I've spent the Winter and Spring doing a load of really long-distance running but niggling away at the back of my mind was that once the snow is gone, I would love to do a similar big run day like I did in the Cairngorms last year. The Munros at Arkaig had been on my mind and I reckoned I could manage all four in a single long day out.
I spent the Saturday getting packed, having lunch out with Isa and getting some more gardening done, and by 1330, I was in Gunter the van and on my way out to the familiar Loch Lomond road. Traffic at Dumbarton was really slow but once I got out of Dumbarton the traffic cleared a bit and it was a usual Loch Lomond Saturday. As I passed just out of Tarbet, I spotted a hitchhiker at a layby.
I had the space and so I made the decision to stop. Michelle was headed for the islands to get a house up there and had spent the last 2 days hitching from Ulverston. She was in her 60's, had been in the military and was full of good chat. It really sped up the journey and it was nice to show someone Glencoe in all it's Summer glory. I felt like a tour guide, but I am sure she was bored of my chat about hills by Spean Bridge where I dropped her off, in the hope she might get a lift to Skye. Hope she got where she wanted to go!
From Spean Bridge I headed down the mad little road towards Loch Arkaig. It was fairly quiet and initially I bypassed the Eas Chia-aig car park and then realised I was in no rush, so u-turned and went in for a wee look. What a stunning waterfall!
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| Eas Chia-aig |
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| Sun streaming through the trees at Eas Chia-aig |
I would swim there if I went back! But I figured a swim was in order when I got parked up later.
I carried on down the wee road, which is beautiful in dappled sunlight and Gunter was handling the tarmac well, with 2 new front tyres put on just over a month ago.
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| Gunter |
I arrived at the wee car park just after 1700 and parked up, then headed down to the loch and had a swim. Now, I am not the strongest swimmer. The contours on the map reckoned it might be 100m deep, so when I got out to the shallows, I just saw a big black void and pretty quickly bailed. Being on my own and not that comfortable in cold water, I think it was a pretty sensible decision.
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| Dinner |
I headed back to the van and made dinner, then chatted to some old fellas about their day. "Hardest hill walk in Scotland" they reckoned. And they had just done three of them, I was planning all four!
After dinner I went for a wee walk and then settled into the van for an early night. I read MacCaig and drank Glen Moray with only the sound of a cuckoo outside. Lovely stuff.
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| MacCaig and Glen Moray |
The alarm woke me at 0530 and the familiar van routine kicked in. Dressed, sheets away, bed away, kettle on, double check kit, breakfast, teeth, turn of the gas, lock the van and then just run.
I was on the trail by 0610 and moving well along the big track. Before Glendessary lodge, it was up and over the high pass into Glen Kingie. Bit boggy on the top, and I got a wet foot. I crossed the River Kingie with a hop, skip and a jump at 0730 and then I was on the huge slog up 500m of steep grass to get to the low point between the Corbett Sgurr an Fhuarain and Sgùrr Mòr, the first Munro of the day.
I picked three ticks off my legs on the way up here and noticed lots of little tufts of deer fur where they've been losing their winter coats.
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| Glen Kingie |
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| The slope to be climbed |
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| Bog Orchids starting to come through - summer's here! |
I made the top of Sgùrr Mòr just before 0900, when the rest of the world might just have been waking up. I was in clag, but it wasn't cold at any point during the day.
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| Sgùrr Mòr |
From there I was able to get some running done. There was a big descent down to Sgurr Beag, then another climb back to up to An Eag, then down and up again to reach Munro Number 2, Sgurr nan Coireachan. I got there at 1050 and was feeling pretty good! Though I had very little visibility, I was glad of the clag. If the sun had been out it would have been far too hot.
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| Sgurr nan Coireachan |
There was yet more down, and up to reach Garbh Chìoch Bheag and then the same again to get onto Garbh Chìoch Mhòr. That was Munro number three and I was on the summit at midday bang on.
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| Me on Garbh Chìoch Mhòr |
I was making sure to eat and drink plenty - given my recent experiences, I am all too aware of the signs now! A steep descent to the NW led me to low point just below the summit of Sgùrr na Cìche.
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| Last push to Sgùrr na Cìche |
My legs were a bit done with climbing but I pushed on anyway and made the top of the day's highest point at 1245. I looked at the map and realised there should be a trig point here. Where was it? I looked around and found it - it has been destroyed. Maybe by frost, maybe lightning, maybe people - who knows.
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| Destroyed trig point |
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| Current summit of Sgùrr na Cìche |
I headed back down the way I came to the gully and chatted to some other folks just on their way up.
The gully was amazing - 200m of really steep descent with lots of downclimbing and these lovely succulents - I must look these up:
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| Unknown Succulents |
The run out of the glen was nice, the sun finally came out, I was able to get some more water and I was finally moving at a bit of a pace. My toes were a bit hurty, but I was going reasonably well on quite technical terrain. When I hit upper Glendessary, the road was runnable properly and so I just kept going, passing the lodge, sitting like the Overlook Hotel up on the big hill.
Nice gatepost though
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| Gatepost |
I made it back to the car at 1520. A long day but I was glad I managed it. Not sure about the hardest hillwalk in Scotland - I've done harder routes, but not many as long as that.
Distance: 34.5km
Time: 9h 15m
Ascent: 2,282m
Munros Completed: 210
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