26 October
I had on the agenda a TGOC East recce involving the tracks around Westerton of Runavey and a couple of locations around Loch Beanie, and it had occurred to me that it would be jolly efficient to combine that with a visit to Mealna Letter – taking advantage of having Mick as my driver to make it into a linear route.
I nearly jibbed on this plan, given the weather, but on seeing how friendly Mealna Letter looked from its N side, it made its way back onto my agenda. Looks weren't deceptive - it was easy going terrain.
I'd not ascended very far from Loch Beanie before the rain turned to snow, and soon after I was up in the cloud too. Not being conditions in which I wanted to take off my mitts and overmitts, I was thankful for the voice control of my phone to call Mick to let him know that he could drive around to the other side of the hill and I'd see him there. To think that it was only a week and a half ago that I was warm in my shirt-sleeves on Ben Vrackie!
I seldom tarry long on a summit and this one was no exception. A trodden line took me down to the forest and a tall ladder stile over a deer fence at the point where I turned S to the road. There I dithered as to the best way to go and decided to head straight down the fence line, on the W side of the fence. I reckon this was the worst choice of the three obvious options. The best was probably to continue on to the next fence line and go down that. As it was, I made my way gingerly through grown-over forest detritus next to the fence until, about half way down I noticed there was a trodden line on the other side of the fence. A while later I crossed the fence to take advantage of it, and after some remarkably boggy ground, I reached the road.
Bonus snaps for Conrad:
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