Hurricane Irma

As I'm sure everyone is aware of, we had a little hurricane strike Florida over the weekend.  My area really lucked out as the storm shifted to the west, so the east coast of Florida only received category 1-2 winds.  Once the power went out and I got bored I took some pics and videos:

My favorite outdoor napping chair is indoors!!!

This is from the front of my house:

This duck just didn't care that there was a hurricane:

You might say that it doesn't look too bad, but keep in mind this was before the strongest winds.  I kept missing the really giant gusts of wind that would happen every couple minutes, so unfortunately these videos don't capture the full intensity.  

I did also use this as an opportunity to put on my rain gear and go out into the storm.  It kept me dry for the 5 minutes I was out there. (This is also good training for the winds in Scotland on the TGO)

The tree out front of my house was the first casualty:

The next morning I went outside to check the damage:

The bush from video four didn't fare that well in the end:

Overall we were really lucky.  Really, really lucky.  We were ground zero for quite a while and would have faced category 4 or 5 winds instead of the 1 or 2 we got.  Everybody is safe and other than some landscaping damage everything is fine.  

Post 2017 TGO - Climbing Ben Nevis

Climbing Ben Nevis

11 Miles

Saturday, May 27th, 2017

Prologue:  Kenny and Ava (whom you may remember from my 2016 Challenge) picked me up on Friday morning at the Park Hotel in Montrose.  We drove all the way back across the country to Fort William.  It took 3 hours, or so, to drive back across what had taken me 12 days to walk across.  We booked a couple nights at the Glen Nevis Caravan and Camping Park, set up our tents to claim our spots, and then had a meeting about our route for the following day.  We didn't want to do the tourist route so we planned to head up the Carn Mor Dearg Arete.  The information from the site said it would take 10-11 hours to do the full loop.  After we marked the map with our intended route (since it's not a trail that appears on the map) we headed into town to get dinner.  We walked around Fort William a little bit, but went back to camp relatively early as we were going to be up at 6am to get an early start.

We had prepared our gear the night before, only having to add the packed lunches and snacks that were in the cooler.  I had to take my tent down since my hiking poles are the main supports.  We were in the car ready to go by 6:45ish and drove over to the North Face parking lot.  From the parking lot there is a good path through a forest up the initial 500 feet of elevation (give or take).  We did take a wrong turn on one of the roads, but once it started going downhill we quickly realized our mistake.  Coming out of the forest there's a fence with a stile over it for the walkers to cross.  The path then follows the Allt a'Mhuillin for a bit before breaking off SE across the heather.  There's a decent path to follow most of the way.

Ben Nevis obscured by a cloud on the right.  On the left is Carn Mor Dearg,
which we would climb up first, and then follow the ridge around to Ben Nevis.

It was going to be a hot day, it was about 8am and probably close to 80 degrees, and there was no breeze as I'm pretty sure the side of Carn Mor Dearg was blocking it.  The climb up was steep and we took frequent breaks to drink and catch our breath.  The heat was definitely taking its toll.  The temperature started to drop as we neared the top of Carn Mor Dearg and we finally got some wind.  We ran into a group of hikers coming down from the top, and also another group passed us from behind.  

Looking back at Fort William near the top of Carn Mor Dearg.
The hikers heading down are in the foreground

Ben Nevis as we climbed up towards Carn Mor Dearg

The path disappeared into a rock field that we would essentially follow all the way around the ridge and up Ben Nevis.  If you've never walked over loose rock like this it's very time consuming because you need to be very careful with each step so you don't roll an ankle, knock a rock loose or take a tumble.  

Looking NE from the summit of Carn Mor Dearg.
The ridge leading up to Aonach Mor and the Allt Daim below it

Me on Carn Mor Dearg

The terrain we would be walking over to Carn Dearg Meadhonach (pictured - left)
and then the ridge we would follow behind it heading off to the right that leads to Ben Nevis.
If you click on the photo to make it bigger you can see people walking ahead of me,
one near the snow in the foreground, and a couple farther up the ridge.

From Carn Mor Dearg it was a long ridgewalk over a lot of rocky terrain.  There was even some boulder hopping involved, one or two admittedly made me not too happy, with 300 foot drops off either side and having to step around rocks jutting out over the abyss.  On the plus side there were amazing views of the valley between us and Ben Nevis, and also the steep side of Ben Nevis itself.

Ben Nevis

In the foreground you can see the path we followed.  In the background
is the Arete that curves around to connect with Ben Nevis  

Looking back at the ridge we came along.

 We had a late lunch at the cairn before the final push up Ben Nevis (NN 171 710).

Lunch break at the cairn

The final push from the cairn was a steep walk up lots of loose boulders.  We didn't see a designated path, although according to the map there is one.  All three of us sort of made our own path on the way up.  Just when we thought the climb would never end the monument at the top of Ben Nevis came into view.

The monument...and the crowds of people

I forgot to mention earlier just how many people come up to Ben Nevis.  I've never seen so many people on top of a mountain.  There was a queue of people waiting to take pictures on the monument, and people just sitting all around taking in the view.  I've never seen anything like it.  We spent some time taking pictures at the summit, but it started raining shortly after we got up there and so we began the long descent down the tourist route.  There was still a giant line of people coming up the path, some looked absolutely exhausted, and even though they were a few hundred feet from the top I wasn't sure they'd make it.

The view from the summit.  A bit hazy, but apparenlty it's better than most days

The three of us on the monument

Me on the monument

The old weather station on the summit

Plaque on the summit

The tourist route is loose slate chunks almost the entire way down to where we broke off to follow a different route back to the North Face parking lot.  I would not have wanted to come up that way, it was a total slog.  We saw people halfway up who looked just as knackered as the people up top, but they still had hours of walking left to get to the summit.  There were people with little water and people in jeans slowly moving to the top.  It was possibly the weirdest thing I've seen while hiking.

Eventually we turned off the tourist route onto a path along Lochan Meall an t'Suich that ended abruptly just north of the lochan.  From there it was a rough walk through bog and heather to reach the Allt a Mhuilinn.  It took us a good half hour to find somewhere cross-able as the water was flowing pretty good.  We took our shoes off and waded through calf to knee deep water, all while being viciously attacked by midges.  The path was a short walk from the river, and about a 45 minute hike later we were back at the car, exhausted and glad to be done.

It took us between 10 1/2 and 11 hours of walking to do this route, so the estimate on the link above is pretty much dead-on.  It was a fun, yet exhausting trip.  This trip is definitely something I'm happy to have done while I was in Scotland again.  If you're an experienced hiker the hike up the arete is more difficult, but worth it for the scenery.

2017 TGO Stats

SOME STATS FROM MY TGO CHALLENGE 2017

Total Miles: 186 miles

Highest Elevation: 3,789 feet

Total Ascent; 23,738 feet (according to OS Maps)

Days Taken: 12

Zero Days: 1

Average Daily Miles:  16.9 (excluding zero day)

Elevation profile of my entire walk

Final Route KMZ download - Click this link if you would like to download my final route for use in Google Earth.  Just remember the route may not match up exactly in Google Earth as I used different software to actually plot my route.

2017 TGO Challenge Day 12

2017 TGO Challenge Day 12

Prosen Bridge to Arbroath - 23.25 miles

Total Trip Miles: 186

 Tuesday, May 23nd, 2017

Day 12 part 1

Day 12 part 2

Day 12 part 3  

I was up early, and had packed up and was walking out of my campsite at 6:30am.  I ate breakfast as I enjoyed the early morning walk, watching the rays of the sun come through the tree canopy over the road.  I decided today would be another good day for music, so I pulled my mp3 player back out....and it didn't work.  It seemed like I on this trip I had no luck with electronics.  I pulled the SD card out and it was damp.  Everything at camp had been damp as I was packing up, I think with the heavy rain and the heavy leaf cover on the ground the air had been saturated and it must have been enough to infiltrate my mp3 player and cause it to not work.  

I put the mp3 player in an outside pocket of my pack, hoping the warm sun would dry it out.  My morning was walking through farmland.  I was on a long, straight road heading S/SE just east of Kirriemuir, and let me warn any future challengers going this way, everyone seemed to be in a huge hurry and didn't slow down or move over for me as I walked down the side of the road.  I pretty much had to stay on the shoulder, which made the going much slower, but at least I didn't get run over.  

After crossing the A90 there is another long straight stretch of road into Forfar (B9128), but there is a nice sidewalk, which helps a lot with the not-getting-run-overness.  I walked through Forfar pretty quickly, just wanting to make time.  I did stop for a quick snack break on a bench as I was heading out of town.  I followed the B9128 SE out of Forfar and walked through more farmland until the turn off for the walking path that heads into Letham.  It was a pretty nice path, but it seemed like a big dog-walking trail for the people of Letham, so I spent a lot of time dodging dog poop.

Letham had been my intended stop for the night, but I arrived in town around 11:30am.  Graham Dunsire, one of the vetters for the challenge, had told me I could camp in his garden.  I was a day ahead of my intended schedule at this point, but I didn't think Graham would mind me being a night early (he was at Tarfside cooking for the challengers).  I bought myself some lunch and walked to Graham's house to eat.  I sat at his picnic table and ate.  His neighbors came over to see who this strange guy who had walked into the Dunsire's backyard was.  They were very kind and filled my water bottles for me.  We talked for a bit, and it turns out Graham had forgotten to tell them someone would be coming, as they keep an eye on his house for him when he's away.

I finished my lunch and laid in the sun, napping for a couple minutes.  I was about to set up my tent when I realized it was only about 1pm and to finish I only had about 9 miles to do.  It seemed kind of silly to just lay around all afternoon when I could just complete my crossing and relax in Montrose the whole next day, as well as Thursday.  I decided to hit the public toilet before I left, Graham had said there was one 100 meters from his drive.  As I was walking down the drive his neighbors were driving out and stopped to talk to me.  I asked them where the restroom was and they both kind of looked at me funny for a second, finally realizing I was asking about the toilet.  They pointed me in the correct direction, I thanked them, and they headed off.  (When I met Graham at the Challenge Dinner, I thanked him for offering up his garden even though I didn't use it to camp.  He laughed and said I must have been the American who asked where the restroom was.  He explained that a restroom is where people view a dead body at a funeral home and he said his neighbors had been baffled as to why I'd be looking for that before they realized I was looking for the toilet, or bathroom, for the rest of us Americans).  

I tried my mp3 player again after lunch and it worked!!  I put in my ear buds and booked it for the coast!  I followed more country roads past sprawling farmland.  Now that my final destination was within sight I moved with a single-mindedness towards the coast.  I finally made it through Arbroath and hit the coast a little south and east of where I had intended, but there was a nice big empty beach for me to go down onto.  I pulled out my camera and tried it and had enough battery to snap a few pictures, so at least I got a couple to prove I made it.

Dipping my toes in the North Sea

Finish line selfie!

Unfortunately my walking was not quite over.  I had to find my way to the railway station.  Even though I could see trains going by on the tracks along the beach front, the station was toward the center of town.  Another kilometer plus had me finally at the station where I got my ticket to Montrose.  I checked out about 5:30pm and had offically completed my 2017 Challenge!!

2017 TGO Challenge Days 10 and 11

2017 TGO Challenge Days, 10 and 11

Loch Callater Lodge to Glas-allt Shiel - 9 miles
Total Trip Miles: 138.25
 Sunday, May 21st, 2017

Day 10:

Day 10

After I had gone to sleep the night before, one of the dogs at the lodge had bitten a challenger. Michael was taking her into town to see a doctor, so I hitched a ride with them to see if I could get some wi-fi and get my phone up and running again.

I sat at the Bothy restaurant and connected to the wi-fi, but the phone kept telling me my account wasn't the one linked to the phone.  I was wondering if maybe the SIM card had gotten wet as the phone was worse when off airplane mode.  When I pulled the SIM card out, the plastic adapter (to make it fit the larger slot) was all twisted and broke off in the slot.  Great, now even if I got the phone working I wouldn't be able to use the SIM card, but I was still hoping to at least use it on wi-fi.  The workers at Braemar Mountain Sports even let me use their compter/register to try and log in online to get my phone working, but despite my best efforts I was unable to get anything working.  (Thanks again Braemar Mountain Sports for helping me out!!).  I quickly used their computer to send a message to Kenny and Ava, who were coming to meet me after the challenge to give them a brief update.

By the time we drove back to Callater lodge and I got packed up it was nearly 1pm.  I almost stayed another night, but forced myself to walk on.  I left about 1:30pm, deciding to continue with my planned route and go up Lochnagar even though the weather didn't look great.  Lochnagar was on my route last year and I didn't get to summit because I changed my route to walk the last few days with Kenny and Ava, so I definitely wanted to do it this year.

The whole top of the mountain was covered in cloud, which I was hoping would blow off by the time I got up there.  It did not.  It was windy, cold, foggy, and rainy from about 1/3 of the way up Lochnagar.  I could really only see about 15-20 feet ahead of me, and at times the path became pretty faint, which made it tough to follow.  About 2 km or so from the summit I ran into 3 walkers (if I had to guess were about 20 years old) who missed the turn to head east when coming off the summit.  I told them they were heading west, at least a mile past where they should have turned, and we walked together back up to the summit where I got an amazing view of clouds.  But, at least I can say I've completed Lochnagar.

I walked with them down to Glas-allt Shiel where they headed to the parking lot at the Spittal of Glenmuick.  I camped outside the bothy at Glas-allt Shiel on the pristine grass.  Another walker came in pretty late, around 7:30pm, and stayed in the bothy, but he was not a Challenger.

Day 11

Glas-allt Shiel to Prosen Bridge - 24.5 miles

Total Trip Miles: 162.75

 Monday, May 22nd, 2017

Day 11 part 1

Day 11 part 2

Day 11 part 3

I had planned to attend the Cheese and Wine party, but a forecast of poor afternoon/night weather meant it was cancelled.  My route took me from Glen Muick to Jock's road anyway so I decided to follow my planned route to that point and then assess the weather and my options.  The climb out of Loch Muick was brutal.  I took it slow and threw in plenty of rest breaks. From there I followed the path down to Backnagairn and then up the fantastically named Glittering Skellies, then across the muck to the summit of Craigs of Loch Esk and then back onto the path over to Jock's Road.

My planned route had me heading west on Jock's road, hitting the summits Crow Craigies, Tolmount, Ca Whims, and Tom Buidhe on the way to the Cheese and Wine gathering at the Fee Burn (NO 231 748).  My new goal was to not be at a high elevation to camp due to the forecasted storms (high winds being the biggest concern), and I couldn't do that taking the planned route.  My options were to head overland to Mayar where I would meet up with my planned route for the following day and make it another long day to get low or head down into Glen Clova and find somewhere to camp along the way.  Seeing as how clouds were already gathering I took the low route option of Glen Clova.

This turned out to not be the greatest decision as it meant many more miles of road walking.  I could see from the map it was road walking, but it didn't really sink in just how much more of it I was adding.

Jock's road was rocky and steep, but nothing too bad.  I passed the emergency shelter built into the rock and can definitely see why it was built there.  With the steepness and exposure I wouldn't want to be caught in a bad storm on Jock's road.  Once I dropped down into Glen Doll it was a pleasant stroll through the pine forest there.  I stopped for a snack break in the forest and enjoyed the smell of the pine.  I ran into a walker and her dog coming the opposite direction and chatted with her for a couple minutes before we both moved on in our respective direction.

There is an information center at the end of Glen Doll, where it connects with Glen Cova and the paved road, that had some shelter, a couple benches, and a bathroom.  I had arrived right as the rain began, and I had lunch during the downpour.  Quite a few cars with walkers parked and headed up the trails as I had lunch and filled my water bottles.

From there I took the road down Glen Clova.  There was some pretty scenery of farmland and the Clova hotel.  I did put in my ear buds and listened to some music as I did the road walk.  There isn't much to say about the walk, it was pretty, but I was walking fast to make some time.  From what I could tell there really wasn't much in the way of camping where I was heading, so I thought that if I could find the path up to Arlie Memorial Tower I would still camp there (which was my intended camp spot for the night).

When I finally got to Dykehead (around 5:30pm) I headed up the road to where it shows a path on the map.  I was unable to find anything that looked assuredly like a path so I headed back to Dykehead where the map showed a hotel, thinking that if it wasn't too expensive I'd splurge and take the comfort.  Unfortunately the hotel was closed, and looked as if it had had a pretty bad fire some years ago.  With no camping options I decided to keep walking down the road.

Around 6:15 or so, still walking on the road, an absolute downpour began.  It may be hardest rain I've ever walked through, even with my rain gear on I was absolutely soaked through.  It wasn't a long rain, maybe 15 minutes, and it stopped as I approached Prosen Bridge.  There was a strip of forested land around Prosen Water at the bridge with signs saying it was property of the local fishing club.  There were some decent camp spots there, and I figured they wouldn't mind me using their spot on a Monday night.  I just figured I'd leave early the next morning just in case.

I quickly set up camp, ate dinner, and fell asleep quickly.  It had been a long day and I was exhausted.

2017 TGO Challenge Days 8 and 9

2017 TGO Challenge Days 8 and 9

Day off in Braemar - Friday May 19th
Braemar to Loch Callater Lodge - 5.25 miles - Saturday, May 20th, 2017
Total Trip Miles: 129.25

Friday:

A nice leisurely day off in Braemar was had.  Lunch at the Bothy restaurant, lots of snacks and fruit (ice cream, strawberries, grapes...things I can't carry in my backpack).  Once I checked into my B&B I took a nice long shower and then made sure my poor pinky toe was clean and dried thoroughly.  I kept it unbandaged so it could breathe.  I also went to the chemist and got some blister plasters to use on my toe once I started hiking again.  After going through my resupply box and getting my laundry done, I had dinner at the Fish and Chips shop before going to the Invercauld Arms to hang out with the other challengers.  I ended up not staying too late as I was exhausted and just wanted to relax in bed.  

Saturday:

Day 8

My original plan had been to arrive in Braemar on Friday after a 9ish mile day from White Bridge, and then, depending on how I felt, leave Braemar in the afternoon on Saturday to spend the night at Loch Callater Lodge or stay in Braemar until sunday morning and do a longer day Sunday and go to Loch Callater and then over Lochnagar (3,789 ft) in one longer day.  Seeing as I got in a day early I didn't want to spend yet another night in town.  

I left Braemar about 1pm by the golf road.  The weather was not looking good, but I only had 5 miles to walk and I had heard it was an easy jaunt up to the lodge.  It was sprinkling as I left town and by the time I got to the golf course, about a mile or so out of town, it was a decent downpour.  The rain was on and off for the rest of the walk up to Callater Lodge.  

To get to the bridge over the Clunie Water that takes you to the A93, you have to travel around a section of barbed wire fence.  When I stepped up onto a rock next to the barbed wire, my trekking poles strapped to my backpack got caught under the wire and a barb gouged a chunk out of the handle.  Luckily it didn't snag me or my expensive backpack, which would have really upset me.  

From the parking lot along the A93, the path to Callater Lodge is a pretty well maintained land rover track.  I saw quite a few people coming back from the Loch, despite the rain.  It was a nice relaxing stroll up to the lodge, and just as I crested the hill and saw the Lodge and the Loch come into view I captured a really extraordinary picture with amazing lighting and it definitely would have won awards.  You may be asking yourself where this picture is...read on, reader!

I arrived at the lodge where I was greeted warmly by everyone there.  This is one of the big social stopping points on the TGO.  Everyone who was there helping out and giving their time and energy to providing for all the challengers was truly wonderful!  They provide meals, drinks, massages (for a donation) and places to sleep for as many as they possibly can. I was given one of the beds upstairs for the night.  Thanks to Michael, Bill, Ali and Jeanette!! (I'm pretty sure I got all the names correct.  If not, let me know in the comments.  Thanks!!

In the evening, someone mentioned that if you had Vodaphone there was signal at the lodge.  I decided to get my phone and check to see if anyone had tried contacting me.  When my phone turned on it went crazy, almost like someone was constantly tapping the screen in random places.  I managed to get it into airplane mode and it seemed better, but as soon as I turned that off the phone started freaking out again.  Then it suddenly restarted, and each time it booted back up it restarted again until the 4th or 5th time when it rebooted and had done a factory reset (like if I had just bought the phone) asking for my account info to set the phone up.

I had been using my phone as my primary camera since about day 3 when my actual camera battery died.  I had been enjoying using the phone as my camera so didn't bother charging the camera.  At the time I didn't know if any of my pictures had been saved, I just had to hope that when my phone was on the wi-fi at the B&B the night before it had synced my pictures like it's supposed to when on wi-fi.  I tried re-entering my account info, but it needed wi-fi to activate the account. Unfortunately this means no pictures from the walk to Callater Lodge.

Despite the phone issues, we had a fun night hanging out, and I managed to get upstairs to sleep at not too late of an hour.

2017 TGO Challenge Day 7

2017 TGO Challenge Day 7

Glen Feshie Wild Camp (NN 844 918) to Braemar -  23 miles

Total Trip Miles: 124

Thursday, May 18th, 2017

Day7 part 1

Day 7 part 2

Day 7 part 3

 The dogs were still hanging around when Gary and I woke up, and realizing they weren't going anywhere, we gave them all the extra food we could spare.  We were both feeling bad that they hadn't eaten in the 18 hours or so they had been following us.  Freddie came down from his campsite about 7:30am and I wasn't ready to go yet, I told him and Gary to head on without me knowing I'd run into them at some point during the day.  The dogs went with them as well, as they seemed to follow whoever was in the lead.  

I got out of  camp around 8:15 and decided to follow Gary and Freddie's idea of crossing the River Feshie right where we camped.  The river was so low there was a huge rocky patch to walk over to even get to the water, and only about 12 feet of water to get across.  I managed to find one with enough rocks to hop across pretty quickly.  From there it was back on the path that I would follow the rest of the way through the glen.  

A little less than a mile into the day I came to a fork in the trail.  To the right continued along the river, and the left appeared to go up the side of the mountain a bit.  I kept right to follow the river since the map didn't show a branching trail.  Turns out the river had washed out part of the trail and it went directly through the river, which looked to be about knee high.  Looking up the side of the mountain I saw the other trail that went above the river.  I could see in the nearly verticle wall next to me where people had climbed up about 20 feet through the brush to reach the trail and decided to do that rather than get my feet wet.  It was a bit of a sketchy climb and I only slipped and almost slid all the way down once.

I caught up to Gary and Freddie when they were taking a break. We walked together for a while, and at the convergence of the River Eidart and River Feshie, rather than following the quarter mile track to the bridge we decided to rock hop across the river.  Of course, since I kept my feet dry earlier, I slipped and my right foot got soaked.  Happens every time.

The plan for the night was to make it to White Bridge and camp, and seeing as the path was straightforward all day we all walked at our own pace.  I stopped for lunch and was behind Freddie and Gary for most of the early afternoon.

I caught up to Gary along the Geldie Burn where they have an area fenced off for re-planting of trees, but there are gates for the walkers to go through.  We walked together the rest of the way to White Bridge, talking about music and various other topics as you do when you're walking with others.  My right pinkie toe was starting to hurt quite a bit (I had taped it the last few days as a minor blister had formed on it) but decided to worry about it once we arrived at White Bridge.

Abandoned building

At White Bridge there was no Freddie.  Or dogs.  We decided to push on to see if Freddie had camped a little further on.  He had not.  We decided to just do the slog into Braemar since we were feeling ok (other than the toe, which I continued to ignore) and figured we could push the final 6 miles into town.

Crossing over the River Dee

About the time we got to the paved road my back started hurting pretty badly.  I kept having to readjust my backpack for temporary relief, but it was quite painful for some reason.  At Mar Lodge we stopped at the building just outside the gate.  We weren't sure if they were doing tea and biscuits since it was only Thursday.  We decided it wasn't worth the extra walk to go and find out so we continued into town.  The final 3 miles into town took forever and I was walking slowly with my back pain.

After what felt like an eternity we finally made it into Braemar and stopped at the Fish and Chips shop in town where Freddie and a bunch of others were stopped.  Freddie had turned the dogs in at Mar Lodge, where the caretaker said they belonged to the Feshie Estate and believed the dogs to be stolen.  They were sending someone for the dogs and were happy to have them back.  We were all glad their owner was found.

We camped at the Braemar Caravan Park campsite.  Once I had my tent set up I finally got a good look at my toe.  The situation was not good.  The whole tip was an open, raw wound.  I figured I would have time to sort it out as I had made it to Braemar a day early.  I took some advice (and tape) from Freddie and Gary.  I cleaned the toe, but didn't want to wrap it yet so it could air out over the next couple days while I was in town.

A visitor outside my tent

2017 TGO Challenge Day 6

2017 TGO Challenge Day 6

Newtonmore Hostel to Glen Feshie Wild Camp (NN 844 918) -  19.25 miles

Total Trip Miles: 101

Wednesday, May 17th, 2017

Day 6 part 1

Day 6 part 2

After a good night's rest (despite the commotion I slept through), it was time to push on eastward.  I have to say again how much I enjoyed my stay at the Newtonmore Hostel.  It was comfortable and welcoming and unfortunately for me just a short stay.

I took the main road through Newtonmore, stopping along the way at a Co-op to buy myself a breakfast of a sandwich and some fruit.  I ate as I walked along the large sidewalk/bike trail to Kingussie.

Newtonmore

Welcome!

I walked through Kingussie, not taking a customary breakfast stop there, and headed on to Ruthven Barracks.  The current ruins that are standing were built in 1719 to police the Scottish citizens.  There had been a building on the site as early as the 1200's.  I could see a couple backpackers ahead of me on the road, but they didn't stop at Ruthven.  I took some time to walk around the grounds of the barracks.

The location on the hill definitely makes for an impressive sight.  

From Ruthven I had just over a mile walk on the tarmac to Tromie Bridge, where I caught up to the two backpackers, Gary and Freddie.  They convinced me to head down Glen Tromie with them instead of my original plan of heading over to Glen Feshie.  Shortly after heading down the LRT into Glen Tromie we ran into Ian and Donna (I think, I'm having trouble remembering her name...sorry) who joined us for the day.

The walk through Glen Tromie was pretty uneventful, we did see a couple out for a dayhike, until we reached a small cabin along the Allt Bhran.  Two black-and-white sheepdogs were hanging around outside the cabin and ran up to us as we approached.  They followed as we walked away from the cabin and we figured they'd turn around and go "home" as soon as we got too far away.  We arrived at the weir and the dogs had a nice swim.

The weir

Playtime!

We followed the Allt Bhran for a while and headed off-trail up the hill at the base of Carn Dearg and caught the path that wandered around the wooded area on the side of the hill.  The dogs were still following us despite us telling them to go home and refusing to feed them (thinking that if we did feed them they would never leave).

Some of the views from the climb up:

The whole gang and one of our four-legged friends

From there we started the trek down into Glen Feshie:

Heading down into the glen

Everyone was getting tired as it had been a long day, and Freddie announced he was stopping for the night at the first bit of flat ground he found.  Ian and Donna soon broke off to camp.  Gary and I kept going all the way down into Glen Feshie where we found a giant open field to camp in -- definitely the right move.  The dogs had followed us down into the glen and seemed to enjoy playing in the field chasing birds.  One of the dogs kept trying to get into our tents, but neither of us were having that.  

Campsite in Glen Feshie

The dogs were running around playing when we both turned in for the night.  Beginning at about 2am and going until 4am, the dogs were barking and growling almost non-stop.  I was up for most of that time and I'm pretty sure Gary was as well. Surprisingly, I felt pretty well rested in the morning.