Carn an Fhidhleir and An Sgarsoch and a soggy camp at Geldie

[GillC]

At the beginning of our two weeks off work, I had hoped to get straight up to the Fisherfields, logistically, the trickiest of my remaining 18 Munros. But, with weather forecasts pretty awful for the country as a whole, we opted instead to head East.

I had initially thought we were going to head off for a few days, then home before heading anywhere else, so at very short notice, I ended up packing for a potential 2 weeks camping!! (I don't have that many pairs of knickers!!!)

We left home and arrived at Linn of Dee on Saturday late afternoon. Biked up and with heavy wild camping packs , headed off along the side of the Dee towards Geldie Lodge, our planned camping spot for the night. Light showers turned to heavy rain and made tough work of the latter part of the track. In my opinion, one should not cycle to hills, not because I'm a purist, but because I'm just not a cyclist. Words cannot express how much I detest 'cycling' on bumpy, hole filled, rock strewn tracks,,it's not fun, it's not comfortable and it should be banned!

**For stats purposes on this report, I do not include the journey IN to Geldie as it was done the day before the walk and the journey out.**

We eventually came in sight of the lodge, a derelict ruin, which also required a river crossing,,with heavy packs and pushing bikes. Not too deep, but broad and at the junction of two rivers, so a convoluted crossing ensued, bikes being used as support then getting in the way when trying to stretch over to a further out rock etc. Eventually on the path again and still under heavy rain, we approached the lodge. The path veers right,,but John headed left, on following him, we got to the half shed structure on the left hand side of the derelict building. No door, missing half walls but, with boards on the floor, planks and rocks to sit on and nails to hang stuff on,,this was the Hilton of the day lol

Home from home

We got inside for a while to assess the situation, nice spot outside for a tent,,when the rain went off, which it eventually did. Got the tent up before it came on again and even managed to string up a drying line in the shed, with everything on it,,including Johns sodden shorts and t shirt. Got ourselves organised, cooked up our dried meals and had a wee drink. Lovely.

Cooking up a storm

Off to the tent and hoping for a dry day to follow.

The sleeping quarters

As hoped for , nice morning, bit of low cloud but nothing to worry about. Was pretty dry and I don't think it had rained at all overnight, so we put the tent down rather than risk a daytime shower. All packed up with kit and bikes in the shed for our return later.

We had decided to do the hills as per the WH route, with Carn an Fhidhleir first, John did them in reverse on his first trip here.

Heading off from the ruins of Geldie Lodge

The fab stalkers path winds its way on fairly level ground for quite some distance towards Allt a Chaorainn before any real feeling of height. With the rain that we had the previous day, it was soggy going underfoot, and the path proper descended into a bit of a watery bogfest with some hags in the way too but nothing hard, just a bit wet.

Messy hags between the hills

Hopeful of brighter skies

You reach the first summit of Fhidhleir fairly quickly and so far, the weather was playing ball.

First summit of the day

Had a brief stop here before heading South (ish) and off to the small top then East to the beallach before the short ascent to An Sgarsoch. Again, this is reached with ease and no great steepness. At 1006mtrs, it certainly didn't feel its height!

An Sgarsoch on a soggy day

The small top of Scarsoch Beag lies directly between the summit and the return path so heading towards this, again crossing some hags, we then veered East to skirt round the hillock then North again to pick up our return path. Smashing to reach the stalkers route with an easy and fast descent back to the lodge/bikes.

Heading for Scarsoch Beag and the path beyond, back to Geldie

There were a couple of groups on their way up as we approached the lodge and we could see others coming down the track which leads to/from Glen Feshie on the opposite side of the Geldie Burn.

4 chaps passed us just North of the lodge, once there however, there were only 3 new bikes in the shed, along with some bags hanging up,,so, did guy number 4 hitch a backy? or did he leave earlier to walk in? who knows lol

And now for my favourite part,,,getting the bikes back out to Linn of Dee. Nothing darkens my mood more

2 hrs later,,back at the car, repacking and heading straight off again to Derry Lodge,,,,on the bike, again, ho hum.

Still, another two Cairngorm Munros under my belt and only 16 left to go...

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[GillC]

Feel free to add any pics Tomsie

[BlackPanther]

We did this duo yesterday... Originally planned to camp as you did, but the current wet weather put us off camping, so in the end we took bikes. We were up & down from Linn of Dee in 9.5 hours. Half of that time was in the saddle...

Words cannot express how much I detest 'cycling' on bumpy, hole filled, rock strewn tracks,,it's not fun, it's not comfortable and it should be banned

I could not agree more!!! I flew off my seat three times, each fall resulting in bruised knees & calves. We didn't have the heavy camping gear with us, but struggling up this track with daypacks was hard enough. Geldie Burn was quite high so we left bikes at the ford and walked from there. Because we were a bit late starting, we only had about 8 hours left to climb both Munros and cycle back, so it was a hill run

The hills didn't surprise me. They were as boring and featureless as heathery lumps can be. Of course, it rained most of the time and cloud was low on the Cairngorms, not to mention strong winds. I'm so glad I've got these two done and I don't intend to go back up this track unless we decide to do a second round... not likely though

[rockhopper]

In my opinion, one should not cycle to hills, not because I'm a purist, but because I'm just not a cyclist. Words cannot express how much I detest 'cycling' on bumpy, hole filled, rock strewn tracks,,it's not fun, it's not comfortable and it should be banned!

I could not agree more!!!

Sorry but could not disagree more - enjoyable, gets you there and back quicker, can be easier to get through water Pity about the weather but keeps you on track to finish. Cycled down to these two hills from the north via Glen Feshie - made a change from the norm and was easier going back - cheers