Midweek Mountaineering - Culra Bothy

Continuing the midweek mountaineering …

The Ben Alder area is both remote (in terms of distance to the road) and yet rather accessible (by mountain bike). I first explored the area on a mammoth winter backpack from Corrour over the high tops to the now long gone bothy at Blackburn of Pattack then over more tops before a long walk along the road to Tulloch. This was in the company of Paul Gillies and Alan Kelly back in 1987. Further trips included visits to Ben Alder cottage and Culra bothies.

With the Gnome sitting at 210 Munros and Shamir aboot the 137 mark, an introduction to this rich seem of ticks was needed. The idea grew until the team consisted of the Gnome, Shamir, Jim Riach, my Dad, Eric Hamilton and myself. Eric had to drop due to work commitments and following a rainy drive north my Dad headed …back south !

Following a feed at the Ballinuig Motor Grill, we finally loaded the bikes and started down the track along Loch Ericht at 21:40. Good time was made down the loch until the climb up onto the moor just past the lodge – the Gnome clutch was slipping badly. We regrouped prior to breaking east and the final section to Culra. One of the reasons the bikes were so heavy was we each had a “small” bag of coal.

Personally, I was really looking forward to the fire when the bike light beam hit the side of the bothy. Opening the first door revealed a goodly number of folks already asleep ! An attempt at room 2 was no better …Shamir had a wee “whit the f@ck” moment when the third indicated no room at the inn ! We headed back to room 1 and negotiated some space although the chance of a fire was gone. Turns out, there was some coast to coast challenge / ramble thing on.

Wet gear off and stove on. The Gnome is famed for “triple repacks” whereby he appears to have finished packing only to empty the rucksack and start again. Whilst the rest of us got comfy, had tea, passed the bottle about a bit …the Gnome seemed to be having a “triple unpack” – eventually he announced he couldn’t find his sleeping tablets and popped the cork on a bottle of 17 year old Glengoyne instead.

Next morning and the weather had got worse (I am sure my Dad was sitting rather smugly back in Glasgow). The top tickers decided to settle with Carn Dearg (1034m) which sits behind the bothy and Jim a low level option. In the event, the views across to Alder were fantastic. Regrouped at the bothy for lunch and chatted with a guy who had the largest German Shepard I have ever seem (appropriately named “Wolf”).

The bike back out was a breeze other than some loch side antics which I won’t go into …but in my defence … I “nearly” made it !