Thirty walkers were out on todays routes with 16 on the main walk of An Socath/Morrone, 13 on the Morrone circular and one on the Lions Face walk. The bus dropped the main walkers off at Baddoch before circling back to Braemar for the others to start their walks there. It was great to see a number of new members out on their first walk with the club.
The weather forecast looked promising and turned out to be sunny in the morning, clouding over somewhat in the afternoon avoiding overheating but still warm with light breezes to keep cool so pleasant walking weather. Dry spells in the previous days also helped reduce what could have been hard going marshy sections into much better going underfoot.
The walk into An Socath passed relatively quickly and the climb itself to the top was not too bad. We met a number of other walkers out taking in this Munro including one who stated they never go right to the top of any hill! The walk over to Morrone was long and the numerous elevation losses/gains from subsequent peaks on the way proved to be a challenge to the legs. There were deer and a close red kite sighting for some members.
The Morrone circular walkers chose to do this in the clockwise direction for the most part. The rocky path coming down from Morrone proved to be an additional challenge at the end of the walks for both groups coming down this way.
There was time for our walkers to have some well earned refreshments in Braemar at various locations. We left on time 7pm and the driver had us back in Aberdeen before our estimated arrival time.
David