It was a town day, and we "only" had 13 miles to go, so we were motivated to get up and out of camp early so we could make it to the hotel as soon as possible to enjoy beds, showers, and food. First thing in the morning it looked like we might be able to cut a km off our route by taking a LRT straight across part of the Black Wood instead of swinging way south and then back north (see pic below).
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| Supposed shortcut |
When we arrived at the wood there was a logging operation going with workers actively present. And where the trees had been looked like a wasteland of destroyed forest. We took the long way around that was on our route sheet. The first bit was a long, straight path along the forest and then some homes.
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| Once up the hill, a bit of the logged forest |
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| The view from the top of the hill |
Once past the houses we found the path through the forest that proceeded up the hill. About halfway up we came out to the part that had been cut down. Luckily, the path still existed, for the most part, so it was relatively easy to follow. We had one small navigational snafu where we almost went the wrong way, but it was quickly realized. Our route looked to follow a LRT or path along a farm and river, but we couldn't find a trace of one, so we ended up walking through a giant field of grass. We came to a house where, according to the map again, it looked like a road should connect out to a minor road, but a nice guy who was about to get in his car told us that path hadn't existed in a good 30 years. I'm guessing some of these maps don't get updated too often. He kindly told us that if we went through a couple more fields the road would be right on the other side of them. First, we had to climb a fence to get into the field.
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| Climbing the fence |
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| Crossing the field |
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| Cows that we tried not to disturb |
We had a 3km walk along the minor road before turning off onto a forest path again. Ava and I had a discussion about how we were both struggling these first few days. I commented that I hadn't really felt that great physically for most of the first three days and it was bothering me because I wasn't enjoying the challenge as much as I had hoped.
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| Back into the forest |
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| Thanks for the warning! |
There was a very nice trail though the wooded area before we came to a road again and a pretty steep uphill. We were making good time...little did we know that would soon change.
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| More road walking |
The next section had us heading uphill on a LRT for a while and then, according to the 1:25k maps, following a fence line for for a while as we contoured around Mam a' Chatha. On the 1:50k maps it actually looks a like a path connects all the way through. Turns out the "path" was overgrown with gorse. We fought our way through it for what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a tenth of a mile. (The overgrown gorse trail starts at NH 566 425, heading southeast into The Aird. I'm not sure where it ends since we didn't make it that far)
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| Me in the gorse (not even the most overgrown section) |
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For those who may not know what gorse is, here's a closeup of what we had
to fight though. They're as sharp as they look. |
We kept pushing through, Kenny doing a lot of the work of pushing the gorse out of the way and sacrificing his body for it, but it kept getting thicker and thicker. To our right was a small ditch with a trickle of water running through it, and finally I spied a small trail going up the other side of the ditch into the trees. I decided I had had enough of the gorse and went into the trees to see if it was any better. It was thick with pine trees and I had to just push head-first through all the branches, but at least my body wasn't getting sliced up by gorse anymore.
I convinced everyone to follow me and we forced our way through the pine trees until we finally found a small break in the trees that headed in the general direction we needed to go.
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The aftermath on Kenny's arm - taken the next day, which is
why it isn't all bloody like when it actually happened |
We lost a lot of time trying to push through the gorse and then the pine trees. What was supposed to be a relatively easy day had turned into a slow slog through rough terrain. We finally found a clearing and were able to determine where we were, and surprisingly we were almost right on track. Even though it was already after 1pm, we decided to only stop for a snack break because we were all exhausted and relieved to have made it through what we did, but couldn't find anywhere relatively flat and dry to really take a full lunch break.
After our short break, we continued on, soon finding the path we needed to follow to contour around
Mam a' Chatha and An-Leacainn and then onward to meet up with the Great Glen Way, which would take us into Inverness.
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| Climbing up toward Mam a' Chatha |
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| Still beautiful |
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| Finally on the descent down to the Great Glen Way |
We stopped for lunch when we reached the Great Glen Way. It's amazing how much better you can feel just from eating a meal. We were re-energized (for the first hour or so) and ready for the final push into Inverness.
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| We even stopped for a selfie |
The sun came out again after we'd been on the Great Glen Way for a while which made for some nice pictures.
By the time we reached the outskirts of Inverness we were all dragging. It felt like forever from the time we dropped into town on the Great Glen Way to the time we finally saw our hotel. It was just over 2km, but it felt like it was never going to end. Our plan to knock out 13 miles by lunch or early afternoon ended up being a failure and taking us until after 5pm to complete.
We checked into the Premiere Inn, where apparently we smelled so bad the other patrons waiting in line gave us a wide berth. We made plans to meet for dinner and retired to our respective rooms to shower and hand-wash our laundry (a first for me).
At dinner Ava informed us that she was retiring from the Challenge. Her foot was very painful and now it was also swollen. We were sad for Ava, but she said she would still meet us at our next stop. She also offered to take half of our resupply and bring it to us when she met up with us, so we were able to carry less weight. After talking about it for a while she decided that if she felt better in a few days she would meet up with us in Ballater and walk the last few days with us as well.
After our rather large dinner at the Beefeater restaurant that was attached to the hotel we all retired to our rooms. It had been an exhausting first four days and were all looking forward to real beds.
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