Walk Date: 18 Aug 2015. We were waiting for a good time to tackle Carrauntoohil and finally a suitable day arrived. Rachel, Dillon(dillonkdy) and myself set off from the Hydro Track Carpark around 1:30 in the afternoon. The weather was fine and very suitable for the climb. At the top of the Hydro road we made our way across the boggy section, zigging and zagging to avoid the worst sections where possible. We were glad to get on to the solid surface of Caher and climbed until we reached its summit. From here we made our way across to the summit of Carrauntoohil taking care with the steep drop to our left as we went across. It was a bit windy at the top and views were a bit restricted but cleared every so often. This was Dillon’s (dillonkdy) first time to the top and at 8 years of age meant he had conquered the highest point of Ireland and his 5th County High Point. We took a few pictures and had some food before heading off. Initially we went slightly off our route but quickly corrected that. It was an uneventful decent until we returned to the edge of the boggy area where Rachel insisted in taking a direct route across it, “I see my destination and I’m going straight there, NO DETOURS!” she said. Within minutes I was dragging her out of a bog hole where she was up to her waist in muck and leaning forward to stop herself sinking any further. Needless to say she stayed with us for the rest of the walk. We returned to the car after spending an enjoyable 6 hours on the mountains. This route is quite safe once you are careful in the boggy area and the on ridge between Caher and Carrauntoohil. I used this route years previously when Rachel made her first trip to Carrauntoohil at the age of 8 also.
See Dillon’s (dillonkdy) full story of his County High Point Challenge at https://dillons32chpchallenge.github.io/progress/index.html We also found Kieron Gribbon's High Point Ireland website (www.highpointireland.com) to be a useful source of information for our 32 County High Points challenge. Definitely worth checking out if you're planning to do any of the High Point challenges. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/1/comment/18807/