"Hillwalking"

Saturday a friend and I took off for the Cairngorms to go hillwalking (the UK term for hiking). I hadn't realized it at the time, since he picked out a very reasonable but adventurous hike, that Andy had not done any "real" hiking before -- I found this out halfway between the two peaks! It was a brilliant day, though, and when he did the maths it looks like it was 10.5 miles, 3035 ft elevation gain. We summitted Ben MacDui (which only gets funnier to say the longer you hike), which is the 2nd highest peak in the UK at 4295 feet and CairnGorm (the 6th) at 4085 feet. Now before you Colorado people get snooty with me, just remember that while we might have had more oxygen than you, we did start down at 2050 feet and I live at sea level, literally. Now, I took a billion photos -- it was just so good to be hiking again -- and I've gotten myself down to 40 for the blog... I just can't cut any more! So, basically narration will occur through photos (as per relatively normal!).

As we arrived in Aviemore and drove on through to head up to the Cairngorms park, we passed this lake. Andy, a fisherman, couldn't pass without a photo op (he's also quite a photographer, which made my excessive photography more excusable!) (unbeknownst to us, that cloud mass is Ben MacDui):

The path started at the base of a ski "resort" and took off across the hills:My favorite sign, quite possibly ever:Looking out over the valley we left (we took our first photos at the far end of that lake):

Pretty water-trickle:
Cool cliff face - when we could see it...
The path, she goes up:
Ok, I took several series of these photos and limited this to a 2-picture series of the rapid-cloud-movement... These two were taken about 5 seconds apart:

The boulderfield... We were rather (!) grateful for the cairns guiding us through the lovely views:
oh oh oh! The top!
"This indicator shows the direction of the most important hills, etc, that can be seen in clear weather..." Hmmm... Fascinating...
Still, we made it! (funny story - my hair got pretty wet in the mist, but not entirely wet, and was blowing wildly in every direction. At one point I had paused for a rest and Andy looked back and me, burst out laughing and just said "you look amazing." I'm sure it was meant as a compliment....)
We kept getting teased by the sky, but no views ever appeared:
As we came down the hill, the view across the boulderfield opened up -- and we thought we were heading the wrong direction:
...then the clouds rolled back in and we knew where we were going again:
Finding the little lake on the right hand side that showed us we were on the right trail to circle back - it was cool how it looked like it fell right off the edge:
Ooh, it looks like there could be a view over there!
The muck we emerged from (argh, it's following us!) (somewhere around here I gave my one good moan for the day, and it startled us both so much we started laughing -- unless I'm in a seriously bad mood, when I complain it really makes me laugh more than anything):
Yep, there definitely is something to see over there!
Cool hills over there!
And the clouds keep following:
Ooh, heading for cliffs on the right now!
Yep, definitely, our trail seems to be heading straight for the cliff:
The view left-and-back is just beautiful:
Me taking photos of the cliffs when we reach them -- standing some 30 feet back... =] But it was stunning. Also, this was where our map managed to escape from Andy's pocket and go flying over the cliff edge. I can't imagine why he stopped chasing it!
Our next summit facing us:
Andy, the photographer (way closer to the edge than I'd go!):
But it's gorgeous when I do lean close-ish!
Gorgeous, with the clouds just boiling in over the cliffs:
From the top of CairnGorm, the 6th highest peak in the UK - the view to the north:
And the view to the south, toward Ben MacDui...
One of the coolest summit photos I have ever taken:
And how many cairns can YOU spot? (rather well marked, especially after the not-so-well-marked section in the boulderfield where we could have used a bit more...)
A disappointingly well-paved finish... A quite steep start down - glad I wasn't going up this! (here I said "whee whee whee all the way down!" to Andy's very serious concern -- as he said later, "I wasn't sure if I was supposed to take off my shoes and let you play with my toes?!?")
And half-way down the mountain looking up -- CairnGorm at the left. It was steep and very continuously down - my knees were killing me!
And back down at the lake - stiff, sore, and tired, but VERY happy! (hard to see, but Ben MacDui is still under clouds up there behind this front range!)
And in the other direction, just a spot of beauty to finish us up...
We ate dinner in Aviemore (fish and chips - I wanted grease and salt!), then drove back in the gathering darkness ("where are the brights on this car? I don't know! I don't think it has any" -- search stopped after narrowly avoiding a wall -- and solved by me, thank you very much, as a navigator who suggested a different switch! I also, as navigator, solved how to use the navigational system in the car on the return trip. Go me.)