After the Cairngorms national park it was time for another break. First a couple days in Edinburgh, then a couple days in Inverness. Actually it had been the plan to go further north from Inverness, but as the public transport up there was not really good, I decided to head south again. As a friend was joining on Friday for a weekend hike, I already knew that I had to be in Crianlarich by then. Leaving Inverness on Wednesday, that left me with another day of hiking and exploring. Knowing that I would be taking the bus in Fort William on Friday morning, I did some research and found a couple hikes to do in Kinlochleven, a little village about 45 minutes by bus from Fort William. The forecast for Wednesday and Thursday was so so (a couple showers with a gentle breeze) and I thought it best to decide which hike I would do once I had reached Kinlochleven. Arriving there on Wednesday afternoon, a shower had just passed by and the clouds were all hanging around the mountains. As the conditions didn't look that good, I chose to do the hike with the lower altitude. The chosen walk was a loop and should bring me to the summit of Mam na Gualainn and back to Kinlochleven again. When I started to walk I already knew where to go. The first part was along the West Highland Way, a long distance hike of about 7 days, which I hiked not even two years ago. Even though I did a lot of hiking in between, there were still enough memories of this part that I knew what was coming first: a steep ascent. :) Remembering what was waiting at the top of the ascent, I brought it behind me without any difficulties and soon enjoyed a wonderful lookout over Kinlochleven and the surrounding mountains.
Carrying on, I reached a big gravel road and following it for a while I could see my intermediate target, the mountain Beinn na Caillich, coming closer. Not much later I reached the turnoff and turned left towards the mountain. Crossing a construction site and a footbridge, another steep ascent waited for me. This one took quite long and I had to take some clothes off along the way, as I was drenched with sweat. The further I got though, the better was the view. Kinlochleven, Loch Leven and the enclosing mountains made for a pretty sight. When the ascending slope finally was behind me, I reached a huge plateau with some minor ascents in between. Knowing that I already had walked enough for today, the question I asked myself now was, where to set up camp for the night. If I would walk further, there would be a nice ridge where I could camp, just beyond the summit of Beinn na Caillich. But the weather looked still not very promising and right when I reached the plateau the wind had started to pick up. So I decided to stay on the plateau and camp there, instead of being exposed on the ridge and risk waking up in the clouds the next morning. Finding a nice spot, I set up my tent and weren't it for the wind, it actually would have been pretty comfortable. The wind was tugging and shaking relentlessly at my tent and I felt like I was back on Arran. :) It was not as bad this time, but nevertheless the sleep was rather rough. It also was raining a lot during the night and as nothing had changed when I woke up, I knew it didn't look good for my ridge walk. A look towards the peak of Beinn na Caillich confirmed my foreboding. The summit was somewhere in the clouds and I basically couldn't see anything. :)
As I was not in a rush, I ate my breakfast first, packed my bag and waited for about an hour for a change of the weather. Well, there was none. The clouds were still there and so was the rain and wind. So what should I do now? There were quite a few options: just go ahead and try to finish the loop, walk back to Kinlochleven the way I came from or retrace my steps to the West Highland Way and walk the last stage from there to Fort William. As I didn't knew the way along the ridge, as there were apparently parts without a proper path, as there wouldn't have been any views and as it seemed that the clouds wouldn't move anytime soon, I decided not to carry on with the loop. But I also didn't want to go back to Kinlochleven. I wanted to stay outside a bit longer, even though the weather was pretty bad. So the decision was taken to walk back to Fort William along the West Highland Way. Packing up my tent, I descended back down, had a nice chat with a friendly construction site worker and rejoined the West Highland Way a bit later on. The first hour and a half I walked along a valley, always with the ridge in sight. Well, "sight" was the wrong word as I couldn't see it at all. :) The clouds were still there and it was obvious that I made the right decision.
Of course the walk was not as exciting as the first time, because I more or less knew what was coming. Nevertheless I enjoyed the fresh air and the warming up of my legs for the weekend hike. The trail led mostly straight ahead, passing a lot of deadwood and farming land. Views there were not that many, clouds and rain mostly reigned the sky. It was therefore no surprise that I couldn't see Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK, when I passed it just before the descent to Glen Nevis started. Right there I finally found a sheltered spot in the forest and that's where I took my lunch break. Strenghtened from the break I took the last hour under my feet and soon arrived at the Glen Nevis campsite where I stayed for the night. It was the first time during my journey in Scotland that a hike turned out different than planned. Nevertheless I enjoyed the time outdoors and considered myself lucky that it took three full weeks to get a hike with bad weather only. :)
Lowlight of the day: the bad weather
This hike is for you if:
- you want to get a glimpse of the West Highland Way
- you're looking for a trail which can be walked in bad weather too
- you want to feel the presence of Ben Nevis (or may be you have more luck and you actually can see him :))
This hike is not for you if:
- you want to scale a summit
- you're looking for panoramic views of the highlands
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