Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

I’m really starting to get worked up abou tthis camping weekend and it’s not even the camping bit that im most looking forward to which is weird. Hopefully we’ll be going up a hill or two over the weekend and thats the bit thats putting a smile on my face. The problem is I’m getting carried away with it all. We’re currently planning on going up Sgorr na Ciche (or Pap of Glencoe to most folk) on the saturday which should be a relatively easy walk. I say relatively easy as some of the other walks I’m looking at pushing it a bit. Of the four folk going up only one has done any serious hill waking in recent years and it aint me. I went up Ben Nevis a few years ago after a long break and it hurt and the other two have never really much if any hill walking throughout their years. So when I’m looking at the map and thinking “Sgorr nam Fiannaidh is right next to that, we could just plow on past the Pap and have a shot at that as well”, I’m completely forgetting that Sgorr nam Fainnaidh is the western end of the Aonach Eagach ridge which whilst if we stopped there we could probably do the rest would just be a death trap to us at this time. I would love to do the ridge walk though at some future date.

Willie also brought up the possibility of going up Buachaille Etive Mor which I knocked back because of the travel times etc on the friday. But the more I look at it it’s easily doable as the walk up Stob Dearg is only about 4 miles long there and back and although it looks hard I’m reliably informed apart from a few scrabbles going ups easy and with care so is coming back down. I’m just having trouble working out how we’re going to be feeling on saturday morning after doing that and sleeping at the lochside only to have to then go up the Pap.

I’d love to do Ben Nevis on the sunday as well but with a 6-7 hour climb in good weather on the cards I’m not entirely sure how doable that would be after 1-2 hills the days before.

I hope this is a start of things to come as I really want to get back out on the hills after all these years of sitting about just looking at them.

No tag for this post.

Obviously I’m not going to get all 101 things written down in one go so it will be added to as I come up with things. As things get ticked off there will be an entry to justify its completion

Start:- 1 March 07
End:- 26 November 09

1. Go on a holiday with my family
2. Go on a holiday abroad with my family
3. Go on 10 dates with Vonnie without the kids [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
4. Visit 2 countries I’ve never been to before [ ] [ ]
5. Pass my driving test
6. Make a home cooked meal from scratch for an entire week
7. Decorate the living room
8. Decorate the bedrooms
9. Fit a new kitchen
10. Get a promotion at work
11. Try and brew my own beer
12. Get my weight down to 16 Stone
13. Get a savings account going for the kids
14. Get a savings account going for Vonnie and myself
15. Dig up the bushes/trees in the back garden
16. Demolish the coalshed
17. Sort out the garden
18. Paint a W40k minature
19. Finish painting my Imperial Guard miniatures
20. Take a photo a day for a year, no matter how good, for the photoblog.
21. Get my wrist tattoo
22. Build, cultivate and harvest my own vegetable plot
23. Attend 5 games of airsoft [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
24. Go on 3 camping trips with my family[ ] [ ] [ ]
25. Go on 2 camping trips with my mates[ ] [ ]
26. Climb a munro
27. Climb Ben Lomond
28. Climb Ben Nevis
29. Walk the West Highland Way
30. Learn how to be a half way decent photographer
31. Teach Nairn to ride a bike without stabilisers
32. Do 5 county walks of at least 5 miles [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
33. Do 3 country walks of at least 10 miles [ ] [ ] [ ]
34. Try 30 new meals [x] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ], 10 [ ], 20 [ ], 30 [ ]
35. Grow my own jalepenos
36. Organise and finish flooring the loft space
37. See the guys for a day/night out/in at least once a month for a year [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [
38. Host a BBQ each year [ ] [ ] [ ]
39. Have a house warming party
40. Blog every day for a month at least 5 times [x] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
41. Decorate bathroom
42. Floor Bathroom
43. Floor Kitchen
44. Plant cherry tree
45. Make a fruit crumble from fruit grown in my back garden
46. Make a curry from scratch

Right…after a chat on Saturday night at Mark and Clares party…just before my body decided cider was a good sedative…we came up with a workable date for the camping. It’s not ideal but working around what we’ve already got planned between us all it’s the only real date that gives almost everyone a chance to go.

So 21-22 May 05 is looking like the hot favourite. Steve can’t go as its a firefight weekend but he’s happy with that as it means we can go to some of his LAN the following weekend. The following weekend was sort of out because of the LAN but more so because its the weekend before Mark and Clare go off on their honeymoon. This also ruled out Willie and Ang as they are going along as well. The weekend before the 21/22 is Steves birthday airsoft weekend which we obviously couldnt do. Willie might not be able to make it as he has to get his course work in by this weekend but with a bit of luck and a little hard work he might be able to join us so fingers crossed.

What does everyone else think of the date?

I’ll need to start finding out numbers soon so we can work out if we have enough tents and transport…and if there isnt enough cars the bus stops at Fort William and is very regular and suprisingly cheap considering the journey if I remember rightly…think the campsites about a 10 minute drive outside Ft William but then again I was VERY tired the last time i was there and can’t really remember it.

Would anyone be up for going up on the Friday? Anyone that wants to attempt Ben Nevis would probably have to go up on the Friday at least as your talking about a 7 hour walk up and down. Obviously thats with a lot of stops on the way up and it takes almost no time at all to come down from and theres a lovely wee pub at the start of the track which over looks the campsite if I remember rightly.

Post here for more info and to keep up to date

This has been getting to me for years. I was reading someones journal the other day and its actually made me mad that i’ve not managed to sort this out.

In my youthful pre-teen days I used to go rambling/hillwalking every two weeks. I lost count of the number of miles I’ve walked over the years and just where its taken me. I want to do that again. I love the Scottish country side and would kill to be able to get back out there amongst it.

Everytime I went camping with Barry and co we’ve spent the Friday night a the Kingshouse Hotel with the intention on climbing Buachaille Etive Mor in the morning with the guys that werent up for it going to Fort William for firewood and supplies. Every year…and I mean EVERY year its ended up with everyone bar myself having the worst hangover on the planet thanks to our ability to teach the lovely australian barmaids how to make white russians and various other cocktails. I am determined to do it even if it means carrying Barry up the damn thing. Except I want be strapping him into a harness and going up the hard way like he did the first time he went up. Two sober bikers dragged him up the rock face one morning whilst he was still drunk I think!

Anyway…theres talk of going camping very soon ie next month, and the most likely place for this trip would be Gln Nevis campsite…if its open. Now there would be a few folk interested in this already but it would be great if a good crowd went up. It would also give me a chance of dragging a few folk up Ben Nevis. Only takes about 5-6 hours ther and back in good weather and theres a tourist trail taking you from the front gate right up to the top. Ive seen folk climb it in sandles and wellies before. Anyone interested in dong that if the weathers not to bad when we do go?

In fact is anyone other than maybe Willie and Ang interested in in doing some hills over the summer?

“Many hillwalkers in Scotland will have been introduced to the hills by the TV programmes of Tom Weir over twenty years ago. Seemingly they are being shown again overnight and are apparently attracting a cult following. I must set the video sometime.
I was interested to see that a Weir’s Way has been created in the Campsies, the hills where the young Tom escaped from the hoorors of industrial Glasgow. It was opened earlier this year by Tom Weir, now nearly ninety. I missed the news reports at the time but a quick Google search led me to the story on the STV website. If you take a look at it, click through to the short video clips - it’s worth it to see the grand old man dancing a jig!”