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It took a wee bit of organising but eventually managed to get out with my brother to walk Lochnagar. The plan was to start there and see how the weather/mood/fitness levels were taking us.
I told him I'd like to try for all five on the circuit if we could and told him it was about 12 miles or so. Oops.
The forecast was for the weather to brighten up mid-morning and as we drove along Glen Muick we could see Lochnagar slipping in and out of (but mainly in) the cloud. I was a bit wary as neither of us had been up Lochnagar before but brotherly bravado forced us onwards.
After a bit we came to the crossing.
- Too early to get wet feet.
I stopped to take a pic of my bro crossing, but managed to drop my camera staright into the water. Thankfully it's my old mobile and not too important. I found it quickly but the piccy taking was curtailed a wee bit for the rest of the day.
We followed the path and turned left at the wee cairn to climb Lochnagar. I'd read some reports but I wasn't really prepared to see what seemed like a row of giant teeth sticking up into the air. The blowing cloud added the dramatic effect but seeing the cliff face for the first time was breathtaking.
- Coming into view.
We pressed on up the ladder and soon found ourselves at the summit with cloud sneaking in towards us from the cliff face. Not having walked in cloud before we didn't know what to expect so we headed quickly for the summit where the cloud surrounded us.
- At the summit in the cloud.
As quickly as it came in though, it went.
- Miekle Pap
- Across to The Stuick
After a bite we headed back the way we'd come from to head to Carn a Choire Bhoidheach. Not the most exciting of summits but it counts as a Munro. A couple of pics taken by bro then we're off again towards Carn an t-Sagairt Mor. This part of the path was a wee bit of a boggy trudge in places but on the way up I remembered about the Canberra plane crash that I'd read about so we were keeping our eyed peeled and trying to avoid puddles at the same time. We followed the path around the base before climbing from the south, still seeing nothing of a plane. Having reached the summit, with rain starting to fall, we had a wee look around down the slopes to the north east and saw a few bits and pieces of the plane.
- A piece of the Canberra
We climbed back to the top then back to the path towards Cairn Bannoch for another bite to eat. We then set off south east for Broad Cairn but by the time we got to it the rain was pouring down. Looking around me the sky seemed to be clearing but the rain wasn't so we barely stopped at our fifth summit of the day. As we decended through the Broad Cairn boulder field (not the easiest part of the day), Loch Muick was just about in view when, for the first time in my life, I found myself looking DOWN on a rainbow. Weird.
- Somewhere over the rainbow.....
We took the high road back (rather than cutting directly down the path to Loch Muick) and got some great views over the loch as we walked. Glas allt Shiel looked fantastic set in the forestry but my camera by now had given up the ghost.
To descend to the level of the loch we walked down the zig zag, hairpin bend path, and were fairly amazed to see landrover tracks on it. Rather that driver than me. My knees were now aching as I walked down the hill but eased again when we hit the flat. Having mentioned this later to a mate he told me a story of someone he knows who did a lot of Munros in years gone by and wrecked his knees so I reckon I'll have to invest in some walking poles.
As we headed back to the car park, it was about 6pm, we tried to count the number of deer around us in three herds. I lost count at about 120. My phone pics don't do the encounter justice I'm afraid.
- Lots and lots of deer.
It took us about 9 hours and it was only when I spoke to my brother the next day he told me we'd walked 18 miles, not the 12 I'd told him. Despite the miscalculation (I'll look more closely at walk reports next time) we were pleased with our feat. It was his first Munro bagging experience so he was chuffed to get 5 in a day.