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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..
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
So it was a no brainer – Bonny Glen Feshie all the way!
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…
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..
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.
The morning came.. It was bright and sunny..
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...
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
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.
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.
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
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
The path up to the bridge was muddy
the path back down the other side non existent, but once back to the Feshie, the walking was easy on dry grassy flood planes
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
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.
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
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
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
From the summit we could clearly see the tent far below, with a lot of peat haggage in between
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
Dougie had his camera out pretty quick, but I’m not sure if any of the shots worked out.
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..
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..
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
We arrived back at the Feshie, to find that a tent village had popped up just a couple of hundred yards downstream.
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
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
We made our way up to the main path via the banks of a burn, and picked our way back to the bridge
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
Then there was the river to cross..
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
Dougie was having a crisis of confidence, and took rather longer to follow me over
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.
We were in the narrow part of the glen with big crags either side, and with the rivers being high the waterfalls were spectacular.
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.
We found the wee bridges to take us over the next river crossing - which was rather handy
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
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.