Training Log Archive: Leanimal

Phatty Jr and I popped out for a quick run along the beach in North Berwick from the hotel before going to brunch. Such a gorgeous little town on the ocean.

I would have preferred more Ceilidh dancing at the wedding but what we did do was fantastic!

We had plans of trekking all the way back to the road that we started at today, camping, and then hiking the 5 sisters of Kintail on Thursday (a nice ridge walk that would end back in Glen Shiel) but the weather would have made it difficult to see anything on the 5 Sisters and the thought of camping in the rain was not so appealing anymore. We also wanted to spend time with Phatty's Aunt and Uncle before the wedding on Friday (we were wimping out). Knowing that if we wanted to get back to Glasgow that night the last bus leaving Glen Shiel was at 4:50pm. We got up early and were on the trail by 7:20am. We backtracked for three hours and then started a long climb into a valley to a saddle. The ground was like walking in a marsh and I was concerned we had no chance of making it to the road in time. But we plugged away and as we got to the top of the first saddle Phatty said we were making good time. We contoured around to cut out a descent and ascent and then climbed to a high saddle before our last steep descent. The rain throughout the day had been getting heavier and more constant so by the time we reached the high saddle it was pouring and the temperature was dropping. The clouds were low and our visibility was next to nothing. We knew we had to find the trail to descend since the terrain was much steeper here so we looked around, couldn't find it, and continued to search. Finally after about 45minutes the clouds cleared enough for us to see a spot to scramble down. It wasn't easy with our heavy packs on but in a break in the clouds we saw the trail below and made our way to it.

We finally got there and although it was a river by now we followed it down toward the road. We had lost valuable time here and knew it would now be tight to get the bus. About 500m from the road we had a river crossing and after standing in the frigid water for several minutes trying to get across we had to bail. The water was up to Phatty's thighs and if we fell all of our stuff would get soaked, including my digital camera so we retreated and detoured to cross a smaller river and then over a fence to the road.

We had 5 1/2 km to the bus shelter so we started out facing traffic so we could hop out of the way of oncoming cars into the bushes since the roads are so narrow. In a typical Rogaine finish for me we arrived at the bus shelter at 4:50pm after 9 1/2 solid hours of hiking with one bathroom break. Luckily the bus was three minutes late so we were able to grab some dry clothes and get on the bus smelling like a couple of wet dogs!
Phew!

Back to Glasgow to Iain's flat and a great nights sleep on his floor!

Despite the weather the Highlands were spectacular! Rugged but accessible. It is no wonder that so many people run into trouble out there though. There are no marked paths and the weather is something else, changing by the minute. It would be fun to bike coast-to-coast too.....next time!

C • Awesome Stories! 3

Once again changing our plans we headed for the closest bothy in Barrisdale Bay along Loch Hourn, a large inlet from the ocean. The trek was flat and we passed an older English lady and three young Germans who were actually holding guitars.....no cases. When we passed them on the narrow trail I half expected them to just start playing.

We got to the bothy which wasn't as nice as our first one but had a toilet since it was attached to a working farm. We dropped our bags and headed out to bag a Munro. The weather didn't give us a good look at the tops of the mountains but as we ascended we caught occasional peeks. The wind was really gusting here and we had to lean into it pretty hard. I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to go to the top if it didn't calm down a bit but the spur was wide enough to make it safe so we continued. At one point, at about 850m high, I was walking in front and froze in my tracks when I caught sight of a big, white, hairy monster running out of the corner of my eye. Pete saw the look of horror on my face and got his fighting face on.....and then he too caught sight of the monster and proceeded to yell in surprise. We both broke out laughing when we realized that the animal waddling away from us was a sheep that clearly had not been shorn in about 10 years.

Onward and upward we went and were lucky enough to get a few views of the surrounding mountains, valleys, and lochs before running back down to the bottom.

That night we had a crew of people in the bothy, a couple of English guys who were out photographing the stags (which we could hear outside the bothy) and a few other English couples who were also trekking.

Still not time adjusted we slept in until 10:30am and had a hard time getting out of bed listening to the weather outside. We eventually packed up, donned all of our Salomon waterproofs, and headed out into the rain. The trail we were hiking today was pretty flat and not long into it we turned around to see a crew of mountain bikers slogging away. We said hello and bumped into them again as we caught up on some of the trickier sections. It was a group of English people who were doing a coast-to-coast guided trip. We got to a river crossing that was now flowing pretty good and watched in horror as they were all dragging their bikes across - completely submerged!! Phatty and I managed to get across without being swept away and promptly went over to help the group across.

Once again we had some climbing to do before descending into Kinloch Hourn, a cluster of buildings of which we were hoping one was a bothy. As we approached we saw a sign on one of the stone buildings that said "B&B" halleluyah! Pull out the credit card. We asked first if there was a bothy in the area but found out that the closest one was three hours away......we decided to stay at the B&B.

Joe, the man who ran the place, was very friendly and we had a great evening chatting with him and anyone who came in for tea. We talked about old Scottish battles and Phatty was very happy to hear that the last name "Cameron" was well respected in these parts.....we did also learn about the nastiness of the "Campbell" clan and we have yet to decide if we will be conversing with Bash in the future!!!

After a warm bath (that's right no shower, or hydro for that matter) we snuggled in to listen to the rain beating on the roof and the wind howling outside.

C • Campbell clan 1

The weather looked promising in the morning but quickly turned to a drizzly day. Luckily the temps were mild and we made our way up another valley. With our luck the previous night in finding a bothy we decided to change our route to try to find another one. This meant leaving the trail for a bit and contouring around the side of a mountain into another valley. With no trees to be seen for miles we did this pretty easily. We descended another valley with a huge waterfall and could see our "potential bothy" from way up high. It looked the exact same as the last one so we were pretty happy. We even thought that after dropping off our packs we would walk toward the coast where it looked like there was a cluster of buildings with a lodge that must have a restaurant. We had a hankering for some fish and chips at this point.

As we got to the bothy we realized that the MBA probably hadn't started it's renos on this one. There were couches inside and the whole place was covered in mice poop. Damn! It looked like it might be a gathering for some hunters or something so we had a quick lunch and decided that we would move on to two other buildings on the map. This meant a relatively flat trek along a river bed but once we didn't see the first building I started to get worried. The rain was coming down hard now and I just couldn't get excited about putting the tent up.

We rounded another bend and came upon a new looking building that was much smaller than the other two we had seen. We opened the doors to find that we had come across a boat house. Boo! So we set up the tent in the rain and went inside the boathouse to get out our stuff and make dinner. The weather got worse and when Phatty went to check on the tent it appeared that the water had found somewhere to get in and there were several small puddles in the tent. Another boo. So I suggested that we tip the large row boat sideways, put our emergency blankets on the ground, and sleep in there. Perfect.

We played cards, had dinner, and snuggled in amongst the spiders for what ended up being a very comfortable and cozy night. The rain didn't let up though and the wind was really blowing.