West Highlands, Sept 2021
Hiking and camping near Glenfinnan.
Contains 122 photos, the last of which were added 3 years, 3 months, 1 day, 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 6 seconds ago.
Day one of West Highlands adventure: bus to Glasgow, train to Glenfinnan, and walked out to the nearby bothy, about an hour and a half through the woods. Lots of people gathered to look at the viaduct just outside of Glenfinnan. The woods were bursting with mushrooms, and even though we had no way to make fire, I picked them anyway. At the bothy were other hikers, who did have a way to make fire, and also bothy cooking pots. So that evening we cooked mostly brown birch boletes and slippery jacks, then camped by the river. There were a lot of midges.
Climbed Glen Dessary at a leisurely pace. Met many interesting rocks, plants, and bugs - and mushrooms of course - along the way, and built a cairn. It was overcast, but very humid and warm. The breeze kept the midges away as we got higher. Pitched the tent a little way down from the peak on the windy side - it was a loud night, but decided that was preferable to midges.
Day three of West Highlands adventure. Didn't have a particular plan, so made a decision on which direction to walk in the morning. Options considered were: a ridge walk to Beinn Gharbh (eastish), a creek walk to a bothy at Oban on Loch Morar (northish), or an off-trail amble to wherever we'd get to in the south-westerly direction. Chose the latter. Went in a roundabout way to look at rocks, and ended up at Loch Beoraid mid-afternoon. There were some nice waterfall-y valley spots en route. Saw and heard red deer. The loch had a lovely beach, where we pitched the tent and chilled for the rest of the day. Midges came and went, which was better than being consistently covered in them. Kinlochbeoraid bothy is a mostly abandoned bothy a swampy 15 minute walk from the loch, but two other people were staying in the coal shed. It was pretty grim. Loch beach was better.
Day 4 of West Highlands adventure. Followed the valley out to the bothy of the first night (Corryhully). There was no trail for 2/3 of the way, besides those left by the deer, and it wasn't super easy. The foliage was long and wet, and the banks were often steep and/or muddy. Soaking by the end of it; it rained a little bit too. Took about 3 hours to get to the bothy, where we sheltered and dried off for a while.
Then walked back through the woods to Glenfinnan. Picked up a few boletes on the way. Saw the steam train go over the viaduct. Bumped into a Bothy Association guy who saw my bag of mushrooms and said we might find chanterelles in the nearby woods. We surely did! And a bunch more perfect boletes, and my first hedgehog fungus.
Then the last train back to Glasgow, and the last bus back to Kirkcaldy.
