Glenmore weekend (with Cairn Gorm)
Route: Cairn Gorm and the northern corries
Munros: Cairn Gorm
Date walked: 10/09/2023
Time taken: 7 hours
Distance: 17km
Ascent: 750m
Turned out I had a suprise free weekend - and the weather was nice. So, after a bit of deliberating, I picked somewhere where I could get a hostel bed, as I wasn't in the mood for camping and, more importantly, somewhere I can actually reach via public transport since I've yet to get a car.
Settled on Glenmore, since I never got around to going there - headed out early on Saturday, arrived at Loch Morlich sometime after noon. Decided to go for a relaxed walk, see some sights, so I went for the walk up to Ryvoan Pass and next to An Lochan Uaine. After wondering if I'm on the right route (it does start with a quite unassuming road going behind the Reindeer Centre) the road became a trail (a very rocky one later on and I was glad I did it in this direction as I had the pleasure of going down and not up). Led to An Lochan Uaine which was lovely, as expected, though a bit crowded, so I stared at the ducks for a while and went on to the pass.
I had no particular goal aside from walking a bit till I decide it's enough so I got a bit past the bothy, saw the incoming rain in the distance and decided that perhaps it's time to go back.
The benefit of the slight rain was that on the way back there were far fewer people. And I had the whole evening for walking in the general vicinity of Loch Morlich and the singular pub that charges more for beer than Edinburgh (but I still got some, so I can't complain too much - in my defence it was raining, what else can you do) before it was time to wrap up and go to the hostel.
Next day I woke up early, saw that actually there is no morning bus to Cairn Gorm parking lot because it's Sunday, so then had some time to have a morning coffee since it was either that or walking to the start along a road for a good 7km and that did not sound fun. Got to the base around 10ish and started going up.
Multiple forecasts said it was going to be a lovely day with no clouds at all till late afternoon. Of course it looked like this when I started walking up. I find it slightly hilarious because when I checked the weather staring at the cloud it was still saying cloudless skies - and if I remember right Cairn Gorm has an unmanned weather station at the top
Though it did clear by the time I got to the top so that's a win. By then it was 12. Now, the thing was, because of how buses and trains and their timings (for some reason each and every bus from Glemore arrives to Aviemore around 5-10 min after the train to Edinburgh departs) and the fact that it's Sunday I had a choice of either going down the nice route with northern corries and catching the last train sometime around 7pm, probably killing a few hours in Aviemore or go down the same route at a brisk pace to make it to a bus just before 2pm and on the earlier train before 4pm. I was hoping for an option mid-way but there were some rail issues with one route that had buses as a substitute.
Well, I deeply dislike travelling on the last train after being stranded by one so brisk walk down it was. Still had an hour to kill in Aviemore but since I had coffee I had everything I needed.
The moral of the story - none, really, getting places via public transport is just like that, nothing to be done aside from accepting the non-standard schedule and chilling out for a while. A nice weekend trip considering my summer ended up being chaotic enough that I didn't really get to do much hiking.
Settled on Glenmore, since I never got around to going there - headed out early on Saturday, arrived at Loch Morlich sometime after noon. Decided to go for a relaxed walk, see some sights, so I went for the walk up to Ryvoan Pass and next to An Lochan Uaine. After wondering if I'm on the right route (it does start with a quite unassuming road going behind the Reindeer Centre) the road became a trail (a very rocky one later on and I was glad I did it in this direction as I had the pleasure of going down and not up). Led to An Lochan Uaine which was lovely, as expected, though a bit crowded, so I stared at the ducks for a while and went on to the pass.
I had no particular goal aside from walking a bit till I decide it's enough so I got a bit past the bothy, saw the incoming rain in the distance and decided that perhaps it's time to go back.
The benefit of the slight rain was that on the way back there were far fewer people. And I had the whole evening for walking in the general vicinity of Loch Morlich and the singular pub that charges more for beer than Edinburgh (but I still got some, so I can't complain too much - in my defence it was raining, what else can you do) before it was time to wrap up and go to the hostel.
Next day I woke up early, saw that actually there is no morning bus to Cairn Gorm parking lot because it's Sunday, so then had some time to have a morning coffee since it was either that or walking to the start along a road for a good 7km and that did not sound fun. Got to the base around 10ish and started going up.
Multiple forecasts said it was going to be a lovely day with no clouds at all till late afternoon. Of course it looked like this when I started walking up. I find it slightly hilarious because when I checked the weather staring at the cloud it was still saying cloudless skies - and if I remember right Cairn Gorm has an unmanned weather station at the top
Though it did clear by the time I got to the top so that's a win. By then it was 12. Now, the thing was, because of how buses and trains and their timings (for some reason each and every bus from Glemore arrives to Aviemore around 5-10 min after the train to Edinburgh departs) and the fact that it's Sunday I had a choice of either going down the nice route with northern corries and catching the last train sometime around 7pm, probably killing a few hours in Aviemore or go down the same route at a brisk pace to make it to a bus just before 2pm and on the earlier train before 4pm. I was hoping for an option mid-way but there were some rail issues with one route that had buses as a substitute.
Well, I deeply dislike travelling on the last train after being stranded by one so brisk walk down it was. Still had an hour to kill in Aviemore but since I had coffee I had everything I needed.
The moral of the story - none, really, getting places via public transport is just like that, nothing to be done aside from accepting the non-standard schedule and chilling out for a while. A nice weekend trip considering my summer ended up being chaotic enough that I didn't really get to do much hiking.
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Easy start of the year
This post is not published on the Walkhighlands forumFionas: Ben Cleuch
Donalds: Ben Cleuch
Date walked: 25/03/2023
Distance: 9.5km
Views: 9
Foggy Allermuir Hill
Sub 2000s: Allermuir HillDate walked: 13/05/2021
Distance: 6km
Ascent: 385m
Views: 699
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