Ice on the tent in the morning and what looked like a good day. My early start was soon halted by a very boggy water course. I managed to get across by stepping on stiff, rushy tussocks. The small stream was almost completely hidden by a green carpet which offered nothing fit for standing on for quite a few square metres, rather like the bogs of Dartmoor.
Feith Fhuaran was the next obstacle. My cowardly crossing of a stream too wide for jumping involved crawling on mossy boulders. It worked. A little later I reached the bealach between Morven and Small Mount. My upward route wasn’t the best but clambering over large, conglomerate boulders is always entertaining. The view of a great deal of not very much grew as I climbed. I could see most of Caithness and most of what I could see was moorland.
The beginnings of a corrie give Morven a steep north face and a hint of a summit ridge. My phone was suggesting four bars on the summit so I attempted texting friends but each text needed two goes at sending before it would whizz off into the ether. My ascent route would not be the best way down so for the descent I headed east from the summit and then curved round the south side of the big hill. This kept me on grass all of the way back to the haggy bealach.
I paddled through Feith Fhuaran on the return leg as my Inov-8 Roclites were wet through. Grimpen Mire was tricky again. After lunch, I packed the Akto and headed back towards The Glutt. The track which had caused some difficulty the previous evening when I was shattered turned out to be easy with some sugar in my blood. This time it was the estate road from Dalnawillan Lodge to Lochdhu Lodge which caused problems. A dozen or more large, deep puddles stretched right across the sandy road. At each, I had to dismount and carry my bike round. However, after the spectacular Lochdhu Lodge, the surface improved and cycling became easy.
My Anker power pack had gone flat because I used it to charge the phone while the phone was using GPS to track my route, a lesson learned. I needed to recharge the huge battery and none of the camping looked great from the dirt road across the Flows nature reserve so I decided to make for a B&B in Forsinard. Climbing Morven and cycling from Gobernuisgeach to Forsinard was a long day by my standards. Another cracker, though.
meallanliath 