2018 TGO Challenge Day 9

TGO Challenge Day 9

Dail Dubh (NJ 179 073) to Ballater - 18.5 miles
 Total Trip Miles: 135.1

Saturday, May 19th, 2018

Day 9 part 1

Day 9 part 2

We woke up to another sunny day in Scotland...and also to a rodent who had chewed through a plastic bag holding Leslie's trash.

We did our normal routine and were packed up and out of camp around 8:30.  The first section of the day was through Glen Builg.  We had a nice track and made pretty good time.

We had to cross a few streams, most of which were pretty easy to navigate.

rock hopping to keep the feet dry

Then we got to a deeper one.  We spent some time trying to figure out the best place to cross.  We should have gone with the row of rocks right near the LRT, but it had a drop off next to it.  We went across up towards the fenceline.  

As I stepped off the second to last rock I was using to get across, my foot slipped and I fell forward onto another rock, stopping my momentum with my shin.  At first I thought I was fine, but then I could feel something was wrong.  I pulled my pant leg up and my shin was swollen quite a bit already.  Luckily I brought my own nurse!

This is after applying pressure for a while

We used a river rock to put pressure on the wound

After a couple minutes the swelling was almost completely gone.  Kenny wrapped it with a compression bandage and we continued on.  My fall in the river led me to think about how hiking/backpacking seems like a "safe" sport but it can actually be really dangerous.  I was lucky that I didn't hurt myself worse.  We were out in the middle of nowhere and it would not have been easy to get me out of there if I was seriously injured.  It was a good reminder for me to be mindful of what I'm doing when backpacking, because a serious injury is just one mis-placed step away.

We passed by Loch Builg and a few small, unnamed lochs before meeting up with the River Gairn.  We also came across some signs that talked about the wildlife and the restoration efforts going on in the highlands. 

Loch Builg

We took a short snack break alongside a small ruin by the river.  Shortly after that we came to Corndavon Lodge, which appears to have a stable a short ways from the actual lodge itself.  

The LRT we were on followed the river most of the rest of the morning.  We stopped for lunch shortly before we were due to hot the B976 crossing.  I unwrapped my wound to take a look, and surprisingly it was not swollen at all and was simply a nice-sized cut where the skin had been taken off.  

After lunch we all needed water.  The map showed us crossing a stream right before the road, but that went to through sheep pens so none of us felt comfortable drinking it, even filtered.  We decided to knock at the house at Braenaloin.  Nobody answered despite there being a few cars out front.  There was a tap on the wall of the garage so we helped ourselves.  

Once we crossed the road it was a climb straight up to Gaellaig Hill.  We gained 1200 feet of elevation over 2km (just over 1 mile) so it was pretty steep.  It did afford us some nice views though.

****Also of note, somewhere right around where the picture below was taken, I hit a pretty big milestone:  500 miles backpacked in Scotland.  Obviously this is including the 2016-18 Challenges and the Ben Nevis walk****

This was taken about halfway up the hill. In the center you can
 see the house where we got water and started the climb from.

The summit!

Leslie at the summit (On her birthday, nonetheless!)

We didn't stay on the summit too long as the wind intense up there.  We followed the ridgeline over to Creag na Creiche and then skirted around Carn Dearg.  Our route had us camping somewhere in this area, but with the wind and only having about 6km to get into a town we decided to push on.  

The trick to this part was finding a way down to the road from where we were.  First, according to the map there was no path that took us SE towards the road, but in reality there was a path to a couple other minor summits on the SE side of the hill.  From there we had a bit of off-path navigation, but soon found a 4x4 track that seemed to take us the direction we wanted to go.  

We managed to find our way through a bit of forest and then over a crumbling wall that took us into a farm.  We walked across the farm and then hit a gate that was tied up.  We could see the farmhouse and tried to untie the gate and re-tie it without being noticed.  

The gate

We managed to escapt o the A93 without being noticed and headed towards Ballater, dodging cars for a while before we made it to a sidewalk.  We managed to make it into Ballater about 6pm.  

Ballater selfie!

The campsite told us they were full but said they'd squeeze us in since we were challengers.  Thanks Ballater campsite!  After pitching our tents we headed back into town to get dinner at the chip shop.

Dinner!

After dinner we stopped for a pint at the bar but we were all exhausted so ended up heading back to the campsite relatively early.  Since we had come in a day early we had a whole day off the following day.  Ava and her family would be driving down in the morning and Ava would be rejoining us for the last 4 days.  We also had a cottage booked for the following night in Ballater so we were all excited for that.

2018 TGO Challenge Day 8

TGO Challenge Day 8

Mossbank to Dail Dubh (NJ 179 073) - 17 miles
 Total Trip Miles: 116.6

Friday, May 18th, 2018

Day 8 part 1

Day 8 part 2

Ava cooked us another great meal for breakfast, bacon rolls!  We knew we needed to get an early start since we had a pretty long day, but all we wanted to do was stay at the cabin and relax some more (at least I did).  Ava drove us back down to the end of the road where she had picked us up the day before.  We said our goodbyes to her again, knowing we'd see her Sunday morning when her and her family would be meeting up with us in Ballater.  She would be re-joining us for the last few days of our crossing, too.  

Back on the road again

The first three miles of the day were again on paved road.  Right before Dorback lodge, we ran into a guy who was sitting in his van birdwatching.  He apparently was just driving around, watching birds, and sleeping in his van.  At Dorback lodge we followed the path that skirted the north end of the property and then were back in the open vastness of the highlands.  Leslie took a video to show just how quiet it is for such a humongous place.

We passed a couple cabins and an old guard tower before taking a break at a river crossing. 

After our break we began heading up the LRT we had been on and Leslie quickly realized we had gone the wrong way.  We needed to take the path that followed the stream.  

On the correct path

The path followed the Burn of Brown for about a kilometer, often going through boggy areas that included navigating between some young pine trees and onto sandy island areas.  We eventually crossed over a fend and up a steep hill to reach the LRT we needed to follow before we had a pretty long off-path crossing to get over to the River Avon.  

Just before Stronachavie we turned east off the LRT and contoured along the side north side of Carn Meadhonach.  We found some decent 4-wheeler tracks that made the walking somewhat quicker than normal heather and bog hopping.  Towards the NE side of the hill we were looking for a way to drop down to the river but there was fencing in the way with no obvious sign of a gate for us to cross through.  We ended up crossing the Allt na Crachain on our attempt to make it to the east side, which ended up being a steeper descent and ascent than it looked on the map.  Video, again provided by Leslie, showing our descent to the burn:  

We continued along the east side of the hill until we hit a LRT, which we fillowed down to the minor road alongside Delnabo.  The sun had come out and was pretty strong, so we stopped and had lunch under the shade of some trees right where the LRT connected to the road.  We all aired our feet out and had a pleasant lunch in the shade.  When we were done Kenny made sure to put some sunscreen on since the sun was out in full force.  

We walked down the road for about a kilometer before we came down into a little village with a farm and a couple houses.  We all needed some water so we knocked on a couple doors to see if they'd let us fill up but nobody was home.  A mail carrier happened to come by and Kenny asked if he knew where we could fill up.  The mail carrier led him into a home to fill up at the sink.  Apparently the people don't lock their door and the mail carrier just lets himself in to put the mail on the kitchen table.  Coming from a relatively big community this is crazy to me, my door is always locked.  I guess that's the way it goes in the highlands.  

Chickens lounging in the shade

As we began walking again, Kenny suddenly realized his smart watch was missing.  He knew he either took it off to fill up the water bottles or he took it off back up the hill where we had lunch when he put on his sunscreen.  He ran back to check the house and then after we saw him run up the road where we had just come down.  Leslie took video of him running back up the hill:

Leslie and I sat down in the shade to wait for Kenny and had time to enjoy the farm life, including Bob, a cow that stood and stared at us for quite a while.

Bob the cow

Eating Bob's food

Kenny came back down with his watch, which was where we had lunch.  We headed out, taking another wrong turn, but just going with it since that road connected back to the road we needed to be on.  

Right before we crossed over the River Avon we passed through a farm.  A mom and her son and 5 dogs were coming back from a swim in the river.  We chatted with them for a bit and played with the dogs.  After that we went through the Glen Avon Estate gates, which happened to be open for us when we came through.

We followed the river Avon the rest of the day.  We all sort of spread out and cruised at our own pace.  It was only 6 miles but it felt like to took forever.  Here's some pictures:

The water is so clear

About 1/2 kilometer before we were planning to camp dark, dark clouds rolled in and it looked like it would storm badly at any second.  Leslie wanted to try camping in a fenced off area in front of a large house (maybe lodge).  Kenny and I weren't really comfortable with that so we wanted to push on.  I don't think Leslie was happy but agreed to go.  We come over a hill and saw a nice flat area at the fork in the river (like it seemed to be on the map, for once).  We set up camp quickly, but it never really rained that much.  There were a couple other tents pitched in another flat area just north of the fork, but we don't think they were challengers.

Camp

Cooking dinner

Tent selfie

Planning session for the following day

 We were treated to a beautiful sunset reflecting off the mountains around us.  Leslie snapped a great photo of my tent:

My tent at sunset