Obviously no one had been along the path since the snow fell; no one human at least although I saw lots of animal tracks (mostly deer and sheep).

This one was a carnivore.

In the evening the views to the mountains were quite superb – one of the best sunsets I have seen since we have been living here.

These were some of the views… This is a great medium length (8m) walk and all on good paths – a fair bit of uphill though.

Although it was so cold today – I am still seeing some signs that spring may be on its way. Crocuses and narcissi are struggling to poke their green shoots through the ground and yesterday R and I heard a woodpecker hammering in the woods. Still plenty of time for heavy snow and storms though – I learned not to count on spring arriving early here the year before last when winter came back with a vengeance in March and killed all the blossom on my fruit trees.

But this time it was really lovely – probably one of the best climbing days of the year. We had half our lunch on top of Narnain at about 10:30am, and the other half on top of Ime at noon. Although the weather was warm enough at loch level, it was bitterly cold on the summits (albeit I was wearing shorts).

This was me looking triumphant at the top of Ime.

Unfortunately, it was not so nice on the way down, as the descent is back along the route to the Cobbler. We passed 192 people on the way back (I counted) – not my idea of the peace and solitude of the mountains.

Actually I am also doing the View Ranger “Walk 1000 miles in 2016” Challenge. I am in 59th place at the moment on 400 miles – but that is actually doing myself short as unfortunately I didn’t find out it was on until 23rd Jan. I still wouldn’t have got to the 1K first though – the guy who is “winning” is at nearly 950 at the moment – he must be super fit.

This is probably the least climbed of the local Munros as it is a long way from any of the others, which means that if you are a serious bagger – it is the only one you will get in a day. It is also a long (though lovely) walk down a private road in a glen to get there – the four miles feels fine on the way out and less great on the way back.

The weather today had been forecast to have cloud at 200m during the afternoon, so we set off early and were on the glen road at 8:30am.

We could see a new and very steep track built by a hydro scheme running up the hillside, but decided to take the traditional route up the side of a waterfall. This was very steep and scrambly in places, with a couple of what are referred to as ‘granny stoppers’. I’m not a politically correct animal, but I do not like this phrase, and I can say on behalf of older women that I am old enough to be a granny and I had no trouble. ‘Newbie stoppers’ would be a better phrase.

We came out onto a big bealach with a fair bit of snow. Probably sensibly, R wouldn’t walk over it as there were a lot of hidden streams. We then went up a very steep and rough path (actually more a stream bottom than a path) to about 900m, and then turned left over a short ridge, with one final push up to the snow covered summit. The views were great – Ben Lui was covered with snow from about 400m, so as well we didn’t try that one today.

We went down by the Hydro track which was quicker than the ascent, but very very steep and hard on the feet.

Finally made it back to the car and nipped into the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar to buy some herb plants for the garden, and some sausages for R, who proceeded to ruin all the good work from the long walk by eating a large sausage sandwich followed by chocolate ice cream. All in all a great day, but now I need to force myself to get into the kitchen and make the soup for tomorrow.

There is Cairnsmore O Fleet
And Cairnsmore O Dee
And Cairnsmore O Carsphairn
The biggest of the three

Actually it is quite a big hill, taller than Beinn Bheula in fact at 797m, but (whisper this) it is a bit of a bore compared to the mountains around Lochgoilhead. The walk itself is a long trek along a farm track, followed by a lengthy ascent up a steepish and wet slope to the summit. The views are ok, but the countryside is rather flat, and at this time of year an unrelieved brown colour. It didn’t help of course that today’s promised good weather never turned up and it was cloudy with an unrelenting cold wind.

We got to the summit, saw there was what might be a community broadband mast up there, took a few photos and descended as quickly as possible to get out of the wind. Not our best walk ever….

We went up on the track behind the holiday village with great views over the loch to the left. At the edge of some forestry we climbed over a fence and ascended a steep slope, soon coming to another forestry road.

Crossing this, we were on the slopes of a nameless ‘hump’ (seems to be the rather pejorative name used for a highland hill not big enough to be a Graham) and carried straight on climbing up and up. Bearing slightly left, we were soon at the summit of our first Graham, Stob Na Boine Druim-Fhinn (Dropped Peak of the White Ridge). This mountain has a funny looking double peak, which from a distance looks like the mouthparts of a tick – so we have always called it “The Tick”.

There was a trig point here and we sat and ate our sandwiches in glorious sunshine.

We then sadly had to drop more than 100 meters down to a bealach, and then immediately back up to Beinn Tharsuinn (Transverse Hill) which was a much more rounded and easy going hill. We were in our stride now and sore feet hadn’t yet set in. From that peak we again dropped down and had to scramble back up the rocky slopes of Lochain where there was still quite a lot of snow. In one patch, I saw the unmistakable tracks of a haggis.

The views from the top here were just superb with the snow covered peaks of Breadalbane in the distance.

We carried on to the secondary summit which is where I had been on Thursday. We had a bit of fun at this point because try as we might we couldn’t find the gully I had come up the first time. Probably foolishly I selected another gully which looked promising, only to discover it was a lot steeper than I had thought. Unfortunately by this time we were committed to it and we had a rather more exciting descent than we had been intending, culminating in a slide down a heathery bank which gave me a bit of a ‘soggy bottom’. Looking back we had come down one of the more craggy areas, so I should definitely have spent more time looking for the right path. It seems that every time I go into the mountains I learn a new lesson about what not to do.

From there we crossed the stream near the waterfalls and made our way back along the Cowal Way to Lochgoilhead and home. Somewhat footsore and tired, but a fantastic day. We didn’t see another soul on the hills all day – I bet the more popular Munros (and the Cobbler) will have been mobbed on a beautiful Sunday like today.

First I followed the Cowal way as far as the waterfalls near Beinn Bheula. The going was very uneven and wet, but at least it is a bit better signposted than it used to be. I had been going to try to access the mountain following a track from Walk Highlands which directed to Curra Lochan further up – but I spied a break in the forestry debris and decided to go that way instead. I intrepidly jumped across the burn, climbed over a fence and carefully picked my way over several hundred yards of wet ground to another fence.

Now I was on the mountain itself at about 350m and from here it was actually pretty easy. Beinn Lochain from this direction is steep and simple, with all the craggy bits over to the other side. I went straight up and it only took me about 45 minutes to get to the (tiny) cairn at the top. The view was fantastic, and really made me appreciate what a great wilderness we live in, as particularly to the north there was mountain after mountain, some snow topped, and no habitation or work of man to be seen.

At this point, I looked down, and was a bit concerned to see mist sweeping in at about 500m, obscuring Corra Lochan below. Although I had the GPS I was nervous as this was the first ‘real’ mountain I had ever done on my own. So although I would have liked to have stayed longer, I hurried back down. Looking back from the bottom, Lochain was still largely clear, but Bheula had disappeared into the clouds.

It seemed a long way back after the big climb, and I can tell you I was ready for some food when I got back. Now my feet are aching and I am going to have a nice hot bath.

The views walking up Coilessan were something else… I got to the stile where the trees break and the mountains proper start, and put my hand on the white Cowal Way marker to steady myself. My hand came away covered in white paint which was immediately all over the handle of my walking pole. I’d known they were going to make some much needed improvements to the signage for the Way – but they could at least have put a wet paint sign on it.

At the bealach at the top of the pass (at about 520m) the cloud layer was so close overhead it felt like walking under a low grey ceiling. The mists were swirling around the summit of the Brack and Donich in the distance was covered in cloud. It actually is quite a forbidding place and I was glad I had the GPS just in case the cloud came down lower.

I was glad to get back down, and as I already seemed to have done a lot of climbing, I decided to turn right and go back via Coran as I didn’t fancy the steep path to the Rest. Here is the thing about hill walking – I had only walked that route the other way, and I had been under the impression from that that it was all on the flat – of course it wasn’t – in this direction

it was a remorseless uphill grind the whole way.

The views over Coran with the sun setting were great, all the mountains reflected in its mirror surface. But by now I was footsore and a little concerned with getting home before dark, so I picked up the pace and was home by 6pm in time to get R’s dinner.

What a fantastic way to spend a spring afternoon.

At this point you really know why it is called the Rest and be Thankful, because it goes on and on and up and up. There are some great views of the mountains, only somewhat spoiled by traffic noise from A83. Eventually the path bends to the left and meets the Beinn Donich path near a mobile phone mast. Then it is another forestry track all the way back down Glen Mhor to home.

I enjoyed most of it greatly, though I have to say that the last few miles I was getting a bit footsore. So it was 21.5 miles, 50,000 steps, and the equivalent of climbing 330 flights of stairs. It remains to be seen how my legs will feel tomorrow, but it was a good start towards the ViewRanger ‘Walk 1000 miles in 2016 challenge’ which I am taking part in.