Banchory Veterans' Hill-walkers

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/ A little surprisingly, the consensus seems to be to try Lochnagar next time out. Jack, Ian and Dave have all voted for it, and both Colin and I are willing to give it a try. Ken is obviously willing, but John is a little reluctant, but hopefully will be persuaded to join us. Haven't heard from Gordon nor Dan, who will be resident in Banchory come the middle of June and might be persuaded to join us. We might have gone ahead with my initial suggestion of Glen Muick to Crathie and done Lochnagar the following time, but Jack won't be around for that one, so perhaps it does make sense to try Lochnagar this time. Dave made a sensible suggestion that, if the cloud level is low, then we just do the lower level Glen Muick to Crathie route - otherwise it's Lochnagar.

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/ So far, only Jack has cast his vote for the midsummer walk - he wants to go up Lochnagar. Anyone else care to chip in with their preference?

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/ As mentioned on the previous posting, there are a few options for the next walk. The first two mean taking two cars and dumping one of them at either end of the walk, but they're not too far apart and that shouldn't present much of a problem. The following maps are easier to read directly from the blog as you can click on the photos there and expand them. Firstly, Ballater to Glentanar - but it's another fairly short one - just 7 miles: The next option is Glenmuick to Balmoral - this one is a better distance (10 miles) and doesn't involve much climbing: Lastly, there's Lochnagar, which is a bit longer at 13 miles and involves an elevation change of 2,500 ft.: Personally, I favour the middle option this time, but I'll go with the flow. What does everyone else think?

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/ We set off in pleasant conditions and Gordon, with his dogs safely in the back of his truck, picked everyone up en route. First question - "anyone know how to get there?" - blank looks all round. Gordon had been there once before about 10 years ago, but wasn't sure - "is it near Aboyne?" - "no, that's Glentanar". Eventually, we all agreed it was Ballater we had to go to so we took the South Deeside all the way. The car park is 6 miles off the main road up a single track with passing spaces - and they charge £3 per vehicle as well. They do provide toilets at the start and there's a shop/coffee bar as well, however. The route at the start is mostly flat, land rover track. We had initially intended to start off on the north side of the loch and would make a late decision as to whether to also take the optional route up to Dubh loch, which would add 4 miles to our walking distance, a bit of climbing and prob...

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/ We are now at least 5 for Sunday - Gordon is joining Dave, Colin, Ian and I - but haven't heard from Jack yet? Plans is to leave Banchory about 8:30 am. I'm hoping I'll be fit, but, right now, I have a knee injury which has caused me to pull out of yesterday's corporate golf trip to Macrihanish, today's outing to Newmachar and tomorrow's medal at Banchory. Any chance of a lift?

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/ Final reminder about this coming Sunday's walk - hopefully the weather will hold fair for us. Confirmed so far are Ian, Colin, Dave and I, with apologies from John and Ken - any others want to join us? Ken highly recommended that we extend the walk on Sunday and don't just go round Loch Muick itself - there is an extra leg up to Dubh loch, which he says is well worth taking. It would take the walk up from 8 miles to 12 miles. I agree with Ken - we probably need to extend our walking times now anyway - September is getting ever nearer - by my reckoning just 17 weeks to go. Realistically, this probably only means a maximum of another 3 "training" walks before we do the latter part of the WHW. Plan is to leave Banchory about 8:30 am on Sunday morning. Transport and driver to be decided once we know final numbers.

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/ This is the bit of the West Highland Way that we are doing from 17th-19th September: Six of us currently signed up - Messrs Sharp, Kilgour, McWhinnie, Stewart, Williamson and Simpson - with Ken Black probably joining us for at least part of the walk - others welcome too.