Clachnaben

Last Thursday, I headed out to hike Clachnaben, one of Aberdeenshire's famous hills, with the AWA Explorers. It was 4.5 hours and 11 miles of huffing and puffing, laughing and venting and just soaking in everything that makes me love Scotland. I spent most of my time chatting with Laine. Since we'd both been gone collectively for over 3 weeks, we had lots of catching up to do. I told her it's surreal being able to have girl talk while hiking through some of the prettiest countryside I've seen to date. And not to mention, an extra bonus, of walking up on a real live pheasant hunt, complete with Scottish tartan, Land Rover Defenders and working dogs; all of which our husbands dream of.

Clachnaben, that rock thing was the highest point of our hike but was reached 5.5km into it

Some of the AWA ladies on top of the rock

Yep, that's snow still on the hill top from the previous Friday's snow

My girlies

This hike was challenging, beautiful and long and probably my favorite hike I've done so far! And the leader of the Explorers has asked me to lead the next hike since she'll be out of town. Eeek! Luckily, it's scheduled to be at Loch Muick and we all know I could do that one with my eyes closed ;-) Here's to Take 5!