With a shorter day of only 5 hrs of walking anticipated 😂, we negotiated for an 8am breakfast time with our friends to be able to catch up on some much needed rest. When we woke, there was a light skiff of snow on top of Glencoe Mountain, and it had rained through the night at the hotel, but just look at the view out our window this morning!
I checked out the morning views to take this shot of the trail we would be taking today that would lead toward the valley.
It was a chilly morning to start, and I had hoped that my merino long-sleeved shirt and my sunshirt would be enough, but the rain jacket was later pulled out to help with the wind.
I couldn't get enough of taking photos of Buachaille Etive Mor as we have been skirting around it since yesterday, bit when I saw this little heather shrub pushing out the last of its blooms for the season, I had to capture it against this massive Mor.
We continued along the reasonably steady trail that ran parallel to highway A82. After about 40 minutes, we began to walk through the unmarked and solemn location of the Glencoe Massacre of 1692. Before leaving this space, we took a moment to pay our respects to the Macdonald and Maclain people whose lives were so brutally taken.
As we crossed the bridge to start our ascent up Devil's Staircase, I snapped this shot of Bill. Notice the white heart of lichen?
Bill took the lead up Devil's Staircase like it was a walk in the park. Our summer hike on Tuff Puff helped us to be conditioned for this climb! When we got to the summit, you could see the Wee White House of Glencoe in the distance under the shadows of Buachaille Etive Mor.
Thankfully, the rain continued to steer clear of us, as we made our descent down the other side. We had a view of the Blackwater Reservoir in the distance. Our trail zig-zagged all the way to the valley.
We finally turned off the trail near a fishery to take a steep, winding, gravel road past a small dam and onward to the Kinlochleven Hydro Electric Station.
We only had about 1.5km to go before we were blessed with a beautiful red maple leaf, reminding us how grateful we are to be Canadian.
Kinlochleven is along the River Leven. We definitely began to feel a chill so we headed straight to the Tigh Na Cheo Guest House - our lodging for the night. Their strict 2pm check in required us to sit outside for 25 min, so we took advantage of the time by eating the rest of today's snacks! Glad to get in to our new digs, we wasted no time taking advantage of their complimentary coffee and muscle soak for the bath!
We met up with our friends for an early supper at Rice and Chips - a little Chinese food restaurant here in town. It hit the spot! A quick stop at Co-op for some blister bandaids (these trails can be hard on the feet) and a package of Hobnobs cookies for tomorrow's walk to Ft. William!