Day sixteen - Tuesday

Forecast was good so I'd made plans to head up to Glen Shiel to do the Forcan Ridge up the Saddle, a grade 2 scramble that gets 3 stars in the guide. Tom came over for 0830 and we hit the road. I drove, cracked out The xx, The Smiths and Temper Trap on the drive up. Pretty soon after leaving got stuck behind a coach going about 35mph on a 60mph road - bit frustrating but that's cool, I don't really mind. After ~15 minutes we arrived at Spean Bridge, where there's a fork in the road. At this point the coach, as if it couldn't decide which way to turn, veered right, then left, before coming to a stop in the middle of the road past the junction. Hazard lights went on. The reverse lights went on. Meanwhile a queue had formed of about 5-6 cars behind, with some more waiting at the junction. I had to reverse to get out of the way of the coach which was now reversing into the right hand junction. It was performing a U-turn - crazy times. Explains why it had been going so slowly if it had been looking for a place to turn around for the last 15 minutes. Once that was out the way cruised up to the carpark, near Achnagart farm at the southern tip of Loch Duich. The rest of the drive was spectacular, over desolate hillsides with spectacular mountains and lochs. Took about 1h20m from Fort William.

Exemplary bog hopping technique

The awesome Forcan ridge!

So we set of at around 1010 from the car, marching up a very nice stalkers path up to Meallan Odhar and the base of the Forcan Ridge. It was pretty overcast - I was a bit disappointed as the forecast had been so good but hadn't yet materialised. We even got lightly rained on at one point. Once at the base of the ridge we overtook a lone male walker, and got stuck into the scrambling. It was fairly broken up, with a good path avoiding the difficulties but obviously we tried to stick to the crest of the ridge as much as possible to maximise fun times!

Bum shuffling along a very spiky rock out from the ridge!

It looked fairly short and before long we had popped out at the top to be greeted with a long continuation of the ridge up to the main summit of The Saddle at 1010m. Took around 2h30m from car to summit, although we were enjoying the ridge and stopped for photos at various points!

On the summit of The Saddle, 1010m

Following this undulating ridge was great, and the best part of the scramble. Some good involving tricky steps, with some steep drops to the left. Tom spotted some deer down on the left hand slopes at one point, and we also saw a pair of small grey grouse rambling around on the flanks of the ridge. We gained the summit and had lunch, before a brief chat with a lone female scrambler from Winchester. Lots of people out today compared to our lonely experience on Aonach Eagach! Steep descent to the Bealach Coire Mhalagin, before a 300m climb to the summit of Sgurr na Sgine ('skur na skeena') at 945m, our second Munro of the day. Retracing our steps we then gain the last top of Foachag before a step descent off the northeast ridge which delivered us straight back to the car. Along this I disappeared knee deep into a bog when attempting to stand on a bit of moss that looked like all the other bits of moss but sadly wasn't! Tom also slipped over on the descent to much hilarity, getting very muddy in the process. Arrived back 5h30m after setting off.

Weather started to clear on the descent - looking over towards Five Sisters

No longer that 5 minutes into the journey home, to the dulcit tones of Alt-J, Tom's head started bobbing around in time with the bends - he'd fallen asleep! Poor lad, tired him out. We stopped off at the Commando memorial, great panoramic views out to Ben Nevis; by this time blue skies had broken out but the mountain's summit was still shrouded in cloud. Dropped Tom off then headed home for a shower and pasta. Chatted to Helen about the day in the hospital, she'd nipped up to Mallaig with a friend during the afternoon, although didn't sound like she was that impressed with the place! I want to visit the Arisaig beaches up that way at some point, and also obviously set eyes on the Harry Potter viaduct, complete with steam train going over it if I get my timing right!

Great day out, legs feel tired and satisfied. Flopped out infront of TV, watched a great programme on STV (Scottish ITV I think, very confusing when trying to look up tv guide on web) on the dogs. Really want a dog - English Springer Spaniel. Met a lovely liver spotted one when I was up at Easter with my family at the place where we stayed. Once I'm a bit more settled in a place I'm definitely going to get one! Want to train one and take on walks/scrambles in the mountains and go on runs etc. Would be so much fun!