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Grahams: Beinn Bhreac, Tullich Hill.
Date: 31/05/2015.
Distance: 8.5km.
Ascent: 870m.
Time taken: 3 hours, 10 minutes
Weather: Mostly in cloud, windy, persistent miserable rain.
The final installment of last weekend's trip to the Loch Lomond area. Having driven over from Loch Arklet to Glen Douglas the previous evening, I slept in the car and planned to make an early start on this pair, hopefully followed by Beinn Dubh later on. It rained all through the night and was still unpleasant in the morning, but as I'd made the effort to get here rather than go back to Glasgow the previous evening, I thought I'd stick to the plan. Maybe it would brighten up
West along Glen Douglas from Invergroin:
The parking area is a little east of Invergroin, but I just followed the edge of the forestry plantation up rather than walking along to the house. The rain had eased but there was nothing to see. At one point a rather eerie ferry announcement from the cruiser at Inverbeg drifted up.
On the summit, the rain came back with a vengeance. I had fancied this as a morning walk as the best light would be on the Arrochar Alps then, and Beinn Reoch would probably be the best place to see them from. With no views, I decided to miss out Beinn Reoch altogether and get this over with as soon as possible. A steep downward traverse took me through An t-Sreang, where a combination of the low elevation and drifting clag made Tullich Hill look massive. As well as the rain, the wind had now increased. Great!
A weave up through potentially interesting crags took me onto the plateau and to the summit cairn. There was a hint of a clearing here, and suddenly I could see down Loch Long. Views of some description remained for the descent of the grassy south ridge, including of the extensive MOD enclosure on the other side of the glen (missing from most maps).
Glen Douglas from Tullich Hill:
Across to the MOD depot in Glen Douglas:
Down Loch Long:
I was down at Invergroin shortly after 10am and back at the car a few minutes later. Although now clear, an ascent of Beinn Dubh would probably take me past my lunchtime deadline. It still didn't look great anyway and I was soaking. Instead I drove down to Luss, dried off and got changed in the public toilets, had a coffee and threw out a weekend's worth of accumulated rubbish from the car. As I drove back into Glasgow, the sun came out
Great weekend, rubbish ending. If you've just read all of this report, apologies for wasting your time