Off for Two Days on the Dales Way

Tomorrow morning I am setting off for a couple of days walking on the Dales Way up Wharfedale from Ilkley to Buckden.  The following Social Hiking map shows my planned route (in pink), which should get overlaid with my progress (in orange) assuming that that I have signal and/or my SPOT works properly!  Once I've finished walking, I'll be uploading blog posts for each day at some point in the next few weeks.

See map on Social Hiking site or full size in a new window

Loch Morlich

Friday 4th October 2013 

A pleasant circular walk around Loch Morlich 

Distance: 6.5km; Ascent: negligible; Sunny; with Lynsey, Isabel and Olivia

See tracked route in new window

It was our last full day in the Cairngorms and as the weather was nice we decided to head out for a bit of a family walk.  We set off from the beach car park shortly after 11:30am and wandered down to the beach before picking up the red waymarks of the Loch Morlich Trail.

Abhainn Ruigh-eunachan

Creagan Gorm & Meall a'Bhuachaille

Soon we crossed the Abhainn Ruigh-eunachan to reach the south shores of the loch with good views back over the water towards Creagan Gorm and Meall a'Bhuachaille.  A few hundred metres further on we stopped for a picnic lunch and to enjoy the autumn sunshine down by the loch.

Meall a'Bhuachaille

Continuing along a mixture of generally good paths and tracks we soon reached the western end of the loch, where we crossed the River Luineag just downstream of the loch.

Looking up the River Luineag towards Loch Morlich

Spider near Rothiemurchus estate entrance

Soon we joined the Old Logging Way on the north side of the road, which brought us back to our starting point and the nearby sunny sandy beach, surrounded by pleasant pine woods with views of the Cairngorm peaks.

Loch Morlich beach

Pinewoods at Loch Morlich beach

Looking into the northern coires from Loch Morlich beach

Pine tree on the sandy Loch Morlich beach