by andyfitz » Sun Oct 17, 2010 4:52 pm
Date walked: 16/10/2010
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Ah, The quiet, calm serenity of an early morning rise. Time for contemplation and reflection, meditation and thanksgiving, strong coffee and a fag. A moment of rare isolation in ones own home. Shared only with the early rising blackbird and goldfinches in the garden. Autumn. Its one of my top three seasons, no mistake.
Better get the walking boots out the cupboard - pandamonium ensues. The dogs go bananas. They know theres a walk in the offing and they have an idea that they are not all going. Three Labradors a weimeraner and a miniture daschund jostle for position. This involves a lot of barking and running into things. "Be quiet, are you insane?" Seems like daughter number two has stirred from her slumber. She's not alone in that. The calm that pervaded only moments ago seems to have dissipated somewhat. I grab a Labrador and make a sharp exit.
Scott and I are heading to Glen Affric to walk the aforementioned hills. As we approached Inverness he asked, "do you know where we're going?"..."Yes I do". After a not inconsiderable amount of extra miles he realised his question would have been more appropriately framed if he had asked, "do you know how to get to where we're going?"
The drive into Glen Affric is really nice. The drive along Loch Beinn a' Mheadhoin is spectacular. At this point I should have shared with you all a photograph of the plate glass loch surface, reflecting the browns, golds, yellows and greens of a perfect autumn morning. However the time lost due to my poor navigational skills, the lack of a proper camera or any ability in photography preclude this. I'll leave you to imagine that in your minds eye.
The starting point of this walk is not difficult to locate. Just before a bridge the path bears of to the left. There is, at the start of the path, a large sign indicating "the Chisholms were here" - or something along these lines. I don't know if these are the same Chisholms I know. Awfy nice people, though I don't know why they would have moved to Airdrie. Glen Affric is really nice and Airdrie,.......well it's a bit of a dump.
The route starts with an excellent track with easy gradient.
The track soon deteriorates to a boggy path before a small cairn indicates a right turn towards the target hills.
After a short time the choice requires to be made. Either keep going to the bealach or take on the steep ridge to Tom a' Choinich. The latter looked much more interesting so the choice was made.
A stiff climb to the first summit was rewarded by fine views to Loch Mullardoch and her hills - and views way beyond in all directions on a crystal clear day.
Headed east on to the second summit. Toll Creagach is unremarkable in many respects. It's a bit of a pull to get to the top and an easy descent south from the summit - if a bit boggy. The first wildlife of the day were sighted on this hill. Masses of flocking birds (Golden plover I think), Ptarmigan, crows and lots of mice.
Back to the car after about 5hours 40 mins of walking - plenty of rests on the steep bits to take in the views.
I'm going back here - soon.
This report would have been more detailed re the walk if I had not got freaked by the fact I have no idea how to get the photos in order.I need a tutorial.
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