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Report on Ben Lomond
12 July 2009
(3268 views)
Today?s Craggy Crew ? Paula, Maureen, Dorothy and Irene
This was Paula?s 2nd outing with the Craggy Crew and the aim today was for her to bag her 1st Munro. We chose Ben Lomond and to make it a bit more interesting we were going to go up the Ptarmigan route and down the tourist path.
We set off from the carpark at Rowardennan at 10:15am and headed along the path until we crossed a small burn just past the Ranger?s cottage. This is where the overgrown track begins and we quickly gained height. It was hot and humid with good views down Loch Lomond.
It wasn?t long before Maureen discovered a technical malfunction with her Platypus after discovering her bum was wet. Now for anyone who knows Maureen you will be thinking?..wet bum again!!! Maureen is renowned for having accidents i.e. falling in burns, sitting on her Platypus etc. This time the hydration pouch was leaking and she had to turn her rucksack upside down to empty the water out of it. So after Maureen was sorted we continued onwards and upwards.
Soon we were in the clouds and by the time we reached Ptarmigan the rain was on and the wind speed increased. It was a bit nerve wracking for Paula on the final climb due to the gusts of wind. With encouragement we reached the summit in approx 3 hours. Customary photos taken then we were off as it was too cold and windy to hang around. Unfortunately for Paula she has yet to see anything from the summit of a mountain but hopefully that will change soon.
We descended down the tourist path which was easy going. We saw some sights heading uphill which is not unusual on Ben Lomond. Half way down the sun came out and the clouds lifted even off the summit.
Got back to the car by 4pm and went to the Rowardennan Hotel for a drink and we were surprised there was live entertainment at this time of the day.
Good day was had by all as usual.
Irene Cahill
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