Carn Dearg walk

Scott fancied doing a Munro run from Dalwhinnie to Rannock station and I was going to take the opportunity of doing "another" Munro for myself. The plan was for me to drop him off at Pitlochry for him to get the train up to Dalwhinnie while I drove the car round to Rannoch station way park up and do a walk myself.
The weather forecast was not to great but we agreed to give it a go.After dropping Scott off I drove out to Rannoch moor way to park the car at Loch Eigheach and the start of the "road to the Isles " path. I was going to follow this path for about three miles before striking out for the ridge I planned to walk up to Carn Dearg

road to the isles track

The path was a good one and climbed its way slowly making it a nice easy start to the walk for the next two miles. I did not like the look of the clouds sweeping in on a very strong wind so I put my over trousers on just to be on the safe side as the last thing I wanted was to get soaked in the first hour.I made may  to the only foot bridge after hopping over a few smaller burns on the way with all the rain we'd had even the small burns were full.

good foot bridge

From the bridge you could see the start of the ridge I was heading for but once again noted the low cloud and short showers I had walked through.After another mile walking the path was starting to break up but still easy walking.I was looking for the junction of another path shown on the OS map to choose my route up to the ridge. Much to my disappointment the path shown on the map did not exist  OS had it wrong so I made the call to carry walking on the track as it was still gaining height and would make my own way up the ridge.

bog / heather and rocks

I spent some time looking for a way to get to the ridge as the terrain was going to be tough walking country plus I would be climbing a few hundred feet over this type of ground .

climbing up to the ridge

After taking quite a while for me to pick my way up the hill I did come a faint track which other walkers have used so I gratefully headed up on that one.The wind was picking up and the temperature falling the higher I got until at last the start of the ridge was reached . I knew I had at least 3k to make my way over the ridge to the summit cairn of Carn Dearg and the wind was now head on the only good thing about it was it did blow some of the cloud away and I had glimpses of the fantastic views.

walking on  the ridge

After climbing over three  of tops at 700mtr/820mtr and 860 mtr I was getting the rubber legs feeling and my friend the weather was throwing all it could at me. The rain had turned into little balls of ice and at one point I had to turn my back and shelter as it peppering my face and it Hurt !After climbing over the last top I could just make out the summit cairn in the distance for one final pull. It was about this time that my hip started to play up but there was no way I was not going to get to the top now.I could just make out two other walkers at the cairn at this time so I included them in the next photograph and as you see the weather could have been kinder

summit cairn

In fact the weather god thought he may as well give us the works so we went from freezing rain to sleet the just for fun some snow.It was very exposed on that part of the ridge but I found a rough windbreak and managed to sit out of the main force of the wind.

It was at this time I heard from Scott who was heading over my direction , we had walkytalkies that we have used on other occasions so we were able to let each other know how we are getting on and where we could meet up.I explained that I was just going to head off back down the ridge as I could feel myself starting to chill down and my hands (with wet gloves ) were going numb.He was going to be about one hour behind me so I knew he would catch me up while I was still on the ridge. It was about this time I realised I had a tough walk ahead of me as my hip was giving me problems and I could not bend my leg up very far without yelping (what a wimp ) and had about 5 to 6 miles back to the car.

overlooking Rannoch moor

back along the ridge

True to form Scott caught me up just before we had to head down off the ridge and I was not looking forward to stumbling down the boggy heather etc.We slowly made our way down and eventually picked up another track (not shown on the OS map). I was quite certain that this boggy track would meet up with original track I had walked up and having no obstacles on it I was managing to walk keeping my leg straight .
Scott was chilling down (he was in running gear ) and I was pleased when he saw I was on the track ok he could head off to the car to get a change of clothes.At this point I still had about 2 miles to go which took me ages and I was relieved when Scott came round the corner to meet me and we headed back to the car. I had fun trying to get my left boot off as I could not bend my leg and it was a struggle to get the over trousers off. Scott did the driving as we headed back over to the caravan and the main target was the real ale pub which we both liked.
On reflection I did enjoy the challenge of the walk yes the weather could have been better and I could have done without injuring myself but it's still good to know I can still manage being out of my comfort zone and get out there to do things.