The walk into the Cairngorms is always something special for me and with no midges around, it was very pleasant indeed. We happened upon a chap who seemed like a decent fellow but had a bit of the 1000-yard stare about him. He had just met a cyclist. carrying in a 10-kilo bag of coal on his bike and they had shared a spliff somewhere up the glen. Cool, man. We would have company at the Hutchison hut tonight and who knew which hydroponic substance would be in the offing. At 2045, we entered the coire and the Etchachan cliffs dominated the view. Another 15 minutes later and we were staring at quite possibly one of the most scenic bothies, in Scotland. Upon arrival, space-man bob was nowhere to be found - neither was his bike, his hash nor his coal. Surely he wouldn't continue on and up to Loch Etchachan with all his booty to return later that night? After de-camping and starting on the beer and whisky and chocolate, we discussed the idea that our friend with the unfeasibly long look, may actually have been on the mushrooms/the baccy/fresh air itself.
At 2145, I headed over to a small peak, where I had read you could get reception and after much rooting around, this was indeed the case. I phoned home and spoke to Emma, reassuring her all was fine. When I returned to the bothy, there was an additional human being to Graeme with bike in tow. Richard was a decent chap and we knew a common work colleague. We didn't know Dick Bush though but we sure took the name to its most puerile form, with Graeme and I heartily laughing at Dick's friend, Dick. After a couple of whiskies, we turned out the lights and sweated the night away, with Dick adding coal to the fire - I have never been so hot in a bothy and the renovation and insulation by the recent work party, is excellent.
At 0400, Graeme and I got up and took some sweets before our climb up to Loch Etchachan and on to Beinn Mheadhoin itself. Not before being sling-shot round the first tor we came to and off on a reverse trajectory back to whence we came. In fact, we would repeat the same mistake on the way back, which was very disconcerting - was there a magnetic anomaly here? We eventually arrived at the large summit tor and climbed up and on to it, taking in the deep-scoured bowls of water. I partook and it was beautifully refreshing. We waited for the clag to break but instead it started to snow and was very chilly. We decided that we had probably been lucky to have had the views and reversed our route back to the Hutchy, where we had breakfast proper. We packed up and fair motored back to the car. Mheadhoin was in the bag and we had enjoyed the bothy, with the odd tale to tell to those who would listen or read.
