Total miles: 21.5
Elevation gain: 3,755 ft
Time walking: 9:30am – 6:30pm
Miles to date: 1,214.7
Ok so I have to say, I am impressed with today! The route was awesome, the weather was beautiful and I made pretty good time on a day that was not only one of my longest distance-wise but was the biggest in terms of elevation gain of the entire trip (save Ben Nevis)!! No wonder my feet and legs are aching so much!
I knew that today was going to be a long day – it’s either a really short day stopping at Invermoriston or a really long day as there’s nowhere else to stay in the middle. I hadn’t quite anticipated the amount of elevation gain though and now don’t feel so bad that I had to keep stopping to catch my breath on the hills, some of which were very steep! I tried to make an early-ish start as with the nights drawing in I have less daylight hours to walk and 20+ miles is starting to push it. The hostel (Morag’s Lodge) did a good breakfast so I filled up and headed out onto the trail which conveniently passed the hostel. I’d risked leaving my waterproofs off for now as the forecasted heavy rain hadn’t quite materialised yet and I knew I had some hills to climb from the off.
After a brief stint on a quiet road the path heads up into the woods, the short but steep climb a bit of a surprise after the flat going the last couple of days. It levels out a bit when it joins a forest track which leads to the first main lookout across the loch. Shortly after, the path forks and there is a decision to be made – high route or low route?! High route, always! As far as I know the low route follows forest tracks (it is suitable for bikes and horses) and is mostly in the trees. The high route is only suitable for walkers and is relatively new – it’s not even marked on my OS map, just on my new Harvey’s map – and as the name suggests, goes up high, above the tree line. This does of course mean a bit of a climb, and a steep one at that, but it is definitely worth it! At first the path zigzags steeply up through the forest, closely following a tumbling stream which falls over a series of beautiful waterfalls. It was a bit of a gruelling climb but it was so nice to have a bit of a change of scenery.
TO BE FINISHED!!