Day 3

Our home for the night.

Get out of the way!

First glimpse of the village in the valley.

Ahhh...

Loch Kinnard.

Is this really the trail?

Ossian's cave.

Looking back at the distance we've travelled.

Lunch break.

Here is a grouse posing for us.

Obviously I was not able to publish my post yesterday. After working on it for over two hours I gave up and went to bed. So, if you want to keep things in order you will need to read Day 2 before Day 3. Thank you for your comments! It's good to feel connected with you all.

Today we experienced the gamut of everything we were warned about and then some in our 17.7 mile trek. After two glorious days of sunny weather, we got up to cloudy skies and cold breezes. Even Kim had to start the day with a jacket. It wasn't long before it started raining so we donned the rain gear. And let me say that no matter how much you spend on breathable rain gear, it still gets hot when you are walking. About an hour later, the sun popped out and off came the rain gear and jackets. The trails today were not very well marked (if marked at all) and many were overgrown and invisible. You can see from some of the pictures, there isn't much of a trail. I'm sure we blazed new ones in some areas. It feels very strange going through a rancher's gates and crossing through his barns as our directions called for us to do. It is especially strange when the directions say if the bull is in the field, turn around and go another direction. Thankfully, we didn't see the bull. He had obviously been there though and between him and the hundreds of sheep, it was like walking through a minefield of manure. We forded a stream, walked through waist high thistle, ferns, nettles and gorse, tromped through ankle deep mud, sank into foot deep moss, were almost trampled by a herd of sheep, and fought off midges. Not only that but the directions didn't say that 12 of the 17 miles today would be climbing (an elevation gain of 1215').

Words really can't describe climbing over the mountains, going through the forest, and getting our first glimpse of the village on the other side where we were heading. It was 8 hours of not meeting another living soul (other than sheep) and literally being out in the middle of nowhere. At the top of the mountain was Loch Kinnard, a perfect place to soak our aching feet before we descended into the village. Another splendid day...although you wouln't believe it to hear us moan everytime we put our feet on the floor tonight.