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A leisurely breakfast in the hostel followed by a cruise round to the starting point at the suggested layby on the A82.
Soon realised why the warning about crossing the bridge on the main road was hazardous, with a narrow walkway below the stone parapits and mighty artic trucks whizzing by. We managed to get across during a lull in the traffic to avoid being minced against the bridge parapet.
It was a pleasant walk up the glen with the prow of Creag Bhan getting bigger with every step and Clachaig gully displaying in all it's glory on the flank of Sgorr nam Fiannaidh.
- The massive slash of Clachaig Gully from Glean-leac-na-muidhe
With the unusual paucity of rainfall recently, allied to the multiple paths of the burn, the Alt na Muidhe crossing presented no problems.
There seemed to be a number of faint paths through the deer grass and reeds to gain the slopes above, which tested our decision making, but as usual after detailed analysis, we just decided to go for it.
Further up, we spotted a lady with a dog descending. We walked across to try to extract some route intel from her, but it seemed that there was no established route. She had spent the night camped out on the top somewhere, enjoying the beautiful dawn. We just ploughed a route UP in the usual fashion.
- On the way up Creag Bhan & looking back to the Aonach Eagach
I was feeling the effects of yesterday's exertion, so was grinding up in GordonC's wake, who seemed to be unaffected by yesterday, or eating lots o jelly babies. He waited for me at the top of Craig Bhan, where we admired the developing vista. The walk round to the summit of Lighiche was marked by a path which allowed us to soak up the views and appreciate the ruggedness of the surrounding hills.
At the top we sat down in the virtually still air, eating our pieces and looking across at the glaciated north slopes of Sgor na h-Ulaidh, and further to Beinn Fhionnlaidh, which was reflecting the suns rays from its drooling N slabs.
Appin has a truly magnificent array of mountains !
- GordonC in his summit pose !
- GordonC having his piece with Sgor na h-Ulaidh behind
- Bidean from the top of Meall Lighiche
- GordonB at the top of Meall Lighiche
- Ben Nevis from Meall Lighiche
It was decided to descend by the corrie and so we back-tracked along the path for a wee bit. At this point, we spotted the 3 folk who we had seen walking up the glen track earlier, breasting the ridge below the top of Creag Bhan. We then keeked over the edge to plot a descent route. which was steepish at the top but soon flattened out. Quite low down in the corrie, we passed another ascending group of some 7 souls, the tail-enders of which had temporarily paused for a functional sacrifice. Wondered why they were so late starting off, as it seemed it'd be close to being dark before they got back down to the track. Maybe they were camping on top or had already done a hill in the morning or were just walking a lot faster than us !
Down on the floor of the corrie we squelched our way back to the path alongside the fence, crossed the burn and picked up the track down the glen, only pausing to take a pic of the view back up the glen, with the top of Meall Lighiche just peeping round the shoulder of Creag Bhan.
- GordonC striding back down the glen away from Meall Lighiche
Back at the car we guzzled our tepid coffee made at breakfast & headed northeast for Westhill.
Chippy stop at Kingussie and a fine tasty fish supper as reward for the days effort.
Bored GordonC with my endless ramblings, employed as a strategy to keep me awake. It seemed to work as I managed to keep the car on the tarmac till we got home !
Another superb day.... in glorious autumnal colours.