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.    

2017 TGO Challenge Day 5

2017 TGO Challenge Day 5

Melgarve Bothy to Newtonmore Hostel -  19.25 miles

Total Trip Miles: 81.75

Tuesday, May 16th, 2017

Day 5 part 1

Day 5 part 2

Day 5 part 3

I knew I had some extra miles to catch up on, yet I still took my time getting packed up and getting out of camp.  I was ready at about the same time as the two couples who I had camped near last night and decided to walk with them for a while as we were going the same way, although I would be pushing on further than them at the end of the day.

The couples were Steve and Maggie and Fred and Sue.  Steve and Maggie were from Utah, and Fred and Sue from the UK.   For all of them it was the first challenge.  The path went along the River Spey, and between the rain showers we had some magnificent views.  

Along the River Spey

Garva Bridge

At Garva bridge we took the route that splits to the north of the River and then along to Spey Dam.  It was on a dirt road and there was quite a bit of construction traffic.  It seemed like a truck was passing us every minute or two, and few slowed down.  We had to keep dodging to the side of the road (into the wind so the dust didn't get in our eyes).  We crossed back onto the south side of the river at the dam and walked through some pastures for a bit.  We stopped for a lunch along the Spey before we hit the A889 road.

Lunch break

We followed the A889 for about 2 miles to the Pottery Bunkhouse Coffee shop where we enjoyed some refreshments.  Coffee and cheese scones fresh from the oven (with extra butter).  The scones were excellent and we even got phone reception. 

It was starting to get late in the afternoon and I still had 7 or 8 miles to go to reach Newtonmore.  I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed out.  The rest of my day was on roads, so I put in my headphones for some audio motivation and set the cruise control.  A couple pictures from the road walk:

I did reach the center of Scotland, at least according to this rock.  Not sure if this is legit or not.

Nice stone wall

 

There were lots of little lodges on the road that I'm assuming people can rent

Crossing the River Truim

The small road I was on connected with the A9, but luckily there is a very nice bike path that runs parallel to the road most of the way to Newtonmore.  Around 6pm I came upon a little cafe right off the bike trail and I couldn't resist popping in for a quick snack.

My snack

The first stoplight I had seen in Scotland (outside of Glasgow)

View on the way into town

After my quick break it was another 1.5 miles or so into Newtonmore, where I checked into the Newtonmore Hostel (Thanks to everyone who helped run the hostel while the challenge is going on, everything was great!!) .  After getting settled and showered I went across the street to the hotel restaurant where I had a very nice meal and a pint.  

After dinner I went back to the hostel, did my resupply, and promptly fell asleep.  Little did I know that a raving drunkard attacked the hostel a little after 9pm, but apparently I slept through it.  From what I was told the next morning he really wanted to get inside the hostel for free cake and knocked the sliding glass door off the track.  The police had to be called and the man was taken away.  So yeah, I guess I was tired.