Ben Dearag By Blair Atholl

Ben Dearg By Blair Atholl

 

 

5/6/2011 Off out for a huge walk with a bike too.

 

 

    Ben Dearg is a fair old hike in from the road. I think you are looking at 29km + there and back.

Yet you only get one Munro for your trouble.

   Graham and I decided to tackle it in 2011 and as Mike, Grahams brother had not climbed it he would meet us at Blair Atholl and come along.

  Bikes would be a good idea on this wee walk as a lot of it is on Landrover track. Graham had not long got a new car which needed special roof brackets to take a rack for bikes - at a stupid price of course. So we would take my car and my trusty bike rack I bought in a sale from Toys Are Us of all places I think.

Graham and I set off from Alford with the bikes on the back of the car over the Devil's Elbow and down to Blair Atholl where we would meet Mike, as he lives down south.

  After a few phone calls between Graham and Mike we met in Blair Atholl and headed to the carpark just past the old bridge of Tilt.

   There were a few cars there already but we got parked no problem. Just as we were starting to kit up for the walk a couple went past us heading for Ben Dearg on foot. I'll refer to them as Mr & Mrs Walker from now on as we were to interact with them a few times during the day. Said hello and they went off ahead. Got the bikes ready and we set off up the tarred road heading for old Blair.

 



Mike sorting out my kit before we set off for Ben Dearg - Graham's Photo.
I had swung my pole bag over my shoulder but that proved to be a right pain as it kept slipping down as we went along.
 The two fit *****s shot off ahead of me as I puffed and panted my way up the tarred road behind them.
Silly time now.

 

The two of them biked up through the forest most of the way and I pushed my bike most of the way,

with the damn pole bag slipping down most of the time.

 

 

 

I stopped and chatted with Mr & Mrs Walker and then walked along with them pushing the bike up the long hills, till I reached a flatter bit and then off on the bike trying to catch up with Graham and Mike. It's a long pull up the track.

 



Graham's photo. 

Mike in the distance coming up the track. You would need the Hubble telescope to see me in the distance! The track twists and turns over a few bridges and is rough in some places but it's mostly up hill with a few steep bits to. After 8.71km there's a real treat - a big downhill into Alt Sheicheachan and the Sheicheachan bothie is at the bottom of the hill. We would stop here for a bit to eat, I think it was about lunch time by the time we got there. There was a rough tough old hillwalker camped out inside, I think he had spent the night there. He didn't seem to like a lot of people around so it was not long before he skedaddled and left the place to us.

 Alt Sheicheachan bothy Graham's Photo.
 

We would leave the bikes here and walk the rest of the way. P.S. its like a normal walk from here.

 Inside the bothy Graham's photo.
 

It's well equipped there's even a spade.
 After lunch I padlocked the bikes together and we set off walking along Alt Sheicheachan heading north east. There's a wee burn just behind the bothy to cross but it's easy enough to get over.
 

Graham and Mike in  Allt Sheicheachan. Nice flat walk through here about 2km to the end from the bothy. We walked along to the end of the glen where the wide path heads off to the south. But the path we would take is off to the north east, a single footpath that winds back and forth to take off the steepness. Once you get to about 750m it levels out a good bit and it's just a long haul to the top.

Mike and me coming up Meal Dubh a' Dial-ghairt on the path to Ben Dearg.
Graham's Photo.
 

After you get off the steeper bit it's about 2km to the top. There's not much to navigate by in the mist here.



I was getting tired by this time and we stopped for a short break before the final push to the summit.

Mike and Graham head off with the summit in sight off to the right.
 

Just one more big up after this to the top.

 Graham's Photo
 

It's not that big an up but after the hike to get here it seemed pretty big to me.
Not long after we reached the top a guy with his dogs came bounding up. He had been up a few hills that day to get here with the dogs and did not look any worse the wear for it. Don't you just hate really fit folk ! He stayed for a while and then set off at a good pace to the south over a few more hills to get back to his car.



This is where he came up from, not the first or second glen you see but the third.

 He took the mandatory photos of the 3 of us at the top.
 

Mike, Graham and I on the summit of Ben Dearg.
Mike had taken nursery bear with him so he had to get his photo taken too.

Graham's photo
 

Nursery bear has bagged a few Munros too.
 While we were sitting having a coffee at the top Mr and Mrs Walker arrived. Not bad as they had walked all the way from the car park, the two of them were seasoned Munro baggers and if they had not bagged all 284?, 283? or now 282 Munros they were pretty close to it. Now that it's the Fisherfield 5 and a Corbet. It was still a Munro when I climbed it so I'm sticking to the 283 number.
I have climbed the 284th but it was reduced to a Corbet by then. With Brian and Willy Windows but that's another story for another day.

  Photos taken, Mike and Graham set off in front of me down the hill.
 

Graham and Mike heading down which involves going up a bit.

  It's a long walk out and as we were heading down Meal dubh nan Dearcrag which has a bit of a switch back path. I got fed up and had one of those what the ???? am I doing here moments.
 No idea why, decided on route one down the hill to shorten the journey while Mike and Graham followed the path ahead of me.
 Still not that happy I followed Mike and Graham down the switch back path into Allt Sheicheachan.

Mike on the switch back path, Graham's photo.
 

We stopped for a while when we reached the landrover track and it was now only about 2km back to the bothy where the bikes were.
   Graham and Mike walked ahead chatting and I decided to film the walk for the last 11 minutes leading to the bothy.
   Back at the bothy and  time for a coffee. Sorted out the kit for biking and then realised there was a ??????? big hill on the way out of Allt Sheicheachan. This is where we all wished we had left the bikes at the top of the hill.
 A lot of puffing and panting later we reached the top and guess what it's near enough all down hill from here. It was agreed that Mike and Graham would wait for old slow coach at a cairn not far from the wood. Mike set off like a bat out of hell on the rough Landrover track followed by Graham and of course last but not least the old Dinosaur. The two of them were soon out of sight on the Landrover track and I was making a good pace behind them.
  Now Mr and Mrs Walker were  futher down the track and not expecting Mike to pass them at about 30mph.
 

Graham flew past not long after, by the time I reached them they had recovered. I shouted to warn them I was coming at a good rate too. I stopped with them for a minute and they regaled the tale of a maniac on a bike scaring the s--- out of them.  Not really sure what to say about it I departed their company and headed for the rendezvous at the cairn. Yahoo downhill all the way, now making a good pace now. I arrived at the cairn to find Mike and Graham waiting for me.

Graham at the cairn.
 

Graham's Photo
 

Mike at the cairn, Graham's Photo.
 

Even better news it's 99% down hill to the car park with only a small up through the woods.
In no time at all we were all back at the car park, me being the last there of course.
We loaded up the bikes and set off on an important mission with Mike heading south and Graham and I heading North. The mission - find the chip shop. I think Graham and I waited till we got to Aboyne chip shop as it's pretty good before we stopped but that could have been another trip.
Took Graham home and headed home to unpack the car etc.

PS Mike now wanted for speeding in the hills LOL.

A we bit I added after Mike left a coment.

Hope you enjoyed my wee tale of a long walk.
The cartoons take a long time to make but a wee bit of fun to do.
Dino60.
 

Beinn Bhuidhe

Now this hill had been anoying me for a while. I had it flagged on Memory Map as it was the furthest south I had not yet climbed, it was just one of them hills you want to climb for no real apparent reason. Well apart from to bag a Munro and that I like climbing single hills anyway - no idea why!

What's left of the Beinn Bhuidhe trig point.

   I started off by calling this hill Ben Faraway as it was a fair old hike to get to it from Alford, around 160 miles each way. As neither Graham nor myself had climbed this hill I asked Graham if he would like to come too. After a bit of study Graham thought it would be better to take our bikes with us, remembering the long walk out from Slioch and this would be a longer walk in and out. So it was agreed we'd take the bikes. I had a new bike to try out which I had retrieved from the dump and sorted up.
  Sunday 8th of July we set off at 5a.m. with the bikes on the back of my car heading for Arrochor or at least that's what I put into the sat nav.
 We were heading for Braemar and the Devil's Elbow, then had a pit stop at Glenshee. Now it was about 6.25a.m. when we got there and although it was daylight it was quite dull. The good news is the toilets are always open but the power comes from a generator - I can hear your brains ticking as to what's coming next.  The generator is not on at that time in the morning and if you have to go in a dark cubical ... hmm!! head torch to the rescue, hill kit comes in handy not only on the hill.
    I had breakfast here which I had brought with me and Graham had his cig. As we were leaving we spotted this sign which amused us.  

  Headed south over the Devil's elbow and turned off to head for Pitlochery further down the road.
By the time we reached Aberfeldy Graham was looking for a shop to get some breakfast so we stopped at Kenmore at the end of Loch Tay, where the local hotel has a deal with the council to let you use the toilets and they've got lights lol. Every time we go in there the cleaner arrives.
 The local shop usually has my favorite  ginger beer but not today. Graham had a poke around to get some breakfast but did not find anything. We pushed on along Loch Tay to Crianlarch where Graham knew of a shop just off the main road, where you could get tea and coffee and hot sausage rolls etc.  About £1.25 for a tea. Graham finally got breakfast but did not like the coffee much, mind you he does like it very strong. As we were standing outside drinking our tea and coffee the damn midge came out - but I have a new secret weapon against them. Smidge  a new repellent which I had read about in the Daily Star a few weeks earlier and bought in the chemist in Aberlour, more about it later.
Last leg down loch Lomond. We came on road works with traffic lights down the side of the loch which were never changing. After 10min or so the cars in front of us lost the will and went through the red. With three cars in front of us car three decide to nip past car two, but car two was not having that, a very close thing as car two pulled out sharply. Now if you know the road down the loch there is a single file bit which is controlled by traffic lights. Oh what fun - guess where we were heading against the red light on a single track road with nowhere to pass in a convoy of about 15 cars by this time. Phew! the light at the other end was red too.
That would have been a nightmare if the cars had met in the middle.
Made it to Tarbert and turned right for Arrochor still following the sat nav a bit. Well I turned left in Arrochor  only to have Graham decide I was heading the wrong way. It was the sat nav honest. Out of Arrochor is the famous Rest and Be Thankful, which is famous for landslides and there were traffic lights near the top with single file traffic where they were working on the road. Not long after this trip the road was closed again by a landslide and it had a 60ish mile detour around.
  Graham asked why it was called the Rest and Be thankful. I reckoned it was because there are two damn big hills one each side to get to the top and in the old days the cars would have a hard time getting up. It could even have been from horse drawn carriage days it got it's name. About 11km down the road and it's all down from the top, we were rounding the end of Loch Fyne looking for the carpark. Driving by the road saying "is that it"? - about turn and onto a rough bit of old road, the car park is camouflaged with it being in the middle of  30 foot high bushes and trees. So if you start down the side of the Loch you have probably missed it.
   As we came along the bumpy road 4 guys were kitted up and on their bikes heading off down the west side of Glen Fyne. I will be refering to them as the Glasgow Boys from now on as they came from Glasgow. Graham and I pulled into the camouflaged car park and set about kitting up with no midge so far. Graham had a study of the map and decided we would be better taking the road on the east side of Glen Fyne as this road was tarred. It must have been at least 20 minutes before we set off along the road on the bikes.
Bikes ready to go, the yellow one is mine.

  We stopped on the old bridge for a few photos before heading along Glen Fyne
 

Glen Fyne with Glen Fyne Lodge in the distance.
We set off along the east side on the bikes on a nice tarred road. It's about 6km to where you can dump the bikes and you only gain about 60m in height along the glen, a few wee ups and downs but not bad at all. Graham was off ahead as usual but I was making good progress for me on my new bike .
  Had a few little obstacles on the road to deal with which were produced from the beasts in the photo below.
 
Had to watch our footing when we stopped too.
The tarred road on the east bank joins the rough road on the west bank about 3km along and who was just joining the tarred road but the Glasgow Boys. Muttering a bit when they realised that it was us - who they had seen pulling into the car park as they set off. There are a heap of gates along the west road to open and shut and that slowed them down, plus the fact that they had nicked their kid's bikes which were a touch wee for them.
 I had caught up with Graham now and we set off ahead of the Glasgow Boy.
 

We were now on the west side of the river still on the tarred road, with Graham leading the way.
Still only at 33m height from sea level. You have probably worked out by now how big the climb to the top was going to be from 70m at the start to 948m at the top and that's in about 4km lovely.
A few km further up the road the tarred road crosses the river heading east and there's a rough road heading straight on past some farm sheds and that's the one you should stay on, on the west side of the river through a couple of gates.
No suspension on the new bike so it was giving the old wrist jip banging up and down on the tarred road. We came on sheep and lots and lots of sheep s--t on the road, too much to dodge so just had to keep pedalling. A few km up the rough road there is a high fence with a big metal pole off to the side where you can leave the bikes.
 

Shanks pony from here. 61m hight above sea level now.
Padlocked the bikes to the rail and set off walking through the Hazel woods.
 

Graham ahead making his way through the Hazel. Nice walk up through here.
About 1.2km to Inverchorcchan - an old boarded up estate house where we stopped for a bite to eat.
Graham taking photos - I'll put a link to his photos at the end.  
  Then I took a damn migraine, anyway I just took the pills and paid no attention to it till I could see alright again. As we were sitting having a bite the Glasgow Boys came past telling us they had no idea where they were going. There is a gate just past Inverlochan and as soon as you are through the gate turn left, the path up the south side is there in the bracken.
  A few midge about now, time for the Smidge which works pretty well. It doesn't stop the little buggers from annoying you but it does stop them from biting you as it seems to kill them if they land on it as we found out on our next walk after this one.
 Fed now we set off through the gate and up the path. The only way is up!!
 

A continous climb all the way from here to the top with a few really steep bits.
 It's a slog up through here with a few interesting bits on the way and a bad step as it's called.

At 143m above sea level looking back down at Inverchorcchan heading through the jungley path, kept a good lookout for ticks on my arms going through the bracken, but apparently the Smidge stops them too.
A bit further up the path and you come to the first bit of scrambling at around the 200m mark.
 

A quick hop and you're up here, the path is pretty steep most of the way up to the top of the waterfall ahead.

Looking back at the path with a fair old drop down to the burn. Best not to fall off !
Graham leading a good bit of the way up here the old dinosaur chugging up behind. Don't seem to have the energy this year that I had last year to get up these hills, mind you Graham is 12 years younger than me and a good bit fitter.

 
Graham making his way up the path. We could see the Glasgow Boys on the other side of the burn and when they spotted us there was a look of "how the hell did they get there?"
Allt na Faingo this little glen's called. As we climbed it levelled out a bit when we headed for the bad step.
 

And you thought it would get easier from here - wrong!!
It's not quite so steep but still slow going on the rocky path up to the bad step.
 

The easy bit - well sort of.
Graham reached the bad step first and I saw him having a look around to figure out how to tackle it.
He doesn't like these bits too much, anyway the poles got thrown round followed by Graham.
 

Graham studying the route round the bad step.
 

No problem - just don't look down.
 

The Bad Step 352m up with just a slight drop down to the burn, 70-80 foot or so. After this we thought we would go back down the other side where the Glasgow Boys were going up.

Me on the bad step, Graham's photo.
After here you head up to the waterfall and the path climbs off to the left of it.
 

The path starts to get really boggy through here as you make your way up.
 

Graham heading for the boggy bit, we were only at 443m now - not even halfway up.
Eventually we got up to the plateau bit at the top of the waterfall and it eases off across here but still going up. It's pretty boggy on this bit.
 

Looking down the waterfall.
Onto the plateau and we were trying to decide which way to go. We could see the Glasgow Boys a way off to the right making their way up, still about level with where we were 528m now.

I think it was about here the rain came in and we kitted up with waterproofs.
That mist in the middle is where we were heading for with still over 400m to climb from here.
  We decided on the boggy path straight ahead which curves round to the right from this photo, just
south of Meall an Daimh.

 

Graham making his way towards the gap up ahead. This takes you to another very steep bit up.
Gets pretty boggy just up ahead as you climb between the two hills. Just to cheer you up if you're here you are just over 630m up with still more than 300m up to come.
  Graham and I stopped for a spot of lunch before the big climb to the top. We could hear the Glasgow Boys off in the distance making their way up off to our right.
 

  The big climb to the top, or a bit of it, takes about 15 minutes to get up this steep bit. Graham rocketed ahead as I had a bright idea here, I'd fix my camera to my climbing helmet and film behind me as I chugged up - got some great footage of my rucksack ! lol.
 

Graham decided he was a Whippet and bombed up here out of sight.
He was off taking photos up at the top while I chugged up at dinosaur speed.
 

I am the little dot with the yellow pack.
This is Graham's photo - I will put a link to the rest at the end.
 After you get up this bit you have reached the dizzy height of  850m only 100m. turn left on a path and a bit of a treat as the path heads down a little bit just before it goes up steeply yet again.
Graham said "The Glasgow Boys have just passed" as I was coming up the gully. But as the mist was coming and going on the top we couldn't see where they were.

I was doing a bit of filming along here so Graham set off for the summit ahead of me, Didn't see him till the summit after here. Just a tad weary now I was chugging along slower and slower with a few stops to get my breath.
On the way up to the summit from here I re-named the hill Ben Rentless.
You just don't get any respite on the climb it's just up.
918m up I was in spitting distance of the top but Ben Rentless had other ideas by putting in this steep bit to the summit.
 

Not more bl***ing up! I could now hear the Glasgow Boys and Graham at the top.
Nothing more for it but to put one foot in front of the other and chug up to the top with an odd stop for breath.

The Glasgow Boys and Graham at the top as I arrived.
The clag as Graham likes to call it had come down again and the top was in the mist when I finally arrived at the top of Ben-Rentless I mean Bhuidhe 948m. Munro 156 for me I think.
 We chatted to the Glasgow Boys for a while and had a cuppa. We had said to them that we planned to go down the way they had come up - as it turned out they planned to go down the way we came up as it was steep wet grass back down the way they had come up. After a bit of a conflab we all decided to back down the way Graham and I had come up.
 The Glasgow Boys set off well before us for the long steep climb back down.
Graham on the summit, which I took.
Me on the summit, which Graham took.
Graham kind of agreed with my new name for this hill.
Now the only way is down!
I'll just put a few photos on now showing the path down, as it's the same one we came up.

The path down from the summit Graham's photo, I set off before Graham as I knew he would soon catch me up.
There are two paths ahead in the distance the one we were taking goes off to the right and down a steep gully.

The down is just as relentless as the up but the bad step was no problem.
We met a few climbers on the way down.
 I was quite tired when we got back down to the rough road at Inverchorachan.

 We stopped for a drink and a snack just through the gate here before setting off through the Hazel wood toward the bikes, just over 1 km away.
  Got the bikes and Graham was off into the distance, I had given him the car keys as I knew he would be much faster on the bike.
  I was having a had time with the vibrations coming up from the rough road shaking my bad wrist
as the bike had no supension front or back.
 It was not too far to the tarred road then about 5km back to the car.
There were a few piles left by this fellow to dodge along the road.

I made good progress down the tarred road and was soon back at the car. Amazingly the Glasgow Boys were not long here too and Graham had arrived at the same time as them much to their amazement. As I got to the car Graham heard a hissing noise coming from my bike - it had a puncture. Phew just made it. This must have been the third puncture I have had on that bike. I have now given it away and am hoping to get a new bike next year with full suspension.
  Our amusement started about now as we were de-kitting and packing up the car. The Glasgow Boys had a bike rack that sat high up of the boot of the car, to which they fixed their 3 bikes. My rack sits low on the back of the car and has two poles that stick straight out where you sit the bikes on as in the second photo above.  (You will see from the photo of our bikes at the carpark that the carpark was quite pot holed.) Well the Glasgow Boys didn't make it out of the car park before one of their bikes came off the rack, they all piled out and there was a lot of muttering till they got the bike fixed on again.  I drove slowly out of the carpark and our bikes stayed on.
Homeward bound now just the big climb up to the Rest and be Thankful.
There were still a few cars at the side of the road where climbers had left them to do other hills.
We stopped at the traffic lights were the land slide had been and Graham took this pitcure for some odd reason.
 
I'll let you try to work that one out for yourselves!

Workings on the landslide area.
This was closed not long after this was taken due to another landslide.
We headed home the way we came down looking for a chip shop on the way. In Killin we searched around for a place to eat but the one place we saw was more a posh cafe kind of place.
Ah well we will get something further along the road. As we got to the bottom of Killin at the public hall I saw a burger van out of the corner of my eye.
I about turned the car and we headed for it.  One of our best finds yet.
Brian's photo from another walk later on.
There are two matronly ladies who run the chip van and they are just hilarious winding up customers
with their humour. The food is all cooked fresh while you wait so you don't need to be in a hurry. A fish supper for £3.90 or £5.90 for a large fish supper, which means you get two fish, very reasonable compared to Aberdeen.
 I had a black puddding and chips, I think she used a barley shovel to dish the chips and the large fish supper Graham had defeated him both this time and the the next time we went in - the photo above.
 I had to give in too I just could not eat all the chips.
It's only open some days, I think Thur-Sun but well worth a visit if you are passing. If nothing else just to hear the two ladies bantering with the customers.
  Then we headed off home on the long drive from Killin stuffed with chips.
Stopped at Glenshee and the damn lights were on as it was night,  LOL.
  Dropped Graham off at his house and went home tired but well fed.

The End.

Ps Smidge works well, killing the midge if they land but it don't stop them bothering you.

Dino60