Lurg Mhor and the Cheesecake

[young-scotty]

Day 1 of 3
April 15th 2016

We knew by Warrington that the sleeper was going to be late into Inverness, a points failure meant our usual turn in to kip at Preston was postponed by another bottle of Merlot. Sure enough, we were still rattling through Gleneagles at breakfast when we should have been crossing Slochd summit and pulled into Inverness just shy of 2 hours late. Irksome because we were booked on the 8.55 to Attadale and the 11.00 which we eventually caught would leave us chasing daylight hours.
It was a pleasant day though and when we alighted at Attadale Central with our bikes, we were well up for the challenge. And a challenge it was too, it's only 7.5 miles to Ben Dronaig Bothy but they are hard earned especially with heavy panniers and a backpack brimming with provisions. 1 hour 45 of hard graft including an occasional off and push on the zig zag bit and we were at the bothy. A quick recce offered up all 3 rooms available so we bagged the one with the biggest fireplace, dumped the gear and set off again with much lighter bikes for the 2 mile ascent to Loch Calavie.
It was now 15.30 and the sky looked ominous but we set off up the easy banks of Cheescake to the north of the loch towards the bealach, no signs of any path. The predicted snow soon came but it wasn't too heavy and didn't hinder progress.We made the top of Cheescake in around 2 hours and it was snowing harder now so not much in the way of views which is a shame. However an hour later we reached the top of neighbour Lurg Mhor and the clouds lifted to offer wonderful views across Loch Monar to tomorrows targets and also towards the Loch Mullardoch munros. Given the improved conditions we traversed the Lurg Mhor ridge to the other top admiring the views all round before heading back to the bealach and down to our bikes at Loch Calavie. Free wheeling down to the bothy albeit on very rough terrain is a great feeling especially when a brace of munros have been scratched off. The accomodation had filled up in our absence, a group of 4 were setting up camp to do Lurg Mhor and Cheescake tomorrow while the other guest was on a long walk to Cape Wrath. Got in just before dark at 20.30.

Attadale International
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Track to Bothy
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Loch Calavie
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Lurg comes into view
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Top of Sheasgaich
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

On to No.2 Lurg Mhor
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Looking back to Sheasgaich
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Lurg Mhor summit

Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Loch Monar and tomorrows targets - the two Sgurrs
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Back down to the loch and our bikes
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Ben Dronaig Bothy
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Heading back to Attadale in fresh snow in the morning
Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

Untitled by young-scotty, on Flickr

[Guinessman]

Got these two pencilled in hopefully for the end of next week on the same route in a one day bike and hike,thanks for posting