BEN ALDER WEEKEND

Ben Alder and The Lancet Edge

Beautiful Autumn light

The long walk in beside Loch Ericht

Sgurr Iutharn, Lancet Edge

Our camp above 800m with the roaring stags

The Short Leachas ridge, Ben Alder

Ben Alder

Sunset over Ben Alder

 Good weather over the weekend was just perfect timing to get out for some backpacking and wild camping. Gone are the midges now with the low overnight temperatures killing them off. We headed into the Ben Alder Forest on Saturday. One of those remoteareas with several Munros which require either a very long day, over 10 hours even with a bike or an overnight camp. We chose the latter now that the days are much shorter. It's a glorious journey into the mountains with an easy track beside Loch Ericht then a wonderful and well maintained stalkers path all the way to Culra Bothy and beyond. We pitched the tent up at around 800m with a grand stand view of the bulky Northern Corries of Ben Alder, the highest and most popular peak in the area. There was a beautiful sunset.  We're just into the rut season with the Red Deer. The stags were roaring all night, one or two which seemed to be right outside our tent. We kept having a peep outside for the Aurora (Northern Lights) which have been observed the last couple of days but we didn't see any activity this night. A magic place to be.