So as part of my own challenge to complete the Loch Ness Marilyn’s it took me today to Carn á Bhodaich. I read on other forums that it was a very wet path. It’s been dry here for weeks, how bad could it be?
I can only describe the lower part of the ‘path’ a swamp.
Otherwise a straightforward and short walk to the trig.
Setting up the HF antenna caused me to trip of a length of coax, I got confused as my coax was still to be deployed. It would appear a previous activator forgot to pack away their coax. If it’s yours I’m happy to return it. Bit of a struggle on 40, but lots of contacts on 20 and with 4 S2S a great day was had. And another one ticked off my ‘Loch Ness List’.
Paul G4MD and I had the same problem when we ascended that one at the end of August 2014. I don’t think it was quite as bad as it is at the moment, though since I recall it was a damp one, it must have made an impression on me.
Can you remember where you left the path to get onto the hill itself? My gps plot looks a lot crazier than it felt at the time, but I climbed up a wide gully on the north side.
ISTR that we went right past the summit and approached up a grassy slope from the ENE, leaving the track at the sharp bend at around NH574375. Pretty sure we took the short way down, heading NW from the summit across heathery slopes with a reasonable path, intercepting the track at around NH565377. Gerald will probably have a better recollection.
Yes, we debated where to ascend the hill as we walked the track and couldn’t make up our minds. I think the prospect of an uphill heather yomp put us off. We must have been somewhere near the highest point on the track, indeed some way past the summit, when we struck off right. I recall the ground was quite reasonable from that point on the track up to the summit. After the activation we decided a heather yomp downhill was acceptable. We saw some deer as we descended and wondered whether we might acquire a few black beasties, but thankfully didn’t… maybe they were saving themselves for our Mull expedition two years on.
There is some handy ironwork that was probably a fence at one point up there. Used one of the pieces as you can see in the first picture by strapping the mast to it. The trig point centre still has its cap.
