As the training continues so does the hill walking, the blisters, the blackening of my toe nails and a newly added factor, the beautiful weather! Today we ventured out for another trek over some rugged Munros with breathtaking views in 360 degrees. We parked at the car park for the
Loch Muick trail head and departed at 8:30 am. In order to accomplish this I was up at 5AM!!
We started off on the trail that follows the signs for
Lochnagar and began our 20 mile trek for the day. The sun was shining and the temperatures were very pleasant. There was still a cool breeze this morning as it had been snowing in these mountains just two days prior. As the day progressed and our miles accomplished started to increase the weather continued to stay glorious! My feet on the other hand wanted to know when they would be done and out of my hiking boots which Emily and I decided are in fact now too small for my feet and are causing my poor toe nails to bruise. I'm not sure if my feet have grown in the 4 years since I purchased my hiking boots or if they have shrunk or a combination of the two but I will be getting new one ASAP!
We banged out Lochnagar, Carn a'Choire, Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn for the 4 Munros of the day. There are a total of 6 Munros that you can check off while on this route but as my feet began to scream I elected to only do the ones necessary to get us off the mountain and back to the car. So that just means that I will have to come back with my properly fitted hiking boots and do this again so I can check off the remaining 2 Munros. You are probably thinking, my didn't I just cowgirl it up and do it... you don't know the pain that I was in, there was NO way I was going to walk out of my way just to bag 2 extra Munros. I would rather go back and do all 6 properly than do them in a weak and wimpy way.
All in all it took Emily and I 9 hours to hike 20 miles. So our major mile treks for training are behind us and I can only hope that they have prepared us for the Caledonian Challenge as it is now just 3 weeks away. I want to give a special thanks to
Jill, Ryan and Angus for taking Kady for the past two weekends while I was off gaining distance. I appreciate it more than you know to be able to leave her with such great friends who wear her out so I don't go mental from her energy and need for long walks after wearing myself out on really long walks...
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| Emily holding the mascot for his picture |
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| The mascot peering over the edge |
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| Stunning views on a nearly cloudless day |
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| Looking back at Lochnagar and Loch Muick |
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The waterfall the ends its cascade into Loch Muick and the
trail down Lochnagar if you aren't doing the long route |
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| The bowl at the end of Loch Muick |
