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Weather outlook good, kids still off school, only one left in this range, added up to a smart idea assuming we could get out of the house en famille rather than just me and the boy plus a hound or two ...
7.45am departure became 8.10am, still not bad given we'd been sleeping past 8.30am throughout the hols ! Decisions to be made on route noting most folks back to work - M8 through Glasgow high risk due to rush hour and the M9 at the Craigforth roundabout at 8.45am is a mess with the bug Pru office there. Went for A811 via bottom end of Loch Lomond rather than Callander/Crianlarich as high likelihood of slow moving traffic - was a good call.
Planned to drop family off at Ben Glas Farm and park car at Drovers but kind lady at Farm said not to worry about that so off up the hill at 10.15am, knew we would not be going at Naismiths with whole family in tow so bit of a worry.
WH reports that path up is eroded, no **** Sherlock as the saying goes, but it's fine and the steep intro gets the legs and lungs working so very pleased to knock off a few hundred metres of ascent straight off.
Now to the bog - I cannot imagine how horrible this must be in the summer when not half frozen and with the added feature of midges, hats off to those walkers who have done it then, I'm now looking at other mega bog walks to do them well before Easter (eg Monadliath).
I have little to add/report to what other have written, the path is pretty clear including the detours folks have taken to avoid getting their snorkels on. You do gain height by the time you get to the next ascent just at the lochan and the 1117m of ascent is explained by the wee ups and downs and you cross over at Tarmachan etc. When we got over there the wind was pretty strong and a lost hat/pair of gloves (which made it to the car at our house but not to the start of the walk !?) were now missed. 1.30pm by the time we got up to the top and my wife has bad knees so getting off before dark was now a minor worry. We had discussed splitting the group so that the boy and I could summit rather than come back again but, like many of the fair gender, the stubborn streak prevailed to get her up and down. The half frozen bog was our blessing as you can make pretty quick progress out, helped by the gradual descent. Poles also handy to help bog hop !
Views up top had been spectacular, one or two puffs of cotton wool so 360 degree view on offer, also got a cracking snap of kids with dogs on way down as sun started to set.
We had also passed people heading up from Tarmachan well after 2pm so I felt very sane as we headed off. Hope they all got off, am sure they would have been in the dark by the time they got back down .....
4pm back at the Farm, GPS was a bit less than 12km although I did not switch it on straight away upon departure. The other difference from the WH distance likely explained by not having to walk from the Drovers to the Farm.
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