Friday 13th – Sunday 15th July 2012

Following from the success of last summer’s joint meet between DMC and Dundee University Rucksack Club , we decided to arrange another this year. This time we went a bit closer to home, staying at a campsite by Loch Tay, a few miles from Killin (since we had a trip up to the north west quite recently !).

When we headed up on the Friday evening it seemed that “Friday 13th” was indeed bad luck – the rain was heavy and persistent and we had to wait in our cars for a while before even getting out to pitch our tents!

Thankfully Saturday was a different story altogether with clear, bright and warm weather. We all headed up to the Ben Lawers car park where most of us headed up Meall nan Tarmachan and along the Tarmachan ridge to Meall Garbh and Beinn nan Eachan, then back down through the corrie and picking up the landrover track back to the car park. Meanwhile others headed up Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers.

Our trip happened to coincide with the Artemis Great Kindrochit Quadrathlon , an impressive feat involving swimming across Loch Tay, running up and down seven Munros, kayaking seven miles, then cycling another 34 around the shores of the loch. It was fun to watch the competitors running past but did make us feel a bit lazy!

Afterwards we headed down to the lochside for a drink whilst watching their transition to the kayak stage, before heading to Killin for a very nice meal at The Old Smiddy.

Some of us then headed straight home whilst others returned to the campsite for a second night, returning on Sunday (which turned out to be too wet for it to be worthwhile sticking around!)

(See also DURC’s report on this joint meet)