Craigellachie National Nature Reserve
The weather is a lot warmer now than it was last week, but there is still ice on the loch.
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Craigellachie National Nature Reserve
Walking to the summit of Craigellachie
The day started off mild and sunny here, so taking advantage of the sun I headed up Craigellachie – which overlooks Scandinavian Village. It is a fairly straightforward walk, but most of it is up until you reach the “flatish” summit.
I also made a mistake, yesterday was not my coldest day. The summit and approaches were still frozen and icy, add the wind chill from the strong steady wind and it was several degrees below zero. But sunny.
One benefit of a sub-zero summit was that the boggy, muddy path was frozen so no wet and muddy boots on my return.
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Walking and Geocaching
I headed out for a couple of miles walking today. The Craigellachie National Nature Reserve is a few minutes away from the timeshare so it is a regular destination when I do not want to get the car out. The plan was to walk a bit then find somewhere to make a brew, eat my lunch and read.
A few years back the boys and I used to go geocaching a lot. Then we stopped – the boys grew up and I started walking more on my own again and did not need the incentive of looking for a cache to get out and about. Now with both of them off looking for Pokemon – did I mention that they had grown up – I thought I would go and start searching for caches again.
Found it!
Gear
Lunch using my Alpkit minimalist lightweight cookset
Lightweight Sea to Summit pack
Map and compass
Rain jacket and bush hat
Lunch
Backpacking cooking set
1l water
Sit mat – pads the back of the pack
Swiss Army Knife
Long sleeved lightweight shirt
Crag Hopper long trousers
Karrimor hiking shoes with Bridgedale hiking socks
Pocket first aid kit, pack of tissues, whistle, space blanket, length of cord, four large safety pins, glucose tablets
Head lamp
Emergency power pack for my smartphone
Lightweight roll up jumper, fleece hat and gloves
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Today’s photo and some extra Scotland photos
Something from the garden today – I have gear and equipment to clean and sort today, it is too wet and gray to get the MX-5 out and I have Octagon work to organise for the coming week.
Here are a few extra photos from the Scotland trip I have did not post.
The Standing Order – Edinburgh, a pub in a converted bank
Aviemore
Cairngorm National Park
Coffee in the snow
Craigellachie National Nature Reserve
Craigellachie National Nature Reserve
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Walking in Craigellachie National Nature Reserve
Craigellachie National Nature Reserve
The weather this morning was bright and clear – excellent for walking in the snow, as long as you take gloves, hat, warm jacket, decent boots, thick socks, etc, etc.
The snow in most places was a couple of inches deep although from time to time it was much deeper.
My boot sunk in more than a foot of snow
Craigellachie National Nature Reserve is a short walk from Scandinavian Village and is very close to Aviemore – it is a great place to explore and take photos.
The lake was frozen and had this mysterious “Superman” logo on the ice.
I cleared the snow from the end of a bench and had a brew up, using my MSR Titanium mug and Alpkit Kraku stove, a great lightweight and efficient combination in the cold weather. Hot tea and cake, sitting in the winter sun shine.
I forgot to pack my sit mat so I had to sit on my gloves and hat as the icy bench was far to cold to sit on without insulation.
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