Wednesday 29 August 2018

Return to The Argyll Stone…not

Sunday 27th May
The day after my 50th birthday, I fancied a bit of a stroll and the plan was to return to the Argyll Stone on Rothiemurchus. We decided to take a different, longer walk in so that we had a shorter walk to the car after leaving the ridge, so parked the car at Whitewells and walked in from there.
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Not going that way!
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It was very busy, but the weather was exceptionally warm and dry, so we had plenty of water with us. We made our way to Loch an Eilein, then took the path along the eastern edge of the loch, continuing on beside Loch Gamhna until we reached Allt Coire Follais. Here, we should have picked up the track we didn’t take last time, but had ignored in preference to the one marked on the map. That one hadn’t existed. It soon become clear this one didn’t either. We tried to follow it up hill where it should have been and according to Viewranger, were doing a very good job, but it was hard work through the dusty, overgrown heather, with hidden holes and fallen trees. After a short while, I decided it really wasn’t worth the effort, we would come back another day in cooler conditions and attack the Argyll Stone from the ridge instead.
We went back down to the path and decided to just continue around the lochs, stopping for lunch part way and then at the visitor centre for an ice-cream before returning to the car. Not the walk we’d hoped for, but a lovely day out, nevertheless.
Approximately 14.7 km total distance and 283 m total ascent

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