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This Day stands out as having a bit of everything apart from Rain!
Me and my brother decided to drive from Lochcarron to Glen Affric to tackle Tom a'Choinich and Toll Creagach last night. As we set out at 7 this morning we were pleasantly surprised by the weather which was pretty fantastic with the stars still out and the moon was shining bright. As we drove east we were greeted by a band of high cloud.
WE arrived at 8.55 and were walking at 9. The first mile or so of the path is an easy 4X4 track which goest through a nice Trees for life plantation with a number of different local species. The path bends round to go up the valley towards Tom a'Choinich. When it has turned it changes into a path which is quite boggy in lots of places. The walking is not tough but the bogs take some thinking about. After about 3 miles we came to the Allt Toll Easa River where we turned right and headed up into the corrie and beyond to the bealach. The weather was staying cloudy but fine. This path is a pleasure to walk up taking its time to gently get you there. I think this has to be my favourite hidden corrie in Scotland. so beautiful and majestic. Especially on the left as youre going up.
At the bealach we turned Right and headed For Toll Creagach a huge whaleback of a mountain with a very cairngorm like summit. We had taken 2 hours and 45 minutes to reach the summit. The views are impressive with a wide ranging view of the east coast and glorious views to the north and west. on the descent to the bealach we even spotted the Cuillin Ridge on in the far distance. We retraced our steps down to the bealach keeping slightly to the right of the ridge to avoid the worst of the wind.
upon reaching the bealach we headed straight up Tom a'Choinich which is a much steeper but still easy ascent. the path is excellent mostly keeping on the ridge. The top was in some cloud when we arrived but this soon cleared to give us a magnificent view of most of the ridge to Carn Eighe magnificent views of the mountains to the north and south Beinn Fhionnliadh looking majestic. We then carried on on the ridge towards Carn Eighe going over two tops along a good ridge path. When we got to the bealach beneath Garth Bhealach we made a decision to come down instead of tackling Carn Eighe and Mam Sodhail as we would have been pushing it to get these done in the daylight. So we came down to find the path in the corrie below Garth Bhealach. Once on the path we headed down into Gleann nam Fiadh and into the bog again to meet the path that we had come in on after about 2 km. The mid afternoon sunshine was spectacular on the way down the glen.
