Weekend with Louise - Mandally to Laggan on Corrieyairack Pass

Its Glasgow fair weekend and the uni is shut on the Friday and the Monday! Hurrah! And there is a Moriston release on the Saturday, AND Louise is walking through the area on her big walk! Win! So many reasons to go up.

So, Friday, I stayed in bed till a whole 830am, had porridge, and after a bit of planning, set off to go for a  run up Cort Ma Law in the total clag! It was ok for the first couple hundred meters from the carpark at Crow Rd, but spent the rest of the time in the clag. I also managed to get a bit lost on a bloody path but I made it up there, got a bit of footage, and ran down to the car in about 1h17mins, took me 45 minutes to get up I think, so much nav faff.

After we decided what we were doing on Friday evening, which may or may not have involved a bit of a row :/ !! Set off at about 6am on Saturday morning, Dave dropped me in at Mandally and then shortly after a nice brew to make me feel a bit more human, Louise, Matt and me and Louise's Dad set off for the track to Fort Augustus. Lovely warm day, nice and dry, had fun with a train along the way as well which made it a bit more interesting - its on the great glen canoe trail and is very civilised, there is loos and everything! At the bridge at the top of the loch, we picked up Louise's Aunt for the afternoon stint and it started to rain on us but not too bad.

The only top drop Matt is getting today!	Train fun!
Someones got a shiny boat, wish it was us!	The locks at Fort Augustus

Matt and me went to the Lock Inn pub by the locks, whilst Louise shuttled, and then came to join us, and we all ended up at the Moriston to chat to the guys about their day on the river. Seemed to be smiles all round! Got back to the pub in Fort Augustus, and had a huuuuuuuuuuuge dinner, and eventually decided to stay and give the run a go tomorrow, despite the horrendous forecast.

Sunday came, and Louise was up and away to get her walk started, and I started to get well nervous! I went off with Louise's parents and Matt to a tea room for a bit to give Louise a head start (she set off at 9.15), and then Matt dropped me off at the start track at midday. As promised, it was a long slow slog uphill. The start was fine then when it came to the river crossing at the Connachie burn, I took wrong turn and ended up on the wrong track so I had to backtrack a bit but like, 10 mins tops. Lots of nav faff, I discovered that i'm a prolific map reader, I spend ages at it and it kills time so bad! I found lots of features that said I was on the right path, but on my OS there was a major power line that from what I could see, just isn't there! It confused me for ages, but the contours said it was right so I went along and it turned out the right choice. Got the summit in 2hrs and caught Louise at about 2h40 I think. Good conditions, summit was in the clag. The river crossing at Allt a Mhill Ghairbh was torrential, luckily I was with them and they had a pole. Would have been a big detour alone. Matt got the car all the way to Malgarve, and after a half hour break with them, i ran the 5k to the Garva Bridge, and then another 20min pause and then the final 11k to Laggan along the track and road, did a small variation along the track north of the water which was nice. Total 25 miles, with only 800m ascent but thats a good run I think!

The trail proper start

LOOK WHO I FOUND!!

After my 5k, on the way home!

Looking back where I came from over R. Spey

Looking out towards Laggan on the way

Start of the track proper at the start

Louise stopped at the dam about 3-4km short, and we all went off to Dalraddy campsite for tea before Matt and I went home.

On which journey we ran out of fuel and ended up stranded in Pitlochry and George had to come and rescue us! A nice walk around a very dead town for an hour and we got enough fuel to get to Perth tesco, and then on to Dundee for 230am! Fail! Waking at 8am Monday, ....... eugh......spent the day feeling a bit deathy after I got a train back down the road. Met up with Teri for lunch and we ended up at Bread Meats Bread, awesome. Ended up out for longer than I thought so maybe haven't left enough time to prepare my talk for our meeting tomorrow...oops....so worth it! And I sacked off achilles heel lol.... I was soo tired!

Goosed on the train