Snow on the Trans Pennine Trail

Thursday 29th January 2015

A few photos from a snowy walk along the Stockport to Didsbury section of the Trans Pennine Trail.

Heading down Gorsey Bank Road towards the footbridge

Looking up the Mersey from Gorsey Bank footbridge

Between the M60 and Vale Road

Near Green Pastures

posted from Bloggeroid

TGOC 2014 - Day 9: Glen Dee to Braemar

Saturday 17th May 2014

A low level walk down Glen Dee to Braemar, via Linn of Dee and the Morrone Birkwood 

Distance: 21.5km; Ascent: 330m; Dry with rain later; mainly with Andrew W and others

See tracked route in new window

After yesterday's wonderful long day on the hills, I opted to have a leisurely start this morning unlike Sue who was up early to head over more hills.  However I was due into Braemar this afternoon, which meant that I had a reasonably easy day's walk down Glen Dee :-).  I had a lovely view up the glen towards The Devil's Point and Carn a'Mhaim from the tent whilst I enjoyed breakfast and a cup of coffee.

What a view to wake up to on a Saturday morning!  (The Devil's Point and Carn a'Mhaim)

Looking up Glen Dee towards the Lairig Ghru

The sky had mainly clouded over by the time I had packed up and set off walking at around 9am.  The path on the west bank of the Dee made for reasonably easy walking, with pleasant views up and down the glen.  Today being a Saturday, it wasn't long before I met some other walkers - the first of many groups, who were presumably heading up the Munros of Monadh Mor and Beinn Bhrotain for the day.

Looking back up Glen Dee to The Devil's Point

Looking down Glen Dee towards White Bridge

Looking back up Glen Dee towards Beinn Bhrotain

At around twenty past ten I reached White Bridge, where I joined the main track that comes down Glen Geldie.  Here I joined one of my previous TGOC routes, as I had followed the Feshie-Geldie route back in 2008 with Lynsey.  It seemed to be incredibly busy at White Bridge this morning, with getting on for 50 walkers from a couple of different groups all stopped for a break when I arrived!

The River Dee at White Bridge

I pushed on past White Bridge wondering when I'd bump into my first challenger of the day.  Soon my wondering was answered as I spotted Andy a few hundred metres ahead of me, still with a yellow balloon attached to his rucksack from the cheese and wine party several days earlier!

Looking back up towards the Feshie-Geldie watershed

Picking up my pace I soon caught up with Andy, who was currently walking with David Brown.  I tagged along with them and enjoyed chatting to them both as we headed along the vehicle track to reach the Linn of Dee.  It was quite a warm day so we stopped for a leisurely break at the Linn of Dee and spent time looking at the waterfalls, which I'd not done before having previously just viewed them from the road bridge.

The Linn of Dee

Linn of Dee Bridge

The Linn of Dee

After a relaxing break and a bite to eat we set off walking along a path through the woods on the north bank of the Dee to see how much road walking we might manage to avoid.  The answer was little more than 500 metres, but it was still a pleasant woodland stroll!

A Walker in the Woods

Heading back uphill towards the road

The pleasant woodland alternative to the road

As we left the woodland path and rejoined the road, who should appear but Alan and Phil who'd walked down the road from Linn of Dee.  We walked with the for a couple of kilometres down the road to reach a welcome sign at the start of the access track to Mar Lodge :-).  I'd walked past Mar Lodge on a couple of previous challenges but hadn't stopped before, so I decided to rectify this today and dropped in for a break.  There were a number of other challengers here and it was good to stop to chat to them all over a cup of tea :-)

A welcome sign :-)

Mar Lodge

The inside of the Mar Lodge ballroom

The inside of the Mar Lodge ballroom

We spent the best part of an hour at Mar Lodge, including taking a look inside the ballroom whose interior decoration was not really to my taste!  We crossed Victoria Bridge to reach the road, which we followed for a couple of kilometres.  Here I opted to deviate from my planned route and ascended up a forest track in the rain, heading for the Morrone Birkwood (a route that had previously been recommended to me by Mr Grumpy back in 2008).

Crossing Victoria Bridge

Andy and David were also heading this way, and we walked together up the muddy track past a small lochan to reach the edge of the Morrone Birkwoods National Nature Reserve, from where our onward route was along the signposted circular walk.

Small lochan on the way to the Morrone Birkwood

Entering the Morrone Birkwoods

Challengers in the Morrone Birkwoods

After a pleasant wander through the Morrone Birkwoods we reached a viewpoint indicator above Braemar, from where there were good views under the somewhat hazy and cloudy sky this afternoon.

Viewpoint indicator above Braemar

Challengers looking at the views ;)

From here it was all downhill to Braemar, which we reached at around 3pm and headed straight for the Fife Arms, where I had decided to stay this year.  I checked in, picked up my parcel, unpacked and enjoyed an afternoon and evening of relaxing and catching up with lots of other challengers over a few beers :-)

TGOC 2014 - Day 8: Ruigh Aiteachain to Glen Dee

Friday 16th May 2014

An excellent high level day over four Munros between Glen Feshie and Glen Dee 

Distance: 30km; Ascent: 1470m; Sunny but quite windy on the tops; with Sue O

See tracked route in new window

The hills were under a blanket of low cloud when I met Sue outside the bothy this morning for our day of Munro bagging; we hoped the forecasted lifting of the cloud in the morning would turn out to be correct!  At 8am we set off walking, initially retracing yesterday's steps for the best part of a kilometre, before picking up the vehicle track that climbs up towards the plateau.

Looking across Glen Feshie to Carn Dearg Mor

Coire Garbhlach

The track made for very quick progress and it wasn't long before we we looking into the misty Coire Garbhlach, and around here we passed another challenger heading into the high hills for the day. As we continued to ascend the cloud gradually began to clear, with most of it having cleared by around 9:30am.  We detoured south for around a kilometre to visit our first windy summit of the day: Mullach Clach a'Bhlair (Munro, HuMP).

On the summit of Mullach Clach a'Bhlair

Returning to the LRT we headed northeast across the plateau, before stopping for a break in the slight depression formed by the upper part of the Caochan Dubh burn.  I was keen to include Sgor Gaoith in today's walk, which would result in a detour of around 7km - luckily Sue was quite happy to have a long day in the hills as well!

Continuing onwards, we left the LRT after around a kilometre to head NW to the summit of Carn Ban Mor (Munro Top), before we continued NNE towards Sgor Gaoith in a strengthening westerly wind.  Approaching Sgor Gaoith from this direction, it just looked like a small lump in the moorland but as we got closer it revealed it's true nature and we were rewarded with excellent views of it's craggy eastern side above Loch Einich.

Heading up the southern slopes of Sgor Gaoith

The impressive craggy arete on the east side of Sgor Gaoith

Looking across the head of Loch Einich towards Carn na Criche and Monadh Mor

Shortly before midday, we reached the very windy summit of Sgor Gaoith (Munro, Marilyn), which I didn't dare stand up on as it is perched above the precipice of the east face and there was a pretty strong westerly wind today!  Therefore I briefly sat on the summit instead to avoid being blown over, whilst admiring the truely fantastic views out over the main Cairngorm hills to the east and over the Moine Mhor towards our next hills of the day: Monadh Mor and Beinn Bhrotain.

On the summit of Sgor Gaoith

Carn na Criche and Loch Einich from Sgor Gaoith

Gleann Einich, Braeriach and Loch Einich

Looking NNW from Sgor Gaoith

We retraced our steps southwards towards Carn Ban Mor in strong winds, before heading SE after a kilometre and a half aiming for a faint track we could pick out traversing the northern slopes of Tom Dubh.  We could pick out a handful of people in the distance across the Moine Mhor, who looked to be heading in a variety of directions towards Braeriach, Cairn Toul and Monadh Mor.  In fact seeing these people in the distance helped demonstrate the huge scale of the Moine Mhor, or Great Moss.  It was a fantastic day to out on the hills :-)

Heading back down the south ridge of Sgor Gaoith

At around 13:20, we stopped for lunch in the small amount of shelter afforded by a cairn on the northern slopes of Tom Dubh.  I nipped off to the south to visit a couple of cairns on the summit of Tom Dubh (Munro Top), before returning to our slightly sheltered spot for lunch.  From here we could pick out what looked to be a sensible looking route onwards to our next objective: Monadh Mor.

One of the several cairns on Tom Dubh, with Carn na Criche, Sgor an Lochain Uaine and Carn Toul beyond

We descended slightly to reach the partially snow covered Allt Luineag, which looked to be surprisingly full today - I presume due to the ongoing melting of the large number of snow patches still remaining high up in the hills.  To cross this without getting cold, wet feet necessitated a detour of a few hundred metres upstream to where the burn was braided into two separate channels.

The Allt Luineag

Once safely across the Allt Luineag, we picked a route in a more or less south-easterly direction up Monadh Mor, following a burn for some of the first kilometre.  As we ascended the ground became more bouldery, which necessitated a slow down in our pace due to the combination of the rocky ground and today's strong winds.  Nevertheless, we eventually reached the cairn on the summit of Monadh Mor (Munro, HuMP) at around 3pm, where we stopped for a short while to admire the truly fantastic views!

Monadh Mor summit cairn, with Beinn Bhrotain beyond

Carn na Criche, Braeriach, Sgor an Lochain Uaine and Carn Toul from Monadh Mor summit

On the summit of Monadh Mor

Not wanting to linger too long on the exposed summit, we soon continued towards our final hill of the day: Beinn Bhrotain.  There were a fair number of snow patches still on the southern ridge of Monadh Mor, but we were able to easily avoid them all as we skirted the southern top to reach the top of the steep descent down to the 975m unnamed bealach.

Traversing the very windy southern slopes of Monadh Mor (hence the tilted camera angle!)

Beinn Bhrotain from the SSE slopes of Monadh Mor

Looking across the 975m bealach to the steep climb ahead up Beinn Bhrotain

Snow on the eastern slopes of Monadh Mor

From the bealach there was a good view across to Beinn Bhrotain, where we could pick out a path up the first half of the ascent before it looked to become bouldery again.  Picking our way carefully down the steep slope we reached the 975m bealach, where we stopped for a quick break in this marginally more sheltered spot!  Continuing on, we ascended up the steep slopes on the eastern side of the bealach to reach the trigpoint on the the summit of Beinn Bhrotain (Munro, Marilyn) at 4:15pm.

The summit of Beinn Bhrotain

On the summit of Beinn Bhrotain

Carn na Criche to Ben Macdui from Beinn Bhrotain summit

Again the views were excellent from this vantage point, which was actually my highest point on my route for this year's TGO Challenge.  I'm not sure I've ever had quite such expansive views when out walking in the Cairngorms before!  My original plan had been to follow the SSE shoulder of Beinn Bhrotain down towards the Munro Top of Carn Cloich-mhuilinn.  However as it appeared that the wind had noticeably strengthened throughout the afternoon, Sue and I were both keen to get out off the wind as soon as possible.  Therefore instead we opted to descend eastwards along the pleasant clear waters of the Allt Garbh.

The lovely clear waters of the Allt Garbh

Looking across Glen Dee to Sgor Mor

After much walking down through pathless heather we finally reached the floor of Glen Dee, and as it was now almost 6pm we started to look for somewhere to camp.  We didn't have to look far as we found a pleasant spot to camp in Glen Dee a short distance to the south of the Allt Garbh.  It had been a long day in the hills, but easily one of the best hill-walking days I've had this year :-).

During the early evening, the sky clouded over and there was light rain whilst I was cooked my dinner in the porch.  I must have been tired that evening, as after eating dinner I managed to fall asleep without zipping up the inner tent!  Not to worry, there'd be plenty of time for rest over the next couple of days as I only had half-day walks planned in and out of Braemar.

Our pitch for the evening in Glen Dee