Day 10
Dalwhinnie to stream site 1.5 kilometers East of the Minigaig summit
Daily Distance 27.7k, Time Naismith 8.50, Daily Ascent 1590m, Daily Average Altitude 710m
The map shows our actual route in Blue, and the intended route where it was different in red. The blue numbers on our route are highlighted in the text. The red squares are Munros.
A lovely day with less wind, we crossed under the A9 beside a stream and set off up Carn na Caim. The ground was wet until we started climbing the spur then the ground dried up 1 and there seemed to be hares everywhere running off and then sitting on the skyline. We climbed the spur and turned East to the summit.
Our plan was to walk high on the watershed to near Meall Odhar Mor then contour to the spur overlooking Gaick Lodge descend steeply on the path across the low ground around the Lodge and straight up the other side. From our view point 2 this path seemed riven with peat hags. The valley of Allt Coire an Dubh Chadha looked much easier walking and it looked as if we might be able to get down to the low ground by following the stream. So a change of plan. We crossed a few hags and got into the valley. For a long way it was lovely walking, even a bit of a path, at one point 3 a lot of the path climbed out of the valley but we carried on. We began to have to cross the stream regularly to avoid crags and the stream started to descend more rapidly. It became obvious that we were going to end up at the top of a waterfall, 4 so we took an opportunity to contour to the right on very steep grass on a deer track to get out of trouble.
The deer herd were just round the next spur, they must have 2 legs shorter than the others to graze there. When we had cleared the waterfall we descended down the steep grassy slope and finally came out at the bottom of the stream where it opened up into the main valley. The main valley is superb it looks as if it was cut with a giant V chisel. We crossed the main river by a footbridge and followed a track past Loch Bhrodainn , then we struck uphill steeply 5 to a balcony path we had seen from below. When we got to the path it took us south, then round a buttress into an Easterly valley. Somewhere up the valley the path disappeared and we had to climb steeply up to the crest of the plateau.
The plateau is deeply dissected by the valley of the Allt Domhainn, we decided it was worth walking almost round the head of the valley 6 to avoid going up and down significantly. The weather was sunny and warm and it was mostly not wet underfoot. We were now back on our planned route and we intended to generally follow the watershed East the rest of today and tomorrow. I thought I saw a small green tent pitched ahead but when we got there it was only a large pile of grouse pellets in green plastic sacks. My thirst to say hello to a fellow camper had got me hallucinating. I felt we had been going as well as could be expected in this pathless peaty terrain. Now we descended to a landmark! 7 the summit of the Minigaig path.
When we got to it the path seemed worse than what we had been crossing. It was a trampled peaty bog. We preferred to ignore it and climb straight up the other side. The terrain never got as good as it had been however. East we were faced with descending again into peat hags;8 I preferred to try and walk round to the north. Ellie complained but followed me. We passed south of Leathad an Taobhain and another summit of 912metres. It had been time to find a camp site for some time but there had not been anything suitable. Now we descended East into a valley and there was a relatively idyllic campsite. The first headwater of the River Feshie running slowly in a steep sided crosswind valley with a choice of flat grassy pitches. We made camp. After Dalwhinnie we met nobody.
