Am Faochagach - up and back with with dry feet!

[gld73]

Having finished a run of night shifts on Monday morning I was in need of a good night's sleep on Mon night-Tues morning, so no early alarm calls. Beautiful weather though, so had to go somewhere, just not too far afield and not too long a walk; Am Faochagach seemed to fit the bill, a munro not too far from Inverness with only about 700m of actual ascent. I'd shied away from doing it before because of the river crossing and generally bogginess, but after several days of dry weather, it seemed as good a day as any to give it a bash.

Being a late starter, I wasn't surprised to find the parking area full, but there was room for me to park alongside on the grass verge. (The other cars must have all been for people heading south to do the eastern Fannichs, as I didn't meet anyone in the next 5hrs). At 11:45 I crossed over the road, over the stile, and straight into the well publicised bog. But that was about it for the next 14km! All bogginess after that was either dried out or easily avoided

So I followed the route to the river. Having read several walk reports, I'd gone prepared and had a pair of walking sandals to change into for the wade across. But I arrived to find that the path took me right to a place where there were stones to get across on with the water at that level, and asides from a couple of wobbles steadied with the walking pole, I got across without any fuss or wet feet. So with the part I'd expected to be the most challenging easily overcome, it was just a case of heading up the hill in the sunshine.

Looking back at the route just crossed

Faint path can be seen heading up to the bealach

It didn't take long for the great views to start appearing, Ben Dearg in particular looking impressive. Approaching the top of the bealach, there were some small cairns which were of no particular use on a day like this (so I thought...) but which might be useful in clag to know you're in the right place. It was then a case of turning left, heading over the 844m point, and onwards towards the flattish summit of Am Faochagach.

Ascent route to Am Faochagach summit, nothing too steep

As mentioned in one walk report, in worse visibility it would be easy to follow the wrong track and head down the Meall Gorm ridge rather than straight on and up to Am Faochagach, but the 2 tracks were easy to see on this walk.

Take the left one to the summit, not the right one to Meall Gorm

So up to the summit on the 2-cairn plateau and a chance to enjoy the 360-deg views.

Beinn Dearg with An Teallach behind

Cul Mor and Suilven

Ben Wyvis from Am Faochagach summit

Beinn Dearg

Fannichs

The return was back the same way .... except I ended up on the ATV tracks which I hadn't used on the way up, and managed to go straight past the small cairns showing where to turn down at the bealach. Think I'd just been daydreaming as I wandered along the track, if I'd stuck to my outward route of no track and had to think about where I was, I would have been fine! Still, I soon realised I'd sailed right past my turn off when I found myself heading up the next high point, so quickly managed to rectify the mistake.

From then on, it was back down to the river where I arrived back at the point I'd crossed before. Of course this time it didn't look so appealing, so I wandered down the river a bit, only to end up back at my original point a few minutes later when I decided it was the best place after all. My little riverside wander did mean coming across these though:

A year after samanthaanne89's report featuring the mysterious shoes, they are still patiently waiting for a pair of feet to take them across the river ....

The "mysterious shoes" mentioned in a walk report in June 2017!! - a year later and they're still there, just a bit faded and curled ...

Back to the car in a fraction under 5hrs after an enjoyable walk with good views. And dry feet

[Jokester]

Going to be heading up there this Sunday, with the continued dry weather (though some showers forecast tomorrow it seems) I'm hoping to ford the river without much fuss as well!

[sunshine65]

Bog have gone at present make Hay I am glad you are doing the numbers so hard to enjoy with goos weather

[annsd]

Enjoyed your report - those shoes are a mystery! I'll see if they are still there when I head up soon