free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
After yesterday's easy stroll on Mealna Letter, this was a totally different day out on the hills. I parked on the B847 south of Trinafour at NN707614 where there was a large passing place. There were signs telling drivers not to park in the passing places all along this road but this space is large enough to park (sensibly) on the grass and leave the passing place clear. The large metal gate opposite was padlocked so it was over the fence and off in the direction of the hut marked on the map from which a good path led across the hillside. It would have been nice to be able to stay on this path but it was not to be - it was up the steep, featureless hillside on the left, through dead bracken and heather, aiming for one skyline and then the next and the next ...... we've all been there! I paused for a breather after a while and looked back down. I could still see the car! Very dispiriting.
- Looking back down at the car
Eventually, though, Beinn a' Chuallaich came into view but that did not exactly lift my spirits. It still seemed so far away and the terrain in between looked positively hellish with its deep heather and many peat hags. It was enough to nearly bring an exasperated tear to an old hill-walker's eye.
- Beinn a' Chuallaich comes into view
Still, there was no point moaning about it - get the head down, the legs moving and push on into the corrie between the Corbett and Meall nan Eun, where, despite it being a bright sunny day, there was a strong, freezing wind, cold enough for two fleeces, a windproof and a hat. My wife couldn't believe it when I told her later as she had been sweltering back in Pitlochry. Anyway, after a clamber up on to the corrie rim at 830m, it was an easier stroll, by now on the vestiges of a track, to the summit trig and huge cairn. It was a relief to find a place out of the wind to rest and eat to regain some energy for the trudge out.
- The summit
I contemplated staying higher over Mean an Eun and heading past Loch na Caillich to the stalkers path but in the end decided just to head back the same way down into the corrie and across the moorland and I'm glad I did because somehow or other it seemed much easier and I was back at the car in an hour.
- Looking down into the corrie and the walk out