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our group which was created on facebook last year for people who just like the outdoors and want to get into a bit of hill walking, we started with sub 2K's, then graduated to a Graham, then Lastly a Corbett,Ben Ledi before we tackled our 1st Munro Ben Lomond as group (others have done a few Munro's before but a few had not).
Surprisingly it was Sunny for a change on one of our outings.
anyway we all met at the usual car park around 10 and headed off at 10:30
from there we headed up the Tourist route through the forest and across the small wooden bridge and came out to start getting the views of the Loch, i must admit i found the start quite tough and probably went at quicker pace than i should have, so set myself up for a slower pace as i thought i will not enjoy this at this pace.
- 1st view after clearing the forest
from here another small climb, then it flattens out a bit down to the wooden gate. from here more of a steady climb with a few steeps bits thrown in just to test out your calfs, after a 5 min break a brilliant view of the Cobbler (Ben Arthur) in the Arrochar Alps comes into view.
- 1st view of the Cobbler in the distance
then its a mixed bag of plateau's and climbs, the summit still looks a good distance away, but were plodding along and start to meet some people coming back down.
- Summit in the distance
the view down to the loch just gets better and the summit get nearer (thank god) i'm thinking to myself this is harder than i though, but nearly there, just the steep ascent to the summit to do and it will be all worth while.
- nearly there
onwards and upwards, after the zig zag climb towards the summit, the 1st view of the false summit from the path come into view.
- false summit
a quick looker over down the north side of Ben Lomond, show quite a drop, don't fancy falling down there.
- Ben Lomond North Face
just about there, i can see the summit and the loads of people chilling out taking the views of the loch, the clyde and the firth of clyde aswell as the Arrochar Apls & the Crainlarich Hills.
- last bit to go
- me at the summit with our groups catch phrase
time for a well earned rest, 3 hours to the top which i was happy with, time for some lunch and loads of picture taking, to many to post on hear, the top was very busy and the Sea Plane flew over us at the top,.
after the break, time to head back down, glad i had my sticks as this made the descent a bit easier, though i did jar my knee and found it rather painfull all the way down, all in all a great day out and very glad i done it.