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This was my first solo munro. No one was able to join me for a walk so I chose one that looked quite straight forward with no hairy scarey bits, after a wee bit of research, Meall Chuaich fitted the bill. Since my wife was working and Granny was looking after the kids I decided to make the most of the early brightness and set off from my house at 6am and stated my walk at 7.15am. Heading from Inveness towads Dalwhinnie,I thought I would have the roads to myself, no such luck, it was full of lorries, so the journey was slow. I parked at layby 94 just past Chuaich cottage as per WH report and headed back along the side of the A9 to the gate and the track.
- Looking south to the layby from the start gate/track.
From other reports it's about a 3 mile walk to the base of the hill and others had cycled this part on the hydro track, so I decided to do the same. This took 30 mins and probably saved me an hour on my walk by doing this. At the stat the track heads up hill(gently) until you get to a gate and the hydro track and river.
Cycling along, the track was pot holed but passable on my mountain bike.
- The Hydro Track
. Soon the track crossed ove the river and took you past the Hydro Station.
Just beyond the station the track goes over a bridge and splits, take the left fork.
- Go left at the fork.
At the next fork go left again.
- Left fork again.
The track eventually takes you to the Dam and Loch Cuaich but before you reach it, take the track to the right that takes you to the bothy.
- Loch Cuaichd
At the bothy I parked the bike and set off on foot along a wooden bridge.
- Bothy with Stac Meall Chuaich in the background.
- Wooden bridge
The track takes a right turn to follow Allt Coire Chuaich and there is a route going up that way but decided to take the well worn path up the side of Stac Meall Chuaich.
- As the track heads off to the right, you can see the well worn path headig up Stac Meall Chuaich.
The path is easy to follow, a bit muddy in bits, and after 1 3/4 hrs from the start I was at the Summit Cairn. Unfortunatly the Cloud base was right down so I had absolutely no view.
- The easy to follow path to the summit.
- Munro No. 10 bagged, thank goodness for the self timer device on the camera.
The summit is flat and featureless,well it was in the mist, so without much further ado, I headed off. I decided to take another route back as I had made good time so I had some time to play with. I retraced my route back for a bit but as the weather was good, I decided to go down the other side of Stac Meall Chuaich, which would take me to the far side of Loch Cuaich and a hydro track back to the Dam.
- My route back down, to the right of Stac Meall Chuaich
- The terrain was heathery, with lots of wet moss, quite soft and springy.
Iheaded for a river and decided to follow it down. at this point it got quite steep and at parts I had to hold onto the heather and slither down.
- Following the rive down.
- Looking back up the route I took down, by the river.
- Nearly back on the track, looking towads Loch Cuaich.
After a scramble over a deer fence, I was back on the track and heading round the Loch.
- The track round the Loch
Soon I was back at the Dam and onto the bike.
- The dam
On the route back I encountered this Grouse crossing the Track.
- The Famous Grouse
At 11.45 am I was back at my car. Not the most spectacular of Munros but a nice introduction to going solo.