise, but it really was quite minging.. I had a half hour wait until Dougie arrived, by which time there was a couple of slushy inches on the ground, but it had more or less stopped falling.. :roll: So we set off up the glen, twilight not far away, the snow making the daylight last a bit longer.. :)
The path was a lot better than either of us remembered it, but by the time we were approaching the Allt Garbhlach, the weather had deteriorated again, and there was hardly any light left. We therefore decided against the bothy, and set up camp under a tree as the snow was negligible there.


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



The morning came.. It was bright and sunny.. 8) Dougie had a ‘moment’ when our sleeping bag somehow made it into the burn, and he got wet feet retrieving it.. I wanted to laugh, but I could tell from his protruding bottom lip that I was best staying quiet... :lol: All the faffing meant that we didn’t get going until what must have been after 11.. Rather late for such a long day ahead. :-?
We found that the path was better than we remembered because they had been building a new one! It hadn’t been obvious under the snow the night before. We wound our way through the forest on the new path as far as it went, but ended up on the original path before long. The farmed woodland gave way to bonny scots pine, and we were at the bothy before long for a look at the fabled new stove that has been installed – definitely an improvement! The place was looking a lot cleaner and inviting since my last visit anyway - someone must of cleared out a hundredweight of moose poops :lol:

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We knew we had a long way to go, so minimal stops were taken as we continued along the glen, the weather still sublime. The track narrowed to a path, in a couple of places where the river had caused landslides, but these places were the most scenic and it was a challenge to keep going and nae dawdle.

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Eventually, we left the bonny pine forests behind us and we were out on the moor. We made it across the river at Ruighe nan Leum without any problems, and contemplated camping there as it was such a bonny spot.. :) The gorge upstream was beautiful, but we knew we had to get further.

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All the traffic going up and down the track for doing the path building had left it a boggy mess in places, which slowed our pace a bit, but soft mud eased our already aching feet. We reached the wee hut just before the River Eidart, and finally let ourselves rest 8)

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There is only a roof and one wall remaining, but it made an excellent wind break, and it was hot enough for the 20 minutes we were stopped for the sun to melt the remaining snow considerably :-D The path up to the bridge was muddy

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the path back down the other side non existent, but once back to the Feshie, the walking was easy on dry grassy flood planes :thumbup: At the bend of the river, we disturbed a lizard as we pitched the tent and emptied out most of our packs. It was 4PM already, but plenty light left, so we were unconcerned. Boosted by the lack of weight, we carried on along the river a way before a boggy track took us up the hillside.. Must have been an old trail because the ample path markers were moss covered and ancient looking. The path soon deteriorated into a boggy rut so we made our way directly up the ridge. It was soggy, soft, mossy ground and a bit of a slog :roll: The increasingly large snow patches were soft, powdery snow, but it was only a little over 300m of ascent, so we seemed to reach the summit fairly quickly.

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It was awfully clear, and we could see right across the country, from Lawyers to Meagaidh, the ben and Mamores, not to mention the cairngorm massif. The buachaille was particularly prominent. Nae bad for such a boring heathery lump :lol:
Too cold a wind to stop, we carried on along the ridge, and down toward An Sgarsoch, over a very steep plaque of snow. We thought we could see the path up the other side, so we aimed for that, but it turned out we were mistaken, so more trudging up boggy heather :-? past a few wee rock formations

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and to the summit. Felt really good to get these 2 done - been talking/thinking about doing them for what feels like forever, and both Dougie and myself have had failed attempts at them :-D

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From the summit we could clearly see the tent far below, with a lot of peat haggage in between :cry: Down the ridge we went, the walking fine and mossy underfoot. Dougie called out to me, and I could see him pointing. I turned round to see an osprey surprisingly close – beautiful birds - just an awesome sight :thumbup: Dougie had his camera out pretty quick, but I’m not sure if any of the shots worked out.

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There was a beautiful sunset as well, with the sun developing a huge round rainbow round about it like a brocken spectre. Neither of us had seen such a phenomenon before.. :shock:
So back down in the glen, we decided that it would be easiest to walk down the Allt a Chaorain to the watershed, as it seemed to have fine grassy banks. We were not disappointed and the walk down there was quite possibly the best part of the day..

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Easy walking, bonny wee waterfalls and gorges.. Just great, until we got down to the Geldie where an excess of peat made the last mile tough :problem: We arrived back at the Feshie, to find that a tent village had popped up just a couple of hundred yards downstream. :shock: I noticed they all had identical backpacks. Maybe a DOE party I thought.
Oh what a long day, our 3 course dinner tasted soooo good! The rain came on not long after we got back, and didn’t seem to stop all night. The wind got up too – unfortunate as the tent was not orientated into the wind like it should be, as we had pitched in dead calm. This meant that the tent wall lunged inward at us periodically, which was the source of much hilarity :lol: We had got back late, and gone to bed late, so another late start. The rain was still on and off, but by lunchtime, we knew we had to go, so we waterproofed up and got ourselves going. The rain was just drizzle mostly, which got heavier and lighter throughout the day with a fair amount of sunshine and snow thrown in for good measure. At least the clag wasnie down 8) We made our way up to the main path via the banks of a burn, and picked our way back to the bridge

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We made our way down to the wee hut where we stopped a while out of the wind that was now in our faces. Neither of us felt any need to get back early. Best just to enjoy what sun there was as and when it came along :-D Then there was the river to cross.. :-o An easy hop, skip and jump the day before, it had swelled somewhat which made it a bit dicey. I made it across with dry feet, but shaky legs from the sheer blinding fear of the raging water :shock: Dougie was having a crisis of confidence, and took rather longer to follow me over :lol:
We found better paths up the glen that weren’t so boggy, so progress seemed quick. We stopped again at the bonny Ruige nan leum - crossed fairly easily much to my relief, and sat in a sheltered spot there for too long in the sunshine before continuing. Again, we found stalkers paths that aided our progress, and made the journey more fun. :wink: We were in the narrow part of the glen with big crags either side, and with the rivers being high the waterfalls were spectacular.

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The glen opened out again, and it was just a short distance back to the bothy where we stopped to write something in the book and rest. Feet were sare by this point. :thumbdown:
We found the wee bridges to take us over the next river crossing - which was rather handy

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and then took the low path alongside the river back to the Allt Garbhlach where we had camped on the Friday night. Some of the path had been washed away, so I had fun sliding about on the scree that remained :lol:
We crossed without incident, and hobbled the last couple of miles along the new path from there, the end bit along the road to the carpark burning with every step. It feels really good to finally get these ones bagged. Rubbish hills, but bonny Glen Feshie made it well worthwhile. :thumbup:
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basscadet
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby gaffr » Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:07 am

Nice to see some images of the upper Feshie. The wee semi-ruined bothy near to the Eidart hasn't altered much in 40 years. :) The only time that I visited these tops was after a bike ride up the 'big house' side of the river then up over the slochd beag to reach the head waters of the Feshie then returned by your route.
Your report should be very helpful to a couple of folks who enquired about the tracks up to the upper Feshie recently on the general section of this Forum. :)
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby BlackPanther » Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:23 am

On the very same day we were sitting on one of the the summits of Beinn a'Ghlo, looking at "your" hills in the distance and discussing all possible approaches :D Kevin actually wondered how Glen Feshie access looks like :lol: :lol:
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby Sabbathstevie » Tue Apr 30, 2013 12:26 pm

Just fan-feshie-tastic. Thanks for sharing - so good to see more of what really is a massive expanse of wilderness on the map, and looks like a great approach for these two! :clap:
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby audreywaugh » Tue Apr 30, 2013 3:17 pm

Thanks for posting, great TR and photos, info is appreciated as been thinking of doing these two and swithering which is the best way. It was a toss up between either coming up Glen Tilt or going down Glen Feshie, think Feshie has won it! :lol:
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby dogplodder » Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:18 pm

That was some walk. I got a bit excited thinking that somehow you'd walked in and out in the same day! :lol:
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby malky_c » Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:14 pm

Good choice - Glen Tilt is great with the bike, but maybe not so much on foot. I still haven't been into the upper Feshie - I can see a visit coming on to do Beinn Bhreac :)
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby rockhopper » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:50 pm

Nice one, bc - did the same route as you for these two hills a couple of years ago but used the bike to NN915873 - did need a bit of carrying but could also cycle through the water with cycling shoes. It's a great way to see the upper glen - cheers :)
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby basscadet » Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:20 pm

Thanks ahbody for the kind comments :oops: I have seen enough of the other options to know that Feshie really is the best option for these b**gers!

gaffr wrote:Nice to see some images of the upper Feshie. The wee semi-ruined bothy near to the Eidart hasn't altered much in 40 years. :)


Oh I was joking with Dougie that it would blow down in the next storm.. How wrong could I be :lol:

audreywaugh wrote:Thanks for posting, great TR and photos, info is appreciated as been thinking of doing these two and swithering which is the best way. It was a toss up between either coming up Glen Tilt or going down Glen Feshie, think Feshie has won it! :lol:


I dont know why it isnt a route in walks on the site :crazy:

BlackPanther wrote:On the very same day we were sitting on one of the the summits of Beinn a'Ghlo, looking at "your" hills in the distance and discussing all possible approaches :D Kevin actually wondered how Glen Feshie access looks like :lol: :lol:


Well what do you know? :D

dogplodder wrote:That was some walk. I got a bit excited thinking that somehow you'd walked in and out in the same day! :lol:


Sorry to let the side down,.. but i am exceptionally lazy, and would never attempt a walk that long when i could get a night in the tent out of it :)
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby Border Reiver » Wed May 01, 2013 9:02 am

I've enjoyed reading this and seeing the Feshie in a different season. When I walked through the Tilt - Geldie - Feshie route, I finished the walk in July temperatures of around 30c on a clear windless day. It's a beautiful glen, maybe as good as Affric, but without the crowds.
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby mrssanta » Wed May 01, 2013 11:06 pm

amazing that you could see the bookle from there. That's a long walk but looks like a great way to do it. Will bear that in mind for later.
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby scooby0511 » Wed May 01, 2013 11:16 pm

Nice report and photographs, an enjoyable read.
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Re: Feshie-tastic

Postby Collaciotach » Fri May 03, 2013 10:20 pm

Ah grand report BC and that tally is going suas :wink:
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