Distance: 24km (600m), total of 85km
Time on the trail: 10 hrs
Planned route: map
Today we left our lovely B&B loaded up with ‘the full Scottish’ (breakfast) around 10:30 so we had a fairly late start. We followed our planned route along minor roads before climbing to join the Puggle Line, a dismantled railway. The track was a mix of lush grass, hard packed rock and swamp bog. The views traversing around all the valleys would have been nice if the sunshine persisted for more than 10 minutes at a time :(. Around 1pm we stopped for lunch and brewed up some soup. While we were sitting we saw two other hikers joining our trail from across the river. We soon caught up with them meeting Marion and Graham, two Scots on their fifth challenge. Like most other people we’ve met, they have great tales of good weather 🙂
We walked with them on and off through the small hamlet of Fersit and on through the woods. Our plan was to camp in the woods but we pushed on through to make our next two days into Kingussie more reasonable. We eventually made camp by the side of the river after ‘negotiating’ the deer fence :). What a lovely spot it was too – right by the river, under the shelter of trees and hidden from any other hikers :). Read more…
Distance: 22km (220m), total of 65km
On the trail: 8hrs
Planned route: map
We stopped about 3km short of Glenmallie last night. The walk into our camp was a horror compared to the nice trek out to Invermallie. It was raining hard when we woke so we decided to break camp and eat something cold in order to get on our way quickly. After leaving camp around 9am we picked up a nice LRT (landrover trail) and had a very fast walk to Glenmallie then out to Invermallie where we had a hot lunch sitting under a huge oak tree. The walking today was easy in comparison, mostly flat on nice trails or roads. The only surprising thing was the discovery of the ‘Gairlochy fairies’ in the woods (see pics below). We found them by following the Great Glen Way Trail from the end of Loch Arkaig to Gairlochy. Read more…
Distance: 20km (1000m climbed) – total: 45km
Time on the trail: 12 1/2 hrs
Planned route: map
Today started by trying to dry out socks and other wet soggy stuff from our late night yomp. The weather cleared and we hit the trail with Alan and John intending to hit our planned Monroe. After climbing the ridge with Alan (John has headed in another direction) the winds were whipping up and the climb to the summit looked like a real scramble. Truth be told we were all feeling a bit knackered so we opted for our bailout route which took us down Glen Mallie. Our route better describes the route as ‘a wonderful lush green valley with easy tracks’. Well I think he must have confused it with somewhere else. Ever heard of Lake Baikal in Russia? It supposedly has 1/3 of the worlds fresh water supply. Read more…
Distance: 25km (1100m climbed)
Time on the trail: 11 hrs
Planned route: map
We arrived into Mallaig around 5:30pm on what would appear to be the TGO express train. It was packed with challengers who jumped off at the different start points. We met several folks from our 2009 challenge and made many new ones. Overall challengers are quite a social bunch.
We had a great dinner in the local pub with fresh locally caught seafood and a pint or two if the local real ale.
Our challenge started at 9am by signing the start book. We then headed down to the Inverie ferry which left packed to the gills with the 47 challengers starting at Inverie. After landing a great deal of self control was exercised preventing a quick pint in the old forge inn. Read more…
The prior night was pretty cold due to a light breeze which blew through the tent. This was great though as it meant we had zero condensation in the tent making our morning pack up easy and the tent pounds lighter (dry tent == good tent :)). We hit the trail around 9am in high spirits – the hike out was meant to be beautiful and with blue skies we would have a wonderful last day on the trails.
The trial did not disappoint – though we have 2100’ of climbing back to the car the views were simply amazing. This was by far the best day on the trails and we were all (including Jilly) in high spirits.
After climbing for about an hour we took a short spur trail to an overlook at the cutely named Hoot Owl Camp which has a epic view across the valley to Rampart Ridge. From there we continued to Lucky Pass and then finally headed through Eightmile Pass before descending back to the car at the trailhead. This completed our estimated 50 mile loop.
Overall the trip was ok with some really high points (hiking from East Pastayten out) and some super lows (Bunker Hill day). Compared to my prior trip to the Eastern Pasayten this was a disappointing trip as there were very few views along the route. I’m sure my perception would change if we’d had good weather on Bunker Hill. Despite all this, I really did enjoy the trip. This was our first serious backpacking trip with Jilly and she did super well. She settled into a routine on day 2 and learned to hike behind me in a nice heel for hour after hour (Lynn gets the credit for the training :)). It’s super encouraging as she’s barely 2 years old and will be better behaved as she matures.
All in all, it was great to get out and away from the city.
After our dismal “lost day” yesterday we awoke hoping for a better trail. The weather looked much better today with clear blue skies already showing by 7:30am. Once the mist burned off the valley floor, it was a lovely day with the sun shining through the burnt trees. The hiking here was actually quite good. The burn trees were nice and open with lots of colorful fireweed shining brightly along the trail. No real wildlife to speak of but lovely open woodland views.
We soon hiked the 4 miles to Big Hidden Lake, the first of the three hidden lakes. We encoutered several groups of people our our hike today – what looked like a hunter/guide snoring in the sunshine outside the guard shack followed by a group of men fly fishing in float tubes on middle hidden lake. Compared to the first three days, this was a huge number of people in such a short time.
After leaving Big Hidden Lake, we saw our first bear sighting – Jilly was quite excited and would have run off after him had she been off leash. This bear was pretty large too – at least 100lbs or more. We then spent the next 30 minutes making lots of noise just in case he had friends along the trail.
Soon after First Hidden Lake we ran into a huge pack train of horses – three people and some 10 horses all heading in the direction of Hidden Lakes. We assumed this was another High Hunt camp going in for the week.
From the Hidden Lakes we followed the trail passing Cougar Lake (no Cougars!) to reach our planned camping spot at Diamond Creek at 4pm. This was a lovely little spot with a great deal of flat camping and ample water supply. Here we met Dori, a lovely USFS Ranger who was just heading out for a 9 day wilderness patrol. She was hoping to reach Hidden Lakes for the night be decided to join us in camping at Diamond Creek given the fading light. We chatted with Dori for several hours learning about the USFS Rangers, patrol cabins and how the USFS regulates the Pasayten.
The camp here was great and it was wonderful to have several hours to putter around getting things setup. This was the first night where we’d arrived in camp and not been rushing for daylight to get things sorted. The weather update from Dori was good for tomorrow – sunshine and clear skies for our final 9 mile hike out to Billy Goat Corral.
The predicted weather came through with continuous showers falling all night. By the time time we hit the trail at 8:45am, the rain was still falling but had receded to constant drizzle. Full rain gear came out with leggings, and our favored Paramor jackets.
From our camp at Peeve Pass was continued on climbing 1400’ up to Bunker Hill (7100’). The weather today was really unfortunate as the views along Quartz Mountain would have been great. After descending the mountain we bumped into our first hikers of the day, a young man and his dog all kitted out. They were moving along at a fairly fast clip and soon passed us. I found the hiking up Bunker Hill to be hard going – it was super steep with little switchbacks. It was also very hot and humid. On reaching the glorious summit, the views would have been amazing(!) if not for the torrid weather :-(.
We crested the summit and continued down following a well worn stock trail. The trail soon started descending down switchbacks through an old burn area which lots of blow down. I became worried we’d missed the trail and was getting concerned we would become lost. We backtracked up the hill to try and get a signal on my GPS (iPhone with Memory Map). After fudging around with the settings (Note: flight mode needed to be off!) we got a signal and found that we’d taken a wrong turn and were following the old trail #456 which we’d been warned against. This takes you off Bunker Hill in a SSE direction and we needed to follow the trail in a NNW direction (genius Ellis was off by 180°).
We soon backtracked and, after double and triple checking compass, GPS, map and trail guide, we found the missing trail about a mile back up the hill. The trail was actually marked via. a series of cairns (rock piles) and had a signpost obscured in the trees. I’ve marked our lost route in blue in the map fragment below. This last bit really bothered me and we ended up being super careful and even second guessing our route and we descended down the correct trail. The trail dropped into a small lush valley before once again descending into an old burn area. I was following the GPS route pretty carefully as the trail was again hard to follow. It veered way off at one point so much so that I decided it must be wrong (I’m sure you’re getting the picture now). After yomping around again lost for about an hour we finally found the trail again and then picked up speed.
At this this point we’d lost a good three hours and I was very worried we would be stuck on the high hillside with no flat camping spots for the night. Luckily we were able move fast with most of the trail being down hill. We soon left the switchbacks and sighted the Pasayten River. Our target camp at the East Fork was now only 1.5 miles away.
We rolled into camp at 7:15pm with only 30 minutes of daylight left to setup and cook. Little Jilly was dog tired and soon curled up into a little ball by the side of the river. We followed along and were all soon out in a deep sleep hoping for a better trails the following day.
We woke up around 6am absolutely freezing! Looking at the thermometer on my pack watch it was 32F inside the tent and that’s with two adults and a heat generating Jilly-dog. After deciding it was pointless hoping that Lynn would bring me coffee in bed I got things going. Jilly did well on her first night in the tent and demonstrated she was every bit Lynn’s equal in fighting for space on the sleeping pad (despite having her own nice doggie bed). After our morning ritual we hit the trail around 8:40am with a goal of making it to Peeve Pass approximately 12 miles away.
The hiking today was pretty nice with wide open trails, meadows and lots small passes as the trail meandered up and over Three Fools Pass (would love to know where the name came from). We passed a pack train coming out with one guy and four horses. I’m always amazed to see the horses and mules loaded up with gear moving along with saws, boxes and lord knows what else strapped on. Simply incredible. After cresting Three Fools Pass we encountered our first “hunt camp” which was being used for a staging area for the upcoming High Hunt season which runs from September 15th for 10 days. This is a time when you do not want to be out in the Pasayten as it’s swamped with hunters!
We continued climbing and ran into two women we’d just spent two lovely days at Corral Lake. They’d been at higher elevation the previous night and had woken to 2 inches of snow. The climb up Larch Pass was long and pretty strenuous though the trail was nicely maintained but quite steep in sections. Upon reaching the summit of Larch Pass the views were lovely and the most open we’d seen so far on the trip. From here it was only another mile to our planned camp at Corral Lake. However the weather looked like it was changing with very dark clouds coming in. We decided to push on and make camp at Peeve Pass about 4 miles further. The map showed the trail to be almost level but this turned out to be a sign of things to come with an onward descent followed by another climb back to gain the elevation we’d lost.
We arrived into Peeve Pass around 6pm to find a lovely meadow with a great stream and water supply. We pitched made camp under a large fir tree hoping to shield the worst of the coming rain. Our planned route tomorrow would continue clockwise around Sheep Mountain but given the poor weather we decided to cut a day off the hike in the hope we could avoid a repeat of our soggy Scotland TGO Challenge Hike.
We left Redmond around 10am and reached Winthrop at 2pm. The drive over the pass (20) was quite lovely with blue skies and sun shining out across the road. On reaching Winthrop, we headed into the excellent Winthrop Mountain Sports to pick up a few extra bits of kit. From there we headed out of town towards Perrygrin State Park and over NF51 to reach the trailhead at Billy Goat Corral some 17 miles later. The trailhead was pretty nice as trailheads go with clear signage, permit station and a nice double "FS standard toilet" building.
Getting all the gear loaded and Jilly ready to go (it was her first back country hike so she was super excited) took a while. We packed up the remainder of our lunch (hummus and cucumbers) and headed out on to the trail at 4pm. After about 1/4 mile the trail forked and we turned right heading up directly to Billy Goat Pass. The climb to the pass was 2.6 miles and was nice and steep climbing 1800′ to the pass.
We hiked over the pass quickly with no views due to dense trees. We soon passed over a nice new bridge at Drake Creek which had just been completed by a group of WTA volunteers. Apparently we were the first hikers over the bridge so we suggested they call if "Jilly Dog Bridge". We’ll have to see if the name sticks. The WTA group of 9 people were in wonderful spirits and had a roaring campfire going at their extremely well equipped wilderness camp. It was great to see the group of mixed ages (low 20’s to 60’s) having such a great time.
We continued on down the trail for about another mile before finding a nice camping spot 30′ feet from a small stream. By this time the light was beginning to fade and we setup camp, I hung our bear rope and we started to make Jilly’s dinner. Rather than take regular dried dog food, Lynn had sourced some dehydrated raw food which came highly recommended. If Jilly’s initial response was anything to go by this food was going to be a hit. We brewed up some water and then left Jilly’s food the recommended 30 minutes to rehydrate and then settled in for our own dinner of hummus and cucumbers – yum!
As the light faded, the temperatures dropped fast. The forecast was for snow at 6200′ so we’d tried to lose as much elevation as we could eventually settling in at 5900′ and hoping we’d miss the predicted poor weather. We rolled into bed around 8:30pm already feeling chilled.
Today began with a traditional English breakfast before we hit the trail at a leisurely 9:15am. Rain was forecast so we packed our wet weather gear at the top of our packs. If the temperature was anything to go by we were in for a real squall.
The walking today was easy and flat which soon grew into boredom as there were very few ‘good views’. Our travels across the Dales looking at rolling fields of wooleys and cows a thing of the past. After about 10 miles of road/track walking we decided to stop for some coffee at a local pub which by poor luck was closed :(. We carried on through and found a sheltered spot by the river for a quick lunch break of cheese and tomato sandwiches.
After setting off across more fields following the riverbank the rains came – nothing super heavy but it kept going and going for several hours. Out came the jackets, hats and pants. The drizzle continued unabated as we walked across meadows with long (and now very wet) grass.
Our route took us through to Wetheriggs Pottery which despite it’s name is now an animal sanctuary. They have a nice cafe so it was tea and cake before continuing on for the last four miles into Penrith.
The outskirts of the city soon came into view and we bade farewell to nice farmland and hello to houses and cars.
Our hotel is the Agricultural Hotel in the heart of the city next to the ruins if Penrith Castle. Yet another perfectly good castle sacked by the Scots.
This was our last day with some 19-ish miles under our belt to round out the trip to a 100 miles since leaving Skipton 6 days ago. The first few days were by far our favorite with lovely Dales and high passes across the hills. Similar to our TGO walk last May all the hills were at the start before heading out into the lowlands at the end. Overall this was a great walk – we carried little with us this time opting to eat on the trails at pubs and cafes. No tents or sleeping bags either so this made a huge difference in the weight of our packs.
It feels good to be done and well exercised just in time for my sisters wedding this coming weekend.
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