Kayaks, trench foot and burgers - a Highland adventure

[sakura1989]

Day 1

2 of my workmates - Murdo, Stewart and I were planning an adventure of a different kind. Murdo has a young family and doesn't get the chance to get out often so this was the first free weekend he had in a long time. We finished work at 12 noon on Friday and drove to our meeting point at Hermiston Gait Park and Ride. Murdo offered to be the driver for this trip as his WV Passat estate has the biggest boot space for all our gear. It just so happened that he was giving his friend Rhona a lift to Spean Bridge as it was en route to the first part of our adventure. We crammed in hiking bags, dry bags, inflatable kayaks and Rhona's suitcases into the boot and crammed ourselves into the car, each hugging a piece of rogue luggage that the boot couldn't accommodate. With Johnny Cash on the stereo we set off on our merry way.

As we drove across Queensferry Crossing and north along the M90, happily munching on our sandwiches, the weather became increasingly wet and miserable, not particularly filling us with much hope for the trip ahead. Thankfully by the time we got to Spean Bridge the rain clouds cleared a little and the sun was trying to make an appearance. We dropped Rhona off in a public car park where her parents were waiting, and I went to a local convenience store to get a coffee as I felt a headache coming on (cold turkey). After somehow managing to break the shop's coffee machine and waiting for the staff to fix it, I eventually got my coffee and we continued the journey.

Shortly after leaving Spean Bridge we turned off the A82, after the Commando memorial, and proceeded to follow the ever narrowing road to Loch Arkaig, our intended camping location for the night. The Munro we were planning to do the following day was Gulvain but not the conventional route from Kinlocheil. Instead, the idea was to kayak across Loch Arkaig and camp on its south bank and tackle the Munro from the north. It sounded like great fun but since I've only ever been kayaking once before, the thought of transporting all my camping gear in an inflatable kayak became increasingly daunting. The plan was for Stewart and I to share a 2 man kayak (Stewart was in a kayaking club at university) and Murdo wanted to try out his new one man kayak. We pumped up the kayaks, loaded our gear into dry bags and set off. Thankfully the water was relatively still and once we got into the swing of things we sailed across to the other side of the loch.

Survived the kayaking

Stewart looking like he wishes the ground would swallow him

Action man

Once we were safely across we brought our kayaks on-shore, found a flat spot for our tents and set up camp.

Home for the night

Olpro Voyager

I went in for a swim and was surprised to see my 2 buddies follow me into the water (albeit Stewart was in a wetsuit). It was the last day of March and the water was still bitterly cold so we only stayed in for around 15 minutes. Once we dried off and dressed into warm clothes, we lit a fire and cooked steaks on the open flames with boiled baby potatoes and asparagus. After a good chat and a dram around the campfire we retreated to our tents for the night.

Day 2

The following morning was dry, mild and cloudy. Having finished breakfast and packed our day hiking bags, we packed up our tents and camping gear while the weather was still dry and left everything by the kayaks. I set my Garmin GPX to record our trek but due to a malfunction it only recorded some disjointed waypoints so I will map out the route in this report as was planned.

Gulvain.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

According to the map that we had there was a track leading from the loch into the glen and would at least give us head start into the wilderness ahead. Some heather bashing was required before we found the track from our camp. The track itself was very faint and wet. We followed it for about 2km, crossed a bridge and followed the river until the track petered out.

Heading into the wilderness

Having found a safe place to cross the river we hiked deeper into the glen through rough and pathless terrain. A short distance after we started making our way up the steep hillside, aiming for the shoulder of the mountain's South Top. The shoulder itself was grassy, rocky and almost vertical so we had to zigzag to ease the gradient.
We finally reached the South Top and the views opened up all around us. Some of the higher Munros around us were still shrouded in mist but we were lucky to get good views.

The 3 Musketeers

We took some photos on a self timer and set off to bag the Munro itself. There was a clear path along the ridge and was a nice change from the boggy assault course we just completed. We followed the ridge to the summit of Gulvain. Once there, we had a quick break and continued on with our journey. We started descending down the rocky eastern shoulder of Gulvain, picking our way out through the boulder field. We kept descending until we reached the bealach between Gulvain and the neighbouring Graham Mullach Coire nan Geur-oirean (won't even try to pronounce that). Once down the bealach we changed direction and started heading NW until we reached a stream. Here we had a break, each dreading returning to the pathless and soggy glen and the return route to our camp.

From here on, we more or less followed the stream down to the glen, skirting around some crags with a pretty waterfall. The hillside was incredibly damp, tussocky and completely pathless and a part of me did wander if we would still have our ankles intact after negotiating that rough terrain. The progress was slow and rather miserable. The stream eventually took us to a small woodland, which we skirted around until we came to the river (River Camgarry, if the glen is anything to go by, or I could just be making it up!). We needed to cross the river, which was in a sizeable gorge, to get back to the faint track that led back to our camp. There didn't seem to be an apparent crossing (despite a few of Murdo's whacky suggestions) so we hiked up-river until we found a sensible place to cross. By sensible I mean an old bridge, or rather an upturned fence, which didn't look like it was capable of holding much weight. Murdo, being the heaviest out of the group braved it first and much to everyone's surprise, made it across. I ran across the fence second, eventually followed by Stewart after numerous complaints.

Crossing point - rickety bridge

Having made it across the dodgy fence bridge we headed north through the bog until we reached the track. From there it was just a return through the wet track and some more heather bashing to reach our camp.

Back at the camp, we packed our gear back into the kayaks and set out across Loch Arkaig. The weather was still dry and overcast but the wind started picking up a tad. It looked like our worst fears were starting to materialise and the water became rather choppy by the time we got to the middle of the loch, so Stewart and I started paddling faster to get back to shore as soon as possible. Murdo didn't seem phased by it and was happily taking photos from his little inflatable dinghy.

We were relieved to make it back to the other side of the loch with all of our camping gear intact. Once we were all back on dry land, we packed up all our camping gear into the car, deflated the kayaks and changed into dry shoes and socks (which I was delighted about). We got into the car and continued to the next stage of our adventure. We started driving back towards the A82 and as a treat decided to have a nice pub dinner. As soon as we were back within mobile phone range, Stewart and I started checking the map and phoning nearby restaurants to see if we could book a table. Unfortunately, it being a Saturday night all places were fully booked. We came across a somewhat rough looking pub just off the A82 so stopped there and decided to chance our luck - as it happens they did have a table for 3. The menu had a fantastic variety of burgers, burgers or burgers, so I guess burgers it is!

Having finished our burgers, we got back in the car and continued driving to find the next camping spot. The sun had already set and it was becoming dark so I did suggest going back to Creag Meagaidh nature reserve but Murdo was adamant he wanted to be as far away from civilization as possible so we turned off the A86 towards Fersit. We found a small layby on a country road so parked the car there and camped in a field. I chose a more secluded spot by a river as I find the sound of water helps me sleep better. After a chat and some down time, we retreated to our tents for some well earned rest.

Day 3

We woke up the following day to a grey and drizzly morning. It was a leisurely start to the morning after the beating we took the previous day on the rough and pathless terrain of Glen Camgharaidh so we didn't set any alarms and got up at 7am. Apart from my hiking boots, which got soaked the day before after hours of bog trudging, I had a dry pair of trainers, which I changed into after we kayaked across Loch Arkaig. I left the trainers in the small porch of my tent while sleeping but it rained heavier than expected overnight so water managed to get into my trainers and they were nice and soggy for me waking up and putting my feet into them. Suppose it set me up for the day ahead.

Camp 2 by the river

We took our time over breakfast and packing up our camping gear in the hope that the drizzle would ease and the mist would clear but it was persistent and the mist clung to the hills that surrounded us. Murdo was the first to pack his gear away into the car so he sat by the road in his camping chair, looking rather homeless.

Any spare change mate? Murdo practices looking homeless

Having packed everything away into the boot of the Passat (somehow it seemed that there was less space than when we initially left Hermiston Gait, and we were a passenger down) we drove up the single track road back to the A86 to start the day's adventure.

We pulled into a small lay-by at the side of A86, the start point of our route, donned on our wet boots, waterproofs and rucksacks and set off though the forestry tracks to the foot of the first mountain we were planning on climbing that day - Beinn a'Chaorainn. Towards the end of the forestry plantation our group split up - Murdo wanted to continue East along the forestry track, which skirted around the mountain and would take him up to the summit via one of the steep East gullies still covered in snow. He fancied some ice climbing but because it was now April and the temperatures quite mild I wasn't convinced the snow would be frozen enough to climb so opted to ascend via the grassy SW shoulder of the mountain. We agreed to meet on the summit and went our separate ways. Stewart chose the easier option and came along with me.

Beinna'Chaorainn&BeinnTeallach.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Soon after we parted the rain briefly stopped and the sun teased us with a couple of faint rays through the heavy clouds. We reached the end of the forestry plantation and the moorland opened up before us. A path followed the stream (which was in spate and therefore quite a strong current) into the glen between two of our Munros but we ignored it and instead followed the much fainter grassy path up toward the shoulder of Beinn a'Chaorainn. The ground was saturated so we squelched our way up the slope, taking layers off as it was very mild. At around 500m height we entered mist again which limited visibility and shortly after the drizzle came back on. The climb was relentless so we stopped for a couple of quick breaks and kept climbing until the reached the south top of the Munro. There was no sign of Murdo and due to the poor visibility there was no point in looking for him so we proceeded to the summit. It was chilly in the breeze so we stopped just before the summit to put on hats and gloves. We waited for Murdo on the summit of Beinn a'Chaorainn while having a snack but he was nowhere to be seen so we continued along the ridge to the North Top.

Stewart and I skirted Coire Buidhe and continued to descend down the North West shoulder of the mountain to the bealach below. We stopped for lunch among the boulders and just as we were finishing our break, Murdo appeared from the mist and we re-grouped again. He confirmed my earlier suspicions that the snow in the gully was too wet so it wasn't an enjoyable climb. Having filled up our water bottles from one of the many streams flowing down the mountain, we continued down to the soggy bealach.

Soggy bealach

There was no obvious path up to the next Munro from the bealach so we took a direct line up the start of Beinn Teallach, avoiding crags. Once on the shoulder of the mountain, much to our delight, we picked up a much drier and rocky path which led us all the way to the gnarly summit. Unfortunately there were no views to enjoy so after a quick group photo we started the descend down the wet and heather covered slope.

Group summit photo with the great views

Eventually we reached the path we saw at the start of the ascent and rejoined it. I was relatively dry under my waterproofs but my feet were swishing about in my boots and I did start to wonder how long it takes to develop trench foot as dry footwear now seemed like a distant memory!

There was one more obstacle to overcome before we got back to the forestry track which led us back to the car - we had to cross the river. We walked downstream until we came to a bend in the river which wasn't as deep as the rest, and crossed here, not that our feet could be any more wet if we tried! Having crossed safely, we retraced our steps back to the car. By this time no more photos were being taken, we just wanted to go home! It was nice to peel the wet hiking gear off and turn the heater on as the weather had been miserable for most of the day! But it was still an adventure and we managed to bag a few more Munros so we headed home after our action packed weekend full of stories and a LOT of wet gear!

[sakura1989]

Please note the distance and ascent is the total for the whole trip