Lockdown release to Glen Tarken Grahams

[TheTortoise]

Our first real day in the hills post lockdown. Dry at last, with a mix of sun and cloud, and a cold wind to keep the midges away. We parked at Woodhouse and walked up the track past the buildings, gaining quite a bit of height. Bracken on the hillside did not tempt us to strike uphill, but when we went through a gate, we could see an open grassy hillside which looked far more inviting than the guidebook route, which seemed to involve bracken and then steep deep heather. We set off along the side of the fence, passed through a gate and just continued uphill, only having to walk through the tiniest bit of sparse bracken to gain open ground and the ridge. This route gives some nice views over Loch Earn and distant hills,

Towards St FIllans

Looking towards Lochearnhead

and the final approach to Creag Each shows a fine side of the hill.

Heading towards Creag Each

Strangely, there seemed nowhere on the summit out of the wind, it was whistling round, so we didn't hang around and descended northwards to the track. Our route did involve quite a bit of heather, but walking with a a view direct towards Lawers and Tarmachan was compensation. It seemed very strange to be walking between hills along the track past lots of little hydro intakes and some new looking stretches of pipeline, if we had had more time we would have been tempted to make a wide sweep and stay higher up. We ate lunch at the top end of the track, and the grassy hillside above looked an appealing way to the top. The guidebook says don't, it is boggy up top, so we did it anyway, and it wasn't too bad at all. We walked over an outcrop to look at the lochan,

Creag Each is not looking too interesting from here, Vorlich in the background

then set off towards the main hill.

Looking towards Creag Ruadh

Walking to the summit was straightforward, and we admired the views.

Summit photo - note the woolly hat in summer on a Graham!

Looking towards Tarmachan and Lawers

We made a little traverse to avoid crags, and followed a steep grassy slope to get off the ridge.

Looking back at the rocky summit

Then we descended across moorland to the track, and returned to the car. Apart from the tremendous satisfaction of getting back to the hills, it was fun to see July features - lots of wild mountain thyme, and numerous frogs underfoot - both absent from our earlier March trips. And we managed to avoid the other July features of bracken and midges!
Here is our approximate route.

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