Tour de Glen Clova

The skies were not very promising as I drove north, the Lomonds and southern highlands shrouded in cloud but I was heading to the Angus Hills which I hoped would be clear. 

Parking at Clova, I could see the hill summits were indeed clear, but it didn't look like it would last. I headed onto the south-west side of the glen joining a faint path on the climb to Cairn Inks. Sadly the cloud descended and I was in the clag for the rest of this side of the route. Over Bassies and down to the Sneck of Farchal before the long climb above. I emerged from the murk jogging past the Munro summit of Driesh, waving to a pair in the cairn shelter with full waterproofs and hoods up. 

Soon enough I dropped out of the cloud to start the fast descent down the excellent path on the side of the Shank of Drumfollow (blip) to the head of the glen at Glendoll. No stopping, I started the ascent onto the north-eastern side of the glen now, through plantation and onto open grassy hillside. A swarm of flies plagued me for the ascent before the midge-net was deployed. Ha! Now you can GTF!

The terrain flattened out at 800m and I jogged onto Cathelle Houses for a bite to eat on the cairn. Boustie Ley lay ahead and I spied a line to the bealach avoiding most of the peat-hags. The wind was now howling and I was glad of the cooling effect in the ~20C air. There was a wee bit of drizzle but the clouds were lifting above summits now.

Near the Snub I joined a grassy ATV track which provided fast running all the way to the Corbett summit of The Goet. After some final food, it was time to descend back to the glen, a bit of a knee breaker down a new vehicle track that heads to Loch Wharral. Finally a sweat-fest 3km slog back to Clova along the undulating road that weaves its way through hummocky birch clad bumps of glacial moraines. 

It was good to return to Glen Clova with all its odd placenames and I'm glad its not changed much since my first visit in nineteen-canteen.