UK09: Day 4 - West Highland Way, Part 2

I gently awoke to the rushing mountain stream and a dark, gray, misty day. It had definitely rained overnight, but that I didn't mind since I stay cozy and dry in the hammock under the tarp but far away from the wet ground. Much better than tent camping in the rain! Packing was a quick affair and I made my way back to the trail and finished the descent into Kinlochleven. Two minutes down the trail, it started drizzling. I stopped under a tree for shelter, and had visions of the next 17 miles of cold, wet trail. Fortunately, the rain had all but stopped in 5 minutes, and as I set off down the trail, the clouds began to lift and break. By the time I got to Kinlochleven, there were patches of blue sky all over, and the dark looking storm I had woken up under was fleeing over the next ridge.

If I could make a postcard from the trip, this would be it! This is actually tidal salt water, although the open ocean is far (30 miles?) away.

Kinlochleven is a small town way, way at the end of a long inlet of the ocean. (They still call them lochs, whether freshwater or saltwater) The trail came down into town following the feed stocks of a medium size hydro plant which I suspect takes care of most of their energy needs. I think most of the highlands runs on hydro power, actually. With their combination of mountains and nearly year-round rain, it makes sense. The town itself was not so exciting. Lots of B&B's. As I made my way up the valley on the other side of town, the weather continued to improve, and even started to get rather warm for trudging uphill with a pack.

The Town of Kinlochleven at the end of the loch. The West Highland Way comes into town along the hydro feedstocks (visible on the far side of the valley).

After a small detour to get a scenic vista of the town and Loch from above, the trail dove away into another broad valley. The next several miles through the valley were broken up by some of the local sheep/goat residents and some more old stone house ruins. I fell into step with an middle aged couple from New Zealand for a while and gleaned some useful information about hiking there if/when I get down there (high on my want-to-do list!). The day was absolutely beautiful, and the afternoon could have even been called "partly cloudy" instead of "partly sunny", although it was on the dividing line between the two.

Ruins along the trail, although they are apparently still inhabited.

Many miles of crazy nice, open highlands terrain.

The last several miles of trail into Glen Nevis (more or less my destination for the night) went through by far the largest tree plantation I had seen. It was odd. One moment, I was hiking through vast, open highlands. Two minutes later I was in an exceptionaly thick, dark, enveloping evergreen forest. For a few miles. Strange, but it was nice and cool in there. Glen Nevis is a small outpost of a campground and a couple restaurants about 2 miles from Ft. William (my exit point for the Highlands). I manged to work my way up the creek a mile or so and find a suitably remote spot to set up for the night, again right by the water. There was a nice rocky beach, and blessedly no bugs! I was thrilled that I could actually hang out outside without staying on the move!

Within one of the tree plantations. The cool, dark, enclosed feeling is a direct contrast to the open, sunny highlands.

Campsite the third night. One could get used to sleeping along creeks like this!

It was fairly early still (maybe 6pm?) so I lounged around camp and skipped rocks for a while. As things progressed towards sunset, I grabbed my camera and headed towards the trail up Ben Nevis (which I had slated to climb the next day) to try and get some good sunset shots. It turned out to be one of those "right place, right time" moments. A big rainsquall came cruising through and set up a beautiful double rainbow right over the mountain! It was perfect. Except that my first camera battery died, and my spare was sitting in my pack back at camp! Arg. Never forget the spare! My last shot was pretty close to the peak of intensity, but still...

Rainbow over Ben Nevis

I weathered the squall for 15 or 20 minutes under the covered trail information sign, but then had to bushwack through all the freshly watered bushes to get my battery, and then right back through them all. Oh well. So much for staying dry. The sunset was interesting, although not quite the spectacular affair I was hoping for (the rainstorm kind of blocked most of it) As dusk set in, I headed by to camp and setlled in for the night.