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Report on Ben Oss and Dubhchraig
4 July 2009
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4th July 2009
Ben Oss and Beinn Dubhchraig
Today?s Craggy Crew ? Phil, Dorothy, Gail, Hilary from ScottishHills and Irene
We met up the carpark at Dalrigh just south of Tyndrum about 10am. There we met up with Hilary again who Dorothy and I knew from chatting to her in the forums of ScottishHills.com. She had a problem whereby her foot was so sore in boots after being stood on by woman in stilettos?..ouch that sounds painful! So Hilary quickly rushed out and bought walking sandals to start the walk in with her boots in the rucksack.
The weather started off lovely and sunny which was not the forecast. We soon headed along the track where it crosses the West Highland Way. We reached the railway bridge then soon were faced by a rickety old bridge over the Allt Gleann Auchreoch which we crossed one at a time. Now this is where we met mud and Hilary?s feet were squelching but as they were not cold she carried on. We went through the ancient remnants of the Caledonian Forest which was quite pleasant. As we came out of the forest the views opened up around us. We looked across to a lovely waterfall. We could also see Ben Challum which he had climbed a few weeks previously. Ben Lui was looming too and we decided that is one mountain on our tick list for this year.
We eventually reach a broad ridge which led us on a path to the summit of Beinn Dubhchraig. On the summit the cloud started rolling in and the temperature was dropping. We took the customary photos and quickly descend to the rocky outcrop to shelter for lunch. We continued down to the Bealach Buidhe, overlooking Loch Oss then on a fairly defined path which took a gradual ascent to the summit of Ben Oss.
Cloud was thick on the summit of Ben Oss so nothing much to see. As we retraced our steps down to Loch Oss we could see the rain clouds heading up Loch Lomond straight to us. In no time the rain was on heavy. We reached the bealach again and Hilary had spotted a possible decent route when we passed this spot earlier?.just as well as there was nothing to see now!
We took our time descending down through rocky outcrops but unfortunately Phil slipped and hurt his knee. I found an easier and grassier route so Gail followed and it did turn out to be a lot easier and quicker. In all this time Hilary still had on those sandals with socks of course! There were times where she slipped and fell but thankfully each time she had a soft landing. We continued down the valley until we reached the River Cononish which we crossed fairly easily then came back on to a track at the farm.
The last part of the walk along the track seemed to last forever. By this time the weather improved, the sun came out and the rain stopped. It was a lovely but long walk back to the car. In total it took us 9 hours but everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next time Hilary joins us which might be 15th August.
n.b. Hilary's boots didn't come out of her rucksack all day!!
Irene Cahill
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