Revisiting Ben Ledi

After the weather last time I tried to climb Ben Ledi, I thought I would give it another shot, I have new boots I needed to break in as well. 

So I left this morning at 11am to go to Calander and I was off on the walk for 12.30pm.

This time I went up the right side, this side is much much steeper and stays steep right up until the top. 

When you park the car you walk back to the Iron Bridge and then turn left through the tree's, and follow the blue markers on the posts. You will go straight into a magic wood, filled with lots of wild life and plantation it all seems really green and healthy compared to city woods. It is a steep incline from the beginning so try and pace yourself, keep going up and try and take in some of the scenery and wildlife, you will cross and small bridge and the path turns slightly to the right and then back round to the left up some steps again pretty steep, You will then come out onto the forestry road cross over that and you will see the blue marker, just a point I am guessing the blue markers are for going up and the red markers for coming down. 

I was still on my own at this point, so you go straight over and you already are climbing and you stay climbing really steep for the next hour with only one let up and that is at the first false summit. When you get past first part of the "stairs" take a look back and you will see the Loch Lubnaig, follow the road round to the left, you might think you are going up the hill in front of you, you’re not that is nothing, once you cross over the first wooden style there is no longer a path, it becomes pretty boggy with water coming down the side of the hill, Keep making your way up and follow the water, once you finally get to the top, the view then opens up and you can see Calander, and the other Loch Venacher in front of you, and carry on a bit up the hill and you will start to see the potential that awaits when you actually get to the top, I am excited still thinking about the emotions that were running through my body when I reach the top, but I will leave that until later, there are three false summits, each summit has a stack of rocks, and the real summit has a cross on it, and then walk a bit up and there is a concrete monument. 

once you hit your first summit and look back the drive pulls your forward to get to that next check point, over to the left you can see the snow covered mountains in the distant and you can see Loch's that you probably didn't even know were there. 

To reach the second false summit you have to hoof it up a pretty steep part of the mountain which may take about 15/20 mins. 

You are now walking in some snow, the weather today was amazing, clear skies no snow and temp was not too bad, 

Once you finally reach the summit I had just an overwhelming sense of achievement 2800Ft done in just over 1hr 30Mins. Not only that because there was no clouds you could see for miles, and take in the sights and just sit down and take in Scotland's beauty, for those that haven’t seen even half of Scotland it is a great way to get out and enjoy and take in what Scotland has to offer. 

It is truly amazing and heart warming knowing that you have put in all that effort and the reward is even more than you can imagine while your trying to reach the top. 

I met a Canadian couple half way up and we ended up teaming up which I found was much better than walking on my own, we drove each other forward, and we reached the summit together, we ended up doing the whole thing and continuing to walk along the ridge of the mountain and down into Coffin Road where I went the other week, 

Note* if you are going to do this, once you walk along the ridge and down the hill, follow the fence posts down, you will come to a pool of water and peat, TAKE THE RIGHT THERE, do not follow the posts all the way along, we did as they didn't have waterproofs so didn't want to go down the water path, we ended up in trouble and having to scale down the Crags, it was not fun and whatever energy you have left it sucks it out of you, so take the right and head down the water path until you get to the style and then you head down Coffin Road, I left the couple there as I had done it already and just wanted to hoof it along with my music on. 

I think I could have done it in 3.5HRS if we didn't get lost, but 4.5hours for 6.25 miles it was a tremendous Sunday and I can't wait to take Gwen up there.

I don't know what else to put apart from, Ben Ledi gave me a massive sense of personal achievement and a drive to see more of Scotland on a mountain top, the views of Scotland from up there were well worth the walk.

What to do next? will need to find something else before the West Highland Way. 

JB. 

Ben Ledi Walk

I thought I would jot down some thoughts of my walks to the build up to the west highland way, I am pretty rubbish with words so you will have to excuse any spelling or grammer mistakes.

The walk this morning was to achieve not only to the top of the 2800 ft mountain just outside Callandar but also to push myself in ways that I havn't done before. To challenge myself, everyone knows that I like to walk around trails etc but mountain climbing is new to me. So I packed the the walking gear this morning and headed off to the foot of Ben Ledi which took about 1hr 20 mins. ( also while I remember note to self, listen to Gwen more, not having a decent breakfast wasn't wise) also I need a new pair of walking boots, a size eleven when I am a twelve is pretty pish.

Weather forecast for today was snow showers around Callander. If you are reading this and you are unsure which way to walk there are two ways, once you park your car at the car park when you take a left 3miles north of Callandar take the left turn when it sign posted for log cabins. you go over a small metal bridge and take a left and park the car there, and walk back towards to the bridge, you can either take the left through the trees just after the sign that says Ben Ledi and how many feet it is, I didn't go this way and later got told that is the easier way to go. So I am going back up to do it that way, but I will tell you the way I went, you walk past the bridge on your right hand side and walk along the road towards to the wooden chalets, where I met a guy maybe late 50's who was out to walk over to Balquidder, which I fancy as well, and he gave me some good advice about the West Highland Way, you walk along that road for about 3/4 of a mile and take a left at the Ben Ledi sign, follow the red markings some are numbered and some just have a red ring around the wooden posts but keep with the red signs. I doubled back on myself for 20mins because I thought I was going the wrong way.

You come to a fork in the road, take the right up the hill, and follow the road round and you will look upon some great sights, the mountain faces you when you turn the corner, once I turned round the turn it was a blizzard and the wind was rushing round the corner, so keep going round and you will see the numbers going down in number, keep on that road, you will go down the hill and then up a bit, this road is a magic road that gives you a great feeling, really nice green vegetation from the water falls coming down from the mountain side, if you are lucky you will see some brilliant wild life, The trees up the mountain give you good cover until you get out into the old coffin road. You go through the two wooden styles and there your off the road onto an old road, I wondered quite a bit walking along this road what it would have been like walking along in the times of the highlanders or how many people in the past have walked this road or if it has changed dramatically since it was created by the glacier that made that valley.

Take the steep climb up and you will see in the short distance a small but brilliant water fall and if I had more time I would have tried to get closer to it over the heather and bog, keep on this path, and follow the red markings, you will come to a massive boulder how it got there I have no idea, take in the old coffin road ahead it is a magic view. Keep on this path and you will walk along and see more of the burn/small river until you come to two massive stepping stones over the burn your on the right path, and walk up to the old style, I didn't realise how steep it was until I went back down, over the style and there are now no markings and very little path way, so you have to head up the side of the mountain finding the best way to suit you, again I didn't realise how steep it was, and was short of breath quite a bit heading up, I reached about 500 feet from the top and the weather took a turn for the worst and hard hail/snow came over the hill and down, I think I stood there for ten minutes considering what to do, go up or call it a day and head back down. luckily I decided to head back down the mountain this time and made my way through the bogs to the right, do not go down that way, I didn't realise how boggy it was until I lost my left leg, as I made my way down the weather got worse but I had a massive sense of achievement, as mentioned at the beginning this was a challenge for me as well as a challenging walk. the walk back I wasn't worried if I was going the right or wrong way I was enjoying it with my thoughts and a bit of Stevie Wonder on my headphones.

I took the path back to where I came from and back into the thick trees where the snow was less like hail but more fluffy snow and I smiled as I think or would like to think anyone would whilst walking in the snow.

Ben Ledi provided a magic walk for me today to push me in different ways, I seen two different seasons today, magic wild life and time to be with my thoughts, it was a challenging walk but I am looking forward to getting back up it and trying the other way to get to the Summit.

Any other walks I do I will post on here

Hope you enjoyed it.