FionaOutdoors Goes Bagging

Becca at Loch an Eilein, Rotheimurchus

Me at at Loch an Eilein, Rotheimurchus

This summer has been a lot about BAGGING LOCHS!

* It started earlier this summer with a gorgeous stroll around Loch an Eilein on Rothiemurchus Estate, near Aviemore. It’s a truly beautiful place to go for a walk and the trail is mostly flat and only takes about an hour if you’re walking at chatting speed. My chatting speed that is. I bagged this loch with my lovely pal Becca.

* Now I come to think of it I’ve also bagged the neighbouring loch called Morlich, while on a mountain bike outing some years ago. There’s a fabulous beach there, too.

The G-Force, aka my partner, on the cycle trip around Loch Ness

Me, too! The day I turned 42. Oh my!

* Then in May, on my birthday actually, I bagged Loch Ness by road bike. The G-Force was the leader on this trip and we headed from the lovely Lovat Hotel at Fort Augustus up the east side of the Loch to Inverness before heading down the west side and popping into Urqhart castle along the way. (So I bagged a castle there, too. See how I did that?!)

The G-Force and FionaOutdoors at Urquhart Castle, on Loch Ness

* On another cycling outing this summer (there’s a pattern developing here… I’m training for the 90-mile Bealach Mor cycle sportive on September 4 so I’ve had to put in the pedalling miles), again with the G-Force, I cycled around Loch Katrine, Stirlingshire, as part of an 80-mile outing. In fact, I believe we’ve cycle Loch Katrine about three times over the last six months!

* A recent Sunday cycle run with the Falkirk Bicycle Club also took in a circuit of Loch Leven in Fife. I didn’t see much of the loch as I was concentrating hard on keeping up with the big boys.

And while it’s only tiny, Little Miss Outdoors and I have circuited Kilmardinny Loch in Bearsden. Surely that still counts though?

Some lochs can’t be circuited by road so I’m not sure how to bag these. Perhaps I’ll need to leave the bike at one end for a cross-country run. So I’ve also skirted the edges of the Lake of Mentieth, Loch Ard, Loch Marie, among others.

What lochs have you bagged (that requires a full circuit!)?

If you haven’t heard about Stephen Pyke (Spyke) and is amazing Munro round in just 39 days and 9 hours then why not read a blog I wrote earlier. Now, every time that you find yourself whinging a wee bit about the trek to the top of one Munro think how much pain Spyke must have endured to do all 283 in such a short time. And he ran, walked, cycled and kayaked between them all, too! Awesome!

One Munro can sometimes be tough enough to summit on its own. Sometimes you can head out for a really challenging day and tick off a few in one go. In one winter outing The G-Force and I actually reached the top of five Munros in one day, followed by two the next day and a final three the following day. But no two Munro bagging outings are ever the same, nor can you really ever know how challenging they will turn out to be.

Take Saturday’s Munro outing as an example. In his Munros book, Cameron McNeish had suggested an 8 to 12-hour day to complete three Munros near Laggan. They were Carn Liath (1006m), Stob Poite Coire Ardair (1054m) and Creag Meagaidh (1128m). Another Munro site mentioned 8 hours, too. So we thought we’d be in for a really punishing day.

Now I’m not saying the ascent of these three Munros was easy. But it wasn’t anywhere as near as tough as we’d imagined. Perhaps it could be that we’ve become a lot fitter, or maybe we just picked exactly the right route. On the day we didn’t really push ourselves and we stopped several times to eat and look at the beautiful views. But we still made the entire walk in 6.5 hours.

Fionaoutdoors on Carn Liath

And what a fabulous day! The first Munro Carn Liath was a bit of an uphill and winding tramp but the mostly recognisable path through grass and heather made it seem fairly easy going compared to recent boggy/peaty/heathery challenges of other Munros. We were also felt lucky to be walking in sunshine and wearing only short sleeves for much of the ascent.

Looking back at Stop Poite Coire Ardair

Then we headed along to Stob Poite Coire Ardair, which might have a fab sounding name but the summit top itself was pretty unremarkable. In fact we weren’t sure if we’d reached the summit or not but after consulting the map and GPS reckoned this had to be it!

Then came the trickier ascent of Creag Meagaidh, especially as we had to navigate through low-lying cloud. Don’t be taken in by the folly cairn of Mad Meg en route to the summit proper though!

The G-Force's excellent navigation helped us to reach the summit of Creag Meagaich despite low cloud

All in all this was a grand day out, followed by a lovely descent into the atmospheric corrie/lochan valley and back along a beautifully created path back to the car park. We had the mountains to ourselves for most of the day, having set out very early on Saturday morning. We felt lucky, too, to enjoy such beautiful scenery, weather and freedom. What are you all waiting for?

For further tales of this weekend see www.fionaoutdoors.co.uk

Some people like to kick back and laze around on their birthdays. Others might head off abroad for a weekend of city-based sightseeing. Then there are those who like to head out for drinks with a big group of pals. I can see the appeal of all these celebrations – but I much prefer to spend my birthday weekend in Scotland’s great outdoors. (Don’t worry, I’m not so mad. I did stay in a the fabbie Lovat hotel at Fort Augustus. I did eat gorgeous food at the hotel. I did drink a little too much wine and whisky. And I did enjoy a bottle of champers with the man in my life, aka the G-Force.)

But the main part of my birthday weekend was spent cycling 70 miles around Loch Ness, bagging the romantic and historic Urqhuart castle at Drumnadrochit en route. And then running to the top of Geal Charn (Monadh Liath) for yet another Munro bag.

One thing I also learnt this weekend is if you’re planning to cycle around a Scottish loch there will come a point when you’ll need a nice cyclist to “draft”. From Inverness to Drumnadrochit and then back to Fort Augustus there was a serious head wind. I’m not sure I would have made it all the way if I hadn’t had the G-Force to shield me from the worst of the wind. Drafting is definitely the way to go!

In other words: The G-Force,

took the wind force,

for the F.F-Force (where F is Feeble Fiona)

Here are some pics I took with my shiny new birthday camera.

FionaOutdoors and The G-Force cycle to Urquhart Castle, on Loch Ness

FionaOutdoors cycles Loch NessThe "runnable" Munro Geal Charn (Monadh Liath)

The G-Force on Geal Charn (Monadh Liath)

FionaOutdoors on Geal Charn (Monadh Liath)

FionaOutdoors on top of Cairn Gorm

If you’ve never tried ski touring (and I hadn’t until this winter) then really you should. It is by far the best way to bag Munros while there’s snow on the ground. And thanks to an unusual amount of snow this season ski touring has become a really popular pursuit in Scotland. The guys at Mountain Spirit in Aviemore (who hire skis) say they’ve had more demand this year than they had skis.

Not having ski toured before I joined a couple of experienced skiers, and took along the G-Force, too. In one huge outing we took in Cairn Gorm (at 4084ft the sixth highest peak in the UK) and neighbouring Munro Ben MacDui, the second highest peak in the UK.

FionaOutdoors & The G-Force on Ben Macdui

Thanks to gorgeous clear blue skies the views of the surrounding mountains, including many over 4000ft, were out of this world. In fact, it is hard to imagine views more stunning than the snowy landscape that lay for many, many miles before us.

Lunch stop: Looking across to ben MacDui

Ski touring is not an easy sport, in fact it’s exhausting. But after months of tramping through knee-deep snow to reach a number of other Munro peaks this winter it certainly felt exhilarating. Skiing uphill was novel, while skiing downhill was awesome. Try it next year!

For some it might be enough to summit a Munro – and to mark the occasion with a nice flask of tea and a sandwich. But sometimes the effort deserves a little more celebration. Perhaps a wee dram of whisky, or a kiss with a loved one. Or how about a headstand or a snow angel?

Headstand on A'Mharconaich

A recent day out (while there was still some snow on the ground at least high up) in the Drumochter area deserved a bit of fun. The three Munros summitted by myself, the G-Force (a force to behold on the Munros!) and friend Top Sandwich Man was glorious, sociable and when compared to other days out with the G-Force really quite easy.

And so when we reached the summit of the first Munro,  A’Mharconaich (975m), I decided a headstand (learned at yoga classes!) would be the ideal bit of fun. And when it cam to the second Munro, Beinn Udlamain (1011m), Top Sandwich Man suggested a “snow angel’.

Snow angel on Beinn Udlamain

And on the third Munro, Sqairneach Mhor (991m), a perfectly positioned summit marker offered the chance to climb slightly higher that the summit itself.

Just higher than the summit of Sqairneach Mhor

The day of walking had included a range of seasons – as only Scotland can – and while it was raining in the morning, snowing at the top of the first Munro, clearing by the second Munro, there was bright, warm sun by the time we reached the third Munro.

My only disappointment was that I had not asked Top Sandwich Man to make my sandwiches. As the G-Force and I half- heartedly munched on boring ham sarnies, TSM devoured fabulous looking sandwiches made with tasty looking bread and stuffed full of salady stuff, nice cheeses and other deli treats. Next time, I’ll be paying him to make mine!

Latest edition of Scotland Outdoors

Read my article in Scotland Outdoors magazine about 21 natural wonders of Scotland that you really should visit. There are more than a few islands mentioned. And why not start bagging waterfalls? Scotland is great at awesome waterfalls. See Number 6.

Plus you’ll no doubt find a castle or a distillery within a short distance of most of the 21 hotspots. Isn’t there always a fabulous castle or distillery just a hop and skip from almost anywhere beautiful in Scotland?

Little Miss Outdoors on Isle of Tiree

In my life B.B.S (Before Bagging Scotland) I have bagged a fair few castles, distilleries, islands and Munros. I usually travel by foot or bike and sometimes by kayak or skis. Now I wish I’d been much more snap happy with my camera. I’m not sure I have the required photographic evidence for all all-important bags.

Here’s the first one though: Isle of Tiree, Inner Hebrides, August 2006. The pic is of Little Miss Outdoors when she was , well, littler. We fell in love with this oh-so-flat island with its gorgeous beaches and seascapes. During this trip we did body boarding, surfed and flew our big kite (I remember it nearly whisked L.M.O off her feet!).

Tiree claims so have the most sunny days of any location in Scotland but we didn’t see enough of it doing our short trip. It us usually very windy, too, but it wasn’t so windy for us fortunately. We loved the get-away-from-it-all feel of this adventure.

FionaOutdoors attempting to sort of surf