2016 TGO Challenge Day 5

2016 TGO Challenge Day 5

Planned: Glen Markie ruins to River Dulnain Campsite (18.75 miles)
Actual: Stronelairg Lodge to Bridge at Coignafeuinternich (15 miles)

Total Trip Miles: 69.25

Tuesday, May 17th, 2016

Day 5 part 1

Day 5 part 2

The morning was overcast and cool, and since we were both heading in the same direction Mervyn and I decided that if we were ready about the same time we'd hike together to begin the day.  My plan was to go further than him, but figured we could at least enjoy a little company for a while.  

Mervyn - taken later at the Ballater campsite

Lone tree up a steep hill

Mervyn leading the way up Glen Markie Burn.  We would spend most of the morning hiking up this valley.

The first part of the day was to walk up the valley that the Glen Markie Burn runs through.  It started out easy enough, with a decent trail leading up into the valley.  That soon disappeared and we followed whatever vague trails we could find along the river.  We passed quite a few ruins.  My original plan for Day 4 was to camp around one of the ruins where the map showed nice flat areas.  Turns out it would have been a nice campsite, and I wouldn't have added miles to today's hike. 

Ruins along Glen Markie

Ruins along Glen Markie

 

Just about out of the valley.  The Glen Markie burn narrowed quite a bit

We spent most of the morning heading up the valley.  We constantly had to cross over the river to find decent walking since the valley was narrowing and the sides were becoming steeper.  It took us about 3 hours to cover the 4.5 miles up out of the valley.  We then had to cross some boggy terrain to meet up with another trail we'd follow for the rest of the day.  I was following Mervyn and he stepped across a patch of dried mud and up onto another grass tussock.  I stepped into the mud, which turned out to not be solid and sunk in up to my thighs.  Luckily there was a big rock near me and I grabbed it and used it to pull myself out.  I didn't think to get a picture, but I was pretty much covered in mud from my thighs down. 

I walked like that for the 4 miles or so as we walked on the path above the River Eskin.  The path eventually dropped down to meet the river where we stopped for lunch.  I went down to the river and cleaned my shoes, socks, and pants off in the water.  Mervyn went on ahead once he was done with his lunch since it took me a bit longer as I had to do my laundry.  

Storm clouds started to move in pretty quickly after lunch and a light drizzle began to fall shortly after I started walking again.  Unfortunately when there's rain it means less pictures as all my electronics get put in waterproof bags and packed away .  I caught up with Mervyn about 2.5 miles further down the path at Coignafearn lodge where he stopped to put on his rain gear.  I put on my rain jacket too as it was starting to rain a bit harder and was getting colder.  The family who owned the lodge was out replacing the boards that made up the bridge over the LRT at their lodge.  

The valley we walked in for the afternoon was so wide you could fit an airfield in it.  It was an impressive open space.  When we got close enough to the bridge at Coignafeuinternich to make it out in the distance we noticed two other backpackers in the distance approaching the bridge.  They seemed to disappear as they reached the bridge.  About a quarter of a mile from the bridge the rain really began to come down and the wind picked up. The rain wouldn't stop until the next day.  Once we got to the bridge we saw the other backpackers under a stand of trees.  

View from my tent.  You can see just how wide the valley was here. 

The backpackers were Matt and Lindley from Wyoming.  We talked and all decided we would camp near the bridge if we could find a place protected from the wind.  After spending a good 20 minutes looking for a place to camp we decided to hike over to a pretty big stand of trees with some ruins around them just south of the bridge.  The trees did a good job of deflecting most of the wind so we all decided to camp there for the night.  My original plan had been to go on, but I had a pretty long crossing over trackless bog and Mervyn warned me not to try it that night as I still  had about 2.5 miles to get to the point where I would go off track.  Mervyn was also heading the same way the following day so we decided we'd stick together and do the crossing together.