Mount Keen was the mountain that I chose to be my first Munro or that I would bag. A term used for hikers that get to the top of a Munro and those that continue to tick these off the list become known as Munro baggers.
Why did I chose this hill? its considered to be one of the easier Munros and popular amongst beginners many books suggest this hill as a starter. The route I took has a long walk in before any ascent is made on the hill plus it's only a 50 minute drive from where I stayed. The 2 main routes hillwakers take are from Glen Esk which is the easier of these 2 but it's a longer drive to the start for me although a nice drive through the Angus Glens. Since then I have done Mount Keen twice from Glen Esk, but I prefer the longer walk through Glen Tanar.
In the run up to this I started doing some of the smaller but still challenging hills around Aberdeenshire. I had just moved out of Aberdeen city centre to a place called Blackburn it was closer to where I worked. It had Kirkhill and Tyrebagger hill not far away plus Bennachie on the otherside of Inverurie which can be seen from miles away, a welcome sight on a long drive back from the west highlands after a weekend of Munro bagging. My landlady Marlene had a little dachshund named Panzer who joined me on some of these walks, in total I think he bagged 15 Munros plus a few sub 2000's.
A couple of weeks before I was due to go up Mount Keen I was still a bit skeptical 🫤 about my ability to go over 3000 feet. So I drove up past Aboyne took a single track road outside the town and parked up in a small car park to the start if the route. The good thing about hiking around Scotland is that you have whats called the Right to Roam.
"The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 introduced new rights of responsible public access to land and the countryside.
Access rights are upheld and managed on the ground by local authorities and National Park authorities (called the access authorities).
The Scottish Outdoor Access Code sets out the rights and responsibilities of land managers and those exercising access rights."
So as long as your responsible and follow the Outdoor Access Code you should have no problems. But there are still a few landowners and gamekeepers that will do their best to make you unwelcome.
I got as far as the bridge that goes over the Water of Tanar and could see Mount Keen in front of me, and spoke briefly to a couple that had just been on the summit to get any information they might have. Something I still do is stop and chat with folk in remote locations they might be able to pass on some information like if a ford is impassable or cattle with young are on the track up ahead, anything that avoids a crisis. Highly recommend this when out winter walking. As I headed back to the car I was happy with today's recce and happy to take on the challenge.
Not far from the top of Mount Keen I struggled bit and had to sit down thinking I couldn't carry on. Maybe I had been going to quick and not resting enough on the ascent. From where I left the track I had about 500m of ascent, experience tells me now that I should have stayed on what's known as the Mount Road an old drovers track, I chose to go under Gathering Cairn making it a bit steeper through heather and tussocky grass.
I had little Panzer with me and he was ahead looking back, more or less saying, get up and move could be treats up here I can see people. The walkers we met had come up from Glen Esk. Took some photos of mountains in the distance before a bite to eat and of course Panzer got his treat. Something he learned getting to a summit meant food, he'd do a little dance at the cairn waiting for the rucksack to get opened.
Back home ticking off my 1st blue balloon on the Walkhighlands website delighted with myself. Looking back now I was in awe of folk who had done over 80 and even finished them all. I had the bug and this changed my lifestyle for the 4 years.
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