A wet, moody day on Pannanich!

A fine start to the day in the warm and cosy Birdhouse cafe in Banchory for coffee, smoothies and croissants, staring out at the rain pouring down, the cars ploughing through standing water on the road and people walking past the window under umbrellas generally looking miserable.. Oh great! 

What's that old saying - There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing! 

Then it was the short drive out to Ballater and to the start of the days route, Pannanich and Craig Vallich loop.

On with the suitable clothing and off we went starting from a layby just east of the town on the South Deeside Road. It's landy track winding up through the forest following the tree edge east and parallel to Brackley Burn which was a raging torrent with 2 days of heavy rain. It's a steady climb from here all the way to the trig point.

If for any reason you stop to take in the views on the way up past the forest, be careful not to lean on the fence by the path... you might get a wee 15,000 volt kick! lol

Pannanich summit

We took a wrong turn early on which had us visiting the mast site on Craig Coillich which was a great steep climb! I can see myself coming back here for reps!
Although the weather was awful there's still something satisfying about running in the rain and zero visibility! It was very, very wet with multiple small streams forming and running down the trails and mostly no visibility with the very occasional break in the sky. A shame as the views here are amazing. I've been hiking and running in the Glen Muick area for years but not really looked at these much easier and more accessible lesser peaks.

Hole in the sky

Once on top it's fairly flat and good running, well apart from the deep troughs of water we had to either bypass through heather or wade through.

From Craig Vallich down towards the Bridge of Muick we were treated to the most amazing, atmospheric and moody scene developing from the west where we got a sunny break above and between the Coyles of Muick and Creag Dearg lighting up the heather which stopped us in our tracks!

Gorgeous!

Soaked to the skin while soaking up the atmos!

Because we went wrong at the start we were up there a bit longer than anticipated so it was touch and go catching Rocksalt and Snails before it closed!! Nooooo.... We picked the pace up and got back to the car, dried off, changed and into town for 4pm which gave us just enough time for the most amazing, fully loaded and hot plate of Minestrone soup! Yaldie!!


As landy track routes go it was great and the terrain suited my companion's injuries so a win win for an easy accessible 18kms/700mtrs road side sesh. Booom!

The route