Wednesday 5th November was always going to be the best day of the week from a weather point if view. As someone who has caught the hill walking bug a bit later in life than I had wished, I was aiming for munros number 19 and 20. I know this is a small amount compared to many but it is satisfying nonetheless for me.
With the shorter days I had to time this well to give myself plenty of time to get off the hill whilst still light. So I set off at 07.00 in the dark and headed 2 hours up the road past Callander and Killin nad then over the narrow one track road past the Ben Lawers car park and onward to the Giorra Dam at the foot of both munros. Stuchd an Lochain and Meall Buidhe were the targets for today.
I arrived at 09.00 and was the first car to arrive although 20 minutes later as I looked back I was very quickly joined by a few others. I decided to set off for the tougher of the 2 hills, or so I believed, Stuchd an Lochain. Following the route map on the website and supported by my trusted Garmin GPS62, the path was easy to follow, cutting across the side of the hill before a long sharp pull up shoulder. Stopping to catch my wind a few times on the way up I notice a herd of deer coming around who stop in their tracks when the notice me on the path. They waited for me to reach the top of the shoulder before making their way across, a terrific and unexpected sight.
As I reach the top of the shoulder the remainder of this part of the walk comes into view with the summit of Stuchd an Lochain now in view on the other side of the coire. I could not help but enjoy the views as I made way around to the summit. From the summit, the Ben Nevis range looked beautiful with their snow hats on and looking back across to the Ben Lawers range they also had a covering of snow. The view across Rannoch Moor was nothing short of spectacular looking at the entrance to Glencoe and right on up to the Buchaille.
A quick bite and a coffee and I was on my way again, time was always going to be a factor today, even on a fantastic day like this. I made it back to the car park for 12.15. The car looked inviting for a sit down but that would have been a mistake as I may not have gotten back out, so march on to the beginning of the walk up Meall Buidhe.
Considering this was going to be the 'easiest' of the walks it turned out to be anything but. The first 400 metres or so seemed to be an endless peat bog as I picked a path, zig zagging my way up the hill. I have to admit about half way up I gace serious thought to turning back the under foot conditions were so poor. It was at that point I spotted a couple of walkers coming back down the way, if they could I could, so head down and tramp on.
I finally broke the initial top and now I could see the summit, thankfully a reasonably level 20 minute walk away.
Again once at the summit the views were fantastic as I did my best to spot the mountains I had already climbed, oh how I wished I had an expert with me at that point who could tell me which mountain was which. The number of mountains that could be seen was amazing.
It was time to head off and strangely enough, with a spring in my step it only took me 67 minutes to get back down, getting to my car not much after 15.30 and still a fair bit of light left in the day. Was the day worth it......you bet.