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West Highland Way, Inverarnan to Tyndrum

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Day 4 of our 8 trek of the West Highland Way was yet another fantastic one folks! Mostly easy walking and largely great weather makes days like this one dreamy.

Once again our crew of 12 was split between 2 B&Bs, some were at the Glengarry B&B up the road (which sounds great) and then we had 4 rooms at the Tigh na Fraoch B&B (Heather’s House in Gaelic) which was amazing for our crew! At our respective homes for the night, we woke up to yummy breakfast before catching our transport taxi at 815am back to Inverarnan (Beinglas Campsite). This was the same spot we left the Way yesterday.

We piled out of 2 taxi’s at about 835 and gathered at the Beinglas parking lot to get packs sorted, sun screen on, final blister checks and start our walking / hiking apps! The crew was really excited about the largely level walking today and that we had sunshine!

The last time I was at this campsite it was a little cafe and a small shop and some places to stay. Since 2008 it has grown fabulously and now boasts a big shop, bar and restaurant, cabins and more.

From the Bienglas Campsite, we headed up and back out of civilization again. Largely on wide track or some skinny sections up and over the hills through bracken and trail that had been turned to stream with the recent rain fall. All very easy walking if you kept a close eye on a sure spot for your foot!

After a fantastic morning we all took a lunch break together! I love when people can walk at their own pace, dispersed on the trail and yet we still find each other for breaks! Especially when there are some benches and sunshine.

After lunch we had a steep, long climb up into the forest to follow forest track for a couple of hours. Some was unfortunately clear cut forest but they already have saplings planted to build up the next forest for walkers in future!

After a couple of fun tunnels (one was a sheep run that require some serious crouching), a few bridges and some decent decline sections, we were back on level ground and making our way into town on park paths or moorland paths.

By now it’s raining hard. Most of us thought it would stay to just a classic mist of Scotland but were quick to discover this was a serious deluge and quickly donned the rain gear for the last couple of hours on trail.

We passed some fantastic historic spots on our final kilometers of the trail. An old graveyard with a informative display of what the engravings on the grave stones mean; the ruins of the St Fillan Priory, and the loch where they believe Robert the Bruce’s sword was thrown into and legend suggest it still remains in the lake to this day.

We made it into town later afternoon. Our walking crew for the afternoon (Niki, Deb, Kristi, Lori, Shar and I) made our way to the Tryndrum Hotel for a pint and late lunch / early dinner. We were shortly joined by the rest of the crew as they made their way into town for an end of day pint!

The rain continued to pour down! We braved the quick walk to our B&B and I took my turn doing our laundry (Rosa, mine and Shar’s) while they finished up in the pub or went back for showers. The laundromat machines were outside! Gotta love the Green Welly shop.

It was an early, chill night for most of us. After laundry, a shower, and a chat we all got ready for some downtime and finally some shut eye.

The stats:

  • Trail: West Highland Way, Scotland
  • Day: 4/8 Finished!
  • To/From: Inverarnan / Tyndrum
  • Start/Finish time: 8:45am/3:00pm
  • Distance: 20km (19.7km Hiiker)
  • Steps: 27,598
  • Terrain: wide track on open ground or through forest. Easy walking for about 80% of the day mixed with some undulations and a few steep / long ups and downs
  • Weather: 19C blue skies in the morning into rain for the end of the day (and it’s still raining)
  • Breaky: full Scottish breakfast
  • Lunch n Snacks: ham sandwich, half a Kit Kat and a Juice Box
  • Dinner: haggis, neeps and tatties
  • Pints: 2
  • Tonight’s home: Tigh na Fraoch (heather’s house in Gaelic)
  • Mood: smiling
  • Body: body feels good, dealing with some abrasion from brace
  • Highlights: waterfalls and rapids
  • Lowlights: laundry
  • People of interest: the couple who say just a foot away from where we were having our lunch break in the middle of nowhere then proceeded to make loud phone calls
  • Spontaneous dancing: nope
  • Deep thoughts: let it flow

Day 5 we would to Bridge of Orchy – stay tuned for details!

Brande

West Highland Way, Rowardennan to Inverarnan

/ runningforthegate / 2 Comments

Day 3 of our 8 day West Highland Way trek is in the books and let me tell you it was a doozy! Notoriously the hardest day on the trail and it lived up to its reputation, big style! Ouch!

The day started with a full crew breakfast at the Clansmen Bar (part of the Rowardennan Hotel where we stayed) with all kinds of chat about what to expect on the trail. Words like strenuous and torturous were being read from guide books. Yikes. But hey, nae bother, we got this – let’s get it done!

The crew tacking the trail today headed out at 830am with about 3km warm up before we decided on if we would take the low road (said to be hardest with lots of bouldering) or the high road (said to be the way to go for Loch views) for the first half of the day. In the end we split the uprights so we could get the best of both worlds! Half up and half down.

Myself, Niki and Shar decided on low road and off we set ready for the challenge ahead!

The low road was easier than I remember than the last time let me tell you. Lots of fun skinny trails on the edge of the 2m or 30m drop to the Loch, lots of rocks to climb up and over or down, a couple of scrambles, a few bridges and a bunch of stream crossings. All good fun on a dry day with all the time in the world – yahoo us!

The high road crew surprised us by popping down to the beach on the low road where is low-readers would be passing by for a fantastic lunch break! Amazing views and awesome company – yes please. We all had packed lunches from the Hotel the night before so felt like little school kids excited to see what ‘mom packed for us today’. Sadly no chocolate bar but yummy cookies!

After our not so brief beach stop we finished off the morning on more undulating forest track, with some good and steep up and down hills to manage. Nothing horrible, especially as we passed waterfall after waterfall – the pretty stuff helps put the hard work in perspective.

We stopped at Inversnaid Hotel (half way on todays’s 22km trek to enjoy some more of our packed lunches and snacks on the lawn overlooking the Loch again. We could not get enough of this view. Today we would say good bye to Loch Lomond and move into our venture into Glen Coe our mod mountainous are – so we soaked it in!

After lunch (and a quick group photo, of course) we heading out to finish the last of the trek on the shore of the Loch. Now, full disclosure, this is when the trail got real-real.

Do NOT let anyone tell you the ‘low road’ between Rowardennan and Inversnaid is hardest, it’s not easy but it’s a doddle (in my opinion) compared to the next 2+ hours we would be spending horizontal scrambling up and over rocks on the precipice of the Loch! Squeezing between rocks and trees, between rocks and rocks, crossing streams and mud and all kinds of trail fun! Mind you, this was not a day for bad knees and darn it half the time the hinges on my knee brace were just wide enough to get stuck where I needed to precariously put my foot. Growl!

Having said that, it was all very fun and beautiful when if loads of work! We were all smiling but also ready for the chance to just walk on something flat for even a few steps.

On the second last beach of this section of trail we lost two of our crew .. the Newfoundland twins just could not resist the siren call of a large body of cool water on a hot day. We left them to dip in and meet up with us later.

And then there were 5, all keen to see the end of this stone scramble staircase shenanigan so we high tailed it through that last section of the stoney trail – taking one last photo at the end of the Loch to celebrate saying goodby to that particular flavor of trail hell.

From there the trail flattened (a little) under foot and wow the views opened right up to such amazing hills – the pictures just cannot do justice to how majestic it all was!

We made quick-ish work of the last section though bracken (pictured above) and forest track for another 2 hours. We were pacing very fast on this last stint – excited to finally find our way to the Drover’s Inn, today’s finish line.

The Drover’s Inn is a pub and hotel established in 1705 and has all the makings of a haunted stay! The Wi-Fi password even has the word Haunted in it! Rob Roy allegedly stayed here when avoiding arrest (there is a room named Rob Roy). I had the pleasure of staying there when I did the West Highland Way the first time in 2008 – an amazing stay but a little ghostie creepy.

After a quick bite and a quick pint or two, our transport arrived to drive us to our B&Bs in Tyndrum for the night. We deserved showers, feet up and a good sleep after the trail work we put in today. Wow!

The stats:

  • Trail: West Highland Way, Scotland
  • Day: 3/8 Finished!
  • To/From: Rowardennan/Tyndrum
  • Start/Finish time: 8:36am/6:11pm
  • Distance: 22km (23.8km Hiiker)
  • Steps: 30,355
  • Terrain: stone steps and bouldering and up and down and crawl and ouch – today is notoriously the toughest day of the Way and it did not disappoint
  • Weather: 22C blue skies, a few clouds to start and finish the day but otherwise it was wow!
  • Breaky: full Scottish breakfast
  • Lunch n Snacks: cheese and pickle sandwich with crisps trail side, naked skittles, cookie, almonds
  • Dinner: haggis, neeps and tatties
  • Pints: 3
  • Tonight’s home: Tigh na Fraoch (heather’s house in Gaelic)
  • Mood: smiling
  • Body: shaking legs after all that work, and sore arms using my hiking poles to full advantage but good sore not pain
  • Highlights: weather was amazing, our hiking crew today was perfection
  • Lowlights: tics
  • People of interest: the lady in reception at Rowardennan telling ghost stories
  • Spontaneous dancing: nope
  • Deep thoughts: just keep swimming

Day 4 we walk from Inverarnan (where Drover’s Inn is) to Tyndrum! Stay tuned.

Brande

West Highland Way, Drymen to Rowardennan

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That’s day 2 of 8 wrapped up on the West Highland Way, we made it from Drymen to Rowardennan. Today was the big Conic Hill climb day and it lived up to its reputation! The extreme winds didn’t help mind you.

The crew started the day with yummy breakfasts in our respective B&Bs and everyone started their day at their own pace and time and somehow a bunch of us still ended up finding each other along the Way.

Cheryl, Charmaine, Shar and I had a great full Scottish breakfast at the Shandon Guest House at 745am then set out for the day at 830. The wind was crazy (kicked up on the middle of the night) and we wondered if it was going to bring the storms or clear the storms.

The day stared with about a Km of road walking and then quickly turned to forest track which was just amazing. A couple of Km into the forest track we were so excited to come upon Kristi and Lori, creating our fantastic crew for the day!

You can see in the background here the infamous Conic Hill, a 371m – our destination from this path! The walking was fantastic through the forest and then moorland paths – the views amazing!

Once we hit the Conic Hill approach, the path got real! So well groomed but it was definitely up and up and up across sand and small rocks with large boulders to step up and reduce erosion. The wind was in our favour pushing us up the hill – thank you!

Once at the trail top, a few of the crew took the additional 5-10mins to the very top of the hill for the 360 views! After a bit of time feeling such gratitude to be standing looking over Loch Lomond with the sun shining on us – we started our way down. The wind continues to blow hard, a couple times I had to lean into the hill – felt like I was gonna blow away.

The way down took me what felt like forever with this knee – I felt really good about myself when kids were running past me in sandals. Great confidence boost! lol

Just after coming down from the Hill, we had a short forest walk and then we arrived in Balmaha, a great little Loch side town, where we had lunch at Oak Tree Inn.

After a great lunch, toasties and pints, we were back on the Way to tackle the 11km to our home for the night, Rowardennan Hotel. The path was forest track or right along the Loch. Other than the clegs (horseflies), midgies and black flies it was a fantastic walk. The up hills were frequent and much tougher than usual thanks to the Conic Hill burn from earlier but wow what an amazing section of the trail!

We arrived at the Hotel at about 5pm, already talking about ghosts seeing the place was established in 1696, and showed up for a nice dinner and rehash of the trail all together!

Brande

Speyside Way, Grantown-on-Spey to Aviemore

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Day 5 of 5 of Speyside Way is complete with our finish line reached in Aviemore, Scotland!

A pleasantly long 26km trek that included a tea break, a lunch break, fantastic trail, amazing scenery, loads of clouds but not a drop of rain – yahoo us! What an epic finish line day.

We started the day from the oh-so-cute Brooklyn Guest House in Grantown-on-Spey and made quick work to back track the couple of blocks to the Way where we would kick off our day on a forest track. Here we filmed our morning video, made some hot-spot compeed fixes on the feet and I did my usual brace strap adjustment process. Walk 20 steps adjust, walk 30 steps adjust, and then onwards and upwards kinda thing. Let’s go!

The first leg of the trek, a nice 9.3km (according to the trail book) took us to Nethy Bridge where we had our sights on a tea and scone with feet up and shoes and socks off. There is nothing better to a hiker than a mid day break followed by dry feet and socks to kick of the next leg.

The trail was easy going through forest and then onto the grassed-over rail track bed and finally some country roads past the Balliefurth Farm. This farm has a little shop in Nethy (where we were headed) but has been featured on menus where we ate in the last couple of days for their beef and chicken and lamb. I may have eaten their yummy friend at the Speyside Hotel the night prior as my Bangers and Mash entree and was a little worried the cows we passed would know. ‘Hey, that lass ate Barry’ was on the tips of their tongues I know it.

We loved that the Farm had a sense of humor with this sign posted at the first gate …

We did not see Fergus sadly, he is quite shy, but imagined hearing him as the steam train went by whistling it’s whistle. Good fun!

Once in Nethy Bridge, we did enjoy that tea and scone, shoes and socks off break and it was amazing. They may have given me too much cream for my scone but who is complaining!? Also what is too much cream?

From Nethy Bridge we were on our way to Boat of Garten, a further 7.7km away through the Abernathy National Nature Reserve. This may be my favorite section of the entire trail. Quiet forest track, well groomed with bird song all around, and we maybe say a half dozen humans! I like trees more than humans lol. I feel so grateful for the chance to hike these hikes and live this life especially when I am on track like this!

At Boat of Garten, after having our sweet (dessert) in Nethy, we grabbed lunch-lunch. A sandwich and small salad with a half pint. We sat outside in mostly sunshine watching hikers and bikers and steam train passengers bustle past the Hotel patio where we hunkered down. We could have stayed all day especially with a sock change and chance to again air out the feet while eating.

From Boat of Garten we were just 9.1km from our finish line in Aviemore. This too proved to be a fantastic section of trail! More forest track, a bridge tunnel or two, and we were walked pretty much along side or in sight of the Strathspey Railway (the historic steam train) almost the whole way.

Knowing we were in reach of the finish line, even if things hurt on the ole body a bit it was nae bother. The conversation was flowing, there may have been some spontaneous singing once or twice, and loads of laughs!

Coming into Aviemore, we headed for our finish for a ‘for the record’ selfie before heading for a celebration pint!

An amazing walk, no bad days to be honest. The usual up and downs, on trail and in our own heads or bodies, but smiles each day and just an overall sense of gratitude to have had a chance to walk the Spey together.

The stats:

  • Trail: Speyside Way, Scotland
  • Day: 5/5 Finished!
  • To/From: Grantown-on-Spey/Aviemore
  • Start/Finish time: 9:06am/5:59pm
  • Distance: 26.5km trail (28.6km All Trails)
  • Steps: 29,020
  • Terrain: flat mixed with undulating
  • Weather: 14C overcast not rain
  • Breaky: Full Scottish Breakfast sans Haggis and Black Pudding
  • Lunch n Snacks: tea w scone/cream/jam and a Brie bacon sandwich w salad
  • Dinner: noodle soup and a ham/cheese croissant
  • Pints: 1
  • Tonight’s home: Eriksay B&B and Glamping
  • Mood: smiling
  • Body: feet are sorest today, crazy heat rash
  • Highlights: the options to stop for a break
  • Lowlights: nothing open for dinner
  • People of interest: the B&B owner from
  • Brooklyn Guest House, just an amazing women so clearly in the right business
  • Funny bone: learning Rosa sings just as much as me
  • Spontaneous dancing: a wee bit
  • Deep thoughts: why wait, eat the cake first

Now we will take a couple days to try and get rid of the heat rash on both of my feet and under my knee brace, see if I can get the swelling down on my right foot so both feet again have an arch and just be plain old tourists for a day or two. Did someone say steam train?

See you in a couple of days when we kick off the West Highland Way. All 12 of us!

Brande

Speyside Way, Ballindalloch to Grantown-on-Spey

/ runningforthegate / 2 Comments

That’s day 4 of 5 in the books for this crew and so far this was our most favourite stage of the Way! A longer one at 21km but with the varied terrain, great conversation and decent weather, so far as all day rain goes, we loved it

Today was animal sitting day, crazy how much we saw – must have been how far away from villages or towns we were most of the time.

  • We stood and watched 4 beautiful Roe Deer check us out, confirm we were not aliens here to harm them and then slowly make their way across our path and walk up into the forest hills. We saw another that stayed just ahead of us on our route for quite some time too.
  • We quickly stopped walking to watch a ‘richness’ of Pine Martens (about 6 of them maybe more) see us, check us out, move on into the grass, stop check us out again, repeat. These guys are officially my favourite – they are like little Meerkats the way they stand up to look over the grass.
  • We actually, believe or not, saw the Red Squirrel. This little guy is going extinct here in Scotland and there is loads of initiatives underway to try and keep them around. We were chatting with an older Scottish women the other day at breakfast and she has never even seen one. We feel so lucky and reported the sighting to the save the squirrels website thing.
  • We also saw quite a few pheasants. One male and quite a few ladies, they were pretty quick to run and hide but we were able to catch a few pics. This was the only sighting where we actually got a decent pic.
  • We of course also saw Sheep (used some of their fields as our path), Cows which we mostly skirted around their fields, and one massive bull that we gave a very very wide berth too. We also saw many a bunny and while cute the holes and tunnels they make in the ground can make for sketchy walking so boo them.
  • Not sighted, but hopes are still high, the hedgehog or the unicorn.

We saw as much of a mix in terrain today as we did the animal kingdom! The day started on a fairy magic path (the overgrown track bed where the railway line used to be) – so green and quiet!

From there we had to make our way up and out of the magical forest through farmland to a path that was so full of bracken and thistle we were well drenched and poked by the time we made it through. The cold rain makes the nettle sting hurt less so that was a bonus!?

We were then back to farmland which was ugh pretty slow going under foot for some time here. The local farmers have set up these corridors (corridors of hell now so named) where they leave about 5 feet between the barbed wire (or electric) fences of one field to the next and that little area is designated the path. Sounds lovely actually … if there was not a chain gate every 100m or less (which are fun the first few times but less so the 20th) and they were not filled with large boulders overgrown with grass on a rainy day.

Slippery, ankle-breaker paths make for slow work! We celebrated and picked up to our normal pace when the boulders were to the side, then slowed and happily grumbled when they were underfoot again.

After the corridors of hell it was time for our first break of the day, we found a sheltered spot under a nice tree to stand and eat a half sandwich, some chips for salt and a few Skittles for my dessert. Too wet and no where to sit for a proper break where you take off the boots, feet up, switch the socks. We will regret the lack of proper break later of course as all hikers do, but we are still smiling so nae bother!

From there we headed up and up through farmland, across a fantastic bridge, past Mr Muscle the Bull and back into our favorite place to be – the woods!

After the woods we headed back down (steep) through some farmland then into some more woodland which we stayed in for quite some time and then finally some more farmland to start making our way past the first civilization we actually saw today.

A little village called Cromdale – where the old train station has been reverted to someone’s house. We have seen most of the old train stations done up this way. So neat!

We were still not done. Channelling our inner Dori … just keep walking just keep walking! We had a fantastic (but felt long being the end of a big day) walk through the Anagach Woods that connects Cromdale with Grantown-on-Spey our home for the night.

Speaking of home for the night. We are at the Brooklyn Guest House and it is amazing! The lady who runs it is so sweet, the rooms are fantastic (carpet in the bathroom is weird but kind of oddly nice at the same time) and we both slept so well. Important stuff when we have 23km to cover on our last day!

  • Trail: Speyside Way, Scotland
  • Day: 4/5
  • To/From: Ballindalloch/Grantown-on-Spey
  • Start/Finish time: 9:48am/5:24pm
  • Distance: 21.1 trail (24.3km Hiiker App)
  • Steps: 29,020
  • Terrain: up then down then up then across slippery stones then a boardwalk then up then down
  • Weather: 12C rain all day
  • Breaky: Full Scottish Breakfast sans Haggis and Black Pudding
  • Lunch n Snacks: 1/2 Mature Cheddar Sammie w Prawn Crisps, Skittles
  • Dinner: bangers and mash
  • Pints: 2
  • Tonight’s home: Brooklynn Guest House
  • Mood: smiling
  • Body: feeling sore today, the knee is not impressed with today’s activities
  • Highlights: all the local animal sightings: sheep and cow of course but also pine martin, the elusive red squirrel, bunnies, row deer, osprey, pheasants
  • Lowlights: no sunny breaks
  • People of interest: the Old Man of Glasgow hiking the trail and wild camping that was just so chatty and kind (and maybe got lost once but found the trail and is again)
  • Funny bone: realizing that you maybe do like singing but no one should ever know
  • Spontaneous dancing: too soggy
  • Deep thoughts: why not do the good stuff first, just go, just do!

See you when we report in on Day 5 of 5! Today we have about as much chance of sunshine as we do seeing that unicorn 😉

Brande

Speyside Way, Craigellachie to Ballindalloch

/ runningforthegate / 1 Comment

Wrapped day 3 of 5 on the Speyside Way with a flat, flat, very flat walk from Craigellachie to Ballindalloch today.

After a near full Scottish Breakfast (missing the haggis and black pudding), we left the Highlander Inn and walk literally a few steps to join back up with the Speyside Way where we left it yesterday.

The day started flat and stayed flat for us ALL day – a speed bump would have been exciting! But no complaints here, it was a well groomed path along the river (in some places so close you could hear the water rushing over the rocks) that connects small village to the next and made for such easy walking!

To make the 19.6 flat terrain a little more entertaining we started to map ahead the number of kilometers to the next milestone – a bridge, a tunnel, a train station turned into someone’s home, a church, etc! Definitely some gems enroute!

We stopped at Dailuaine Halt for our 11-sies break. This was a train station in year’s past but there are no longer any buildings although it still boasts a very nice picnic table that we enjoyed. Then we stopped at Tamdhu for our 2-sies break which was also a train station and still has buildings but they are now a classy whisky tasting room.

As we were wrapping up our walk we crossed a long, amazing aqueduct bridge – so long and really just a great finish to a long day.

We arrived at our pick up spot, Ballindalloch Station (now someone’s home), 30mins earlier than the arranged time. Luck was on our side though, the taxi also arrived early just a few minutes later! We are staying at the same place as last night, The Highlander Inn, so will taxi back tonight and tomorrow the taxi will drive us back to the Station to start again!

The threat of rain was real all day! We lucked out through, despite a few short stints of mist and pretty ominous clouds all day breaking up across the blue sky, we stayed dry all day! The strong winds kept the clouds moving on. Perhaps this explains the heat rash on both feet and under my knee brace 😦 booo!

We wrapped up the day with a pint on the sunny deck at The Highlander Inn. Maybe a nap, maybe some reading, maybe some social media scrolling and for sure some fish and chips followed.

The stats:

  • Trail: Speyside Way, Scotland
  • Day: 3/5
  • To/From: Craigallachie/Ballindalloch
  • Start/Finish time: 10:09am/3:31pm
  • Distance: 19.6km trail (20.1km Hiiker App)
  • Steps: 21,046
  • Terrain: flat, flat, so very flat
  • Weather: 14C Overcast w Wind
  • Breaky: Full Scottish Breakfast sans Haggis and Black Pudding
  • Lunch n Snacks: banana, cookies, 1/2 Mature Cheese on White Bread with Prawn crisps
  • Dinner: Fish and Chips
  • Pints: 3
  • Tonight’s home: Highlander Inn
  • Mood: happy big style
  • Body: feeling great knee does not hate me, rest of the body is loving this but the heat rash could tone it down a little please
  • Highlights: taxi arriving at near the exact same time we did end of day (30mins early)
  • Lowlights: Rosa feeling all blah
  • People of interest: the nice old gramp that recommend the vanilla and raspberry scone, told us it has no calories; and the distiller dad at the bar chatting up how fantastic his kids are
  • Funny bone: discovering you are sitting next to a cabinet of whisky bottles that all cost a 1000bucks then you proceed to elbow the thing putting your sweater on
  • Spontaneous dancing: stay tuned for tomorrow on this one

We are off to Grantown-on-Spey tomorrow!

Brande

Speyside Way, Fochabers to Craigellachie

/ runningforthegate / 3 Comments

Today is day 2 of 5 on the trail for us, walking the 21km from Fochabers to our new place to stay in Craigellachie at The Highlander.

A day of classic Scottish weather for us. Aka you don’t know what you are going to get from one minute to the next but you at least know the rain is never quite done with you. Keeping on eye the trail and one on the sky today we made our way across 10km of minor roads and the rest 11km rest forest track and woodland path. Putting on and taking off our waterproofs as often as the trail switches from flat to steady incline.

We started the day back at the Speyside Way path just a couple of blocks from Gordon Arms Hotel in great, only overcast conditions. T-shirt’s and sunnies! The first long stretch of minor road was ahead of us first, about 6km I would say. A nice wide section with almost 0 cars making for easy walking and great conversation as we walked along.

From there, the path turned to take us along some farms, a fantastic country mansion (who rudely didn’t not even notice us passing or invite us in for a tour and a tea despite our thinking they most definitely should) and then into forest track for a lot of kilometers.

There was a great view point along route called Earth Pillars where you could look over the Speyside River and compare how it looks today with a photo from the exact spot in our guide book from 1983. Still impressive but wow so different. There was a fly fisherman in the picture and one today … thinking it’s not the same guy or has at least gone home a few times between then and now for snacks.

Before heading up, up, up hill into the forest we first passed Boat O’Brig Bridge. The bridge was named over 400 years ago when the bridge of the Spey River collapsed and the ferry had to float over the bridge remains .. boat over bridge. We took a micro break at this spot and even got to see a train cross this beauty.

The ever climbing, most gently and some sections not quite as gentle, took us up to the shoulder of Knock More and then Ben Aigan. Don’t be too impressed yet. Yes, a Ben is a Mountain here but they are not what our Canadian readers would consider a mountain, aka the Rocky Mountains. Ben Aigan is just 471m high. So a fantastic workout but not anything sketchy for this gal who hates heights.

We rambled along the shoulder of Ben Aigan for quite some time rewarded with great views over lush farmland with far views of the coast where we started our day just yesterday.

Some kind soul put a picnic table along the route tucked nicely off the track – the sun was shining as we passed so of course we had our 2-sies stop here. (2-sies is afternoon or second break and often around 2pm. Not to be confused with 11-sies which is morning break and often around 11am and may or may not be the favourite break of hobbits).

We took full advantage of the bench and break in the clouds to get the feet up, get socks dried or new dry socks on, and give my bum knee a little time off too.

From there we had a long, gentle decline along forest track and then minor road for the rest of the afternoon. This section, as warned by the guidebook, did get a little monotonous but great conversation, random dance moves, short bursts of song lyrics, taking off and putting back on rain gear, and munching on naked Skittles broke it up quite nicely.

As we came back into civilization at the end of the day we stumbled upon the Fiddichside Inn. This Inn was built in 1842 and first served as a place for refreshment (think whisky) for rail workers, then expanded to an Inn and is now still a tiny wee pub (maybe 20 x 10 feet) with a huge deck with picnic tables for those rare sunny days and an Air BnB on the backside.

A great decision to stop! The gran (Gail) behind the bar was so fantastic. She was telling stories about the bar’s history to us and in such thick Scottish with all the ken’s instead of know’s and dinnae’s instead of did not’s and w’ instead of with and more. Love!

We tried to get a photo with Gail but she would have no such thing and instead took a photo of us behind the bar – Rosa got to get up close and personal with the whisky she was tasting! I on the other hand discovered Speyside Way Lager. Yummy!

After our pints, we walked the 500m along the River path to our accommodation and accidentally had another pint on their porch before some dinner, showers and a tuck into bed to rest up for our walk to Ballindalloch!

A few stats for ye:

Trail: Speyside Way, Scotland

Day: 2/5

To/From: Fochabers/Craigallachie

Start/Finish time: 9:28am/5:36pm

Distance: 21km trail (21.1km Hiiker App)

Steps: 27,653

Terrain: gentle climbs and declines (forest track, 10km of minor road)

Weather: 14C Overcast w Rain and Sun

Breaky: Full Scottish Breakfast

Lunch n Snacks: Mature Cheese on White Bread with French Onion crisps and baked Skittles

Dinner: Mac & Cheese

Pints: 4

Tonight’s home: Highlander Inn

Mood: happy

Body: feeling great but getting grief from the right knee

Highlights: The Fiddichside Inn

Lowlights: road walking

People of interest: Gail the barkeep at Fiddichside Inn, and Whiskey the poodle

Funny bone: Ordiequish the Octopus

Spontaneous dancing: seldom, damn rain

Deep thoughts: a good marriage includes remembering your wife’s Starbucks order

Brande

Speyside Way, Buckie to Fochabers

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We kicked off the Speyside Way today and could not have asked for a better day! After a full Scottish Breakfast at the Struan House B&B in Cluny Square of Buckie, we left our front door at 930am and literally walked steps to the official start of the way!

After a brief photo shoot and video upload to Instagram, we started the first 8km along the coast, skirting between side streets to stay close to the water as we searched the waves for bottle-nose dolphins, and minke whales. We didn’t find any of those but found a Mecca of harbour and grey seals – did you know they sing? It’s amazing and really unsettling actually it sounds so mournful. But so cool!

We wrapped up the coastal portion / half way in our day with some time at the Dolphin Centre were we enjoyed the hospitality of a warm cafe with such kind servers. We loved the scone with clotted cream and raspberry jam they served us. Washed down with a hot pot of tea, of course! Perfect warm up before heading out again to finish part 2 of the day.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, 8kms and about 3 hours kitted out in waterproofs but we were not bothered. The temp was great and the rain was only moderate not the torrential sideways stuff this country is know for! The rain started almost as soon as we left the Dolphin Centre so we even had a nice warm, dry spot to get our waterproofs on!

The afternoon had a fantastic detour (about 300m off trail) to this very long and neat aqueduct bridge! We loved it and just had to spend a bit of time taking some very cool photos. We had the place to ourselves which was fantastic!

After the bridge, we were on a well covered and flat forest path with loads of pine trees, rich ferns and some beautiful wild flowers that stood out so bright against the grey sky and green backdrop. Rosa snapped some of her epic flora pics!

We wrapped up our second 8km at just after 3pm when we arrived at our accommodation for the night, Gordon Arms Hotel, just a block of the trail. A tired but neat and clean 18th century hotel with creeky floors and ghostie vibes!

Along our way we met some great locals. The man walking Suki the greyhound / husky dog who told us about the seals in the harbour and whereto look for them; and the nice lady in the dream home built on the water who gave us the history of how she received the land from a fisherman’s bothy owner; and the amazing lady at the Dolphin Centre who was so kind and dropped off Rosa’s hiking poles to is at the hotel! She was not even coming through Fochabers but made a detour for us!

The stats …

Trail: Speyside Way, Scotland

Day: 1/5

To/From: Buckie/Fochabers

Start/Finish time: 9:30am/3:19pm

Distance: 16km trail (18.9km Hiiker App)

Steps: 28,557

Terrain: flat (forest track, tarmac, trail)

Weather: 16C Overcast AM, Rain PM

Breaky: Full Scottish Breakfast

Lunch n Snacks: Scone w Clotted Cream and Raspberry Jam, Sour Kids

Dinner: Steak and Ale Pie w Chips

Pints: 2

Tonight’s home: Gordon Arms Hotel

Mood: happy as all heck

Body: feeling great, right knee (torn PCL) misbehaving only a little

Highlights: seals singing!

Lowlights: lost poles

People of interest: Suki the dog) and her owner who told us all about the seal on the coast line

Funny bone: ‘special’

Spontaneous dancing: at least a few times

Deep thoughts: walk for the walk, the sights, the feels, the smells .. not for the finish line

A day to be grateful for and we assure you the gratitude was running deep! We had fun, we feel good, we are reminded of human kindness and the amazing places we are so blessed to hike through. Wow, what a day!

Tomorrow we are off to Craigallachie!

Brande

Speyside Way Starts Tomorrow

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After some bumps in Rosa’s travel plans (thank you airport power outage in Calgary), Rosa and I have finally arrived together in the small coastal town of Buckie, Scotland where we will start the Speyside Way tomorrow!

The Speyside Way is a 106km (66mile) ramble from Buckie on the North Coast of Scotland down to Aviemore, a fantastic little ski town in the Cairngorms mountain range. The route is never far from the Speyside River which feeds the many distilleries along the Way. A wee dram for ye lass? Yes please!

I have the pleasure of walking this one with Rosa my sis-in-law-law and we are here in Buckie staying at the Straun House B&B (so cute, they even have teddy bears!) getting out gear ready for tomorrow – our first day on the trail!

Our next 5 days on the Speyside Way looks a little like this:

  • Day 1, Buckie to Fochabers, 16km
  • Day 2 Fochabers to Craigellachie, 23km
  • Day 3 Craigallachie to Ballindollach, 19km
  • Day 4 Ballindollach to Grantown-on-Spey, 23.5km
  • Day 5 Grantown-on-Spey to Aviemore, 26.5km (the finish line!)

Tomorrow we have a nice 8km walk along an ocean path where we will hit a dolphin centre that boats dolphins, otters and seals … and a cafe where I will be looking for a cuppa (tea or coffee) .. and then another 8km along the Speyside River to a small town of Fochabers. A nice warm up to the days ahead.

The weather is looking fine for tomorrow’s walk, 50% chance of rain (that’s basically a dry day for Scotland) and a high of 17C (perfect hiking temp). We will be sure to have our rain gear on hand when we head out in the am.

I will be posting a before we start walking, highlights from the trail video and after we finish walking videos on the Running for the Gate insta and new YouTube – see ya soon!

Brande

Excitement or Anxiety or Bit of Both

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In the build to a big trip, or even a small one, sometimes excitement can start to feel a little bit like worry, or nerves or even anxiety. Don’t let this dampen the joy of your pre-departure prep. Instead focus on the things you can control about your adventure to ground any anxious thoughts – what you pack, what you plan, how you prep, etc.

My good friend Niki, trail name Spicy Hobbit (and her rockstar mom) are part of the crew I will be hiking the West Highland Way (WHW) in Scotland with this summer. Their first time in Alba and first time shifting their day hikes into a long distance, 8 day hike. Niki joins us today as our guest blogger sharing her excitement about our adventure …

Scotland! I can’t wait for this trip. Scotland has been at the top of my list of places to go in the world, since I was young. I never in a million years thought I’d be going in this way, to hike the WHW with friends and my 71 yr old mom.

What a way to see a country, I can’t wait to smell the air, see the countryside, look at the trees and sites, take in the history, taste the food, listen to the accent, talk with the people, enjoy the music and drink the whiskey. Not only am I hiking the WHW, my mom and I are going on a wee road trip after the hike. We can’t come all this way to not see where my mom’s family is from.

As soon as the deposit for the hike was put down, the planning was in full gear. First thing that was recommended for me to do was book the places to stay. The hike is being organized and booked by Contours, I have to plan and organize everything mother and I do after the hike. Being summer when we go, most places will be booked. So I researched, wrote, lists, compared prices, checked out locations and details for a month. Next, the car rental. After researching the roads I will be driving, prices, days needed for, pick up and drop off, I settled on a manual, which I haven’t driven in 20 yrs, yes I will be practicing before.

Getting the important things booked for the side trip, I then focused on my backpack. The pack I will take across the pond, carry on the hike and around Scotland. I had to get the right fit because everyone knows size does matter. Once my backpack was purchased I started to make lists of clothing to take and toiletries and extras. I have stuff sacks to keep my clothing organized and tidy. I have been pre packing and continuing to make revised lists. I dont want to take too much or not enough. Plus the excitement of the trip makes me play in my pre packing. Apparently this is stuff you do just weeks before not months, clearly I can’t wait for this trip and want to make sure I have all I need.

I have a book about the WHW and have gone through highlighted things to see along the way, or take note of, where we are walking to or by also taking notes of things to look out for or see along the way, I don’t want to miss anything. I have also done the same for after the hike, of the places my mom and I will be going to. I may be stuffing too much into so few days but I’d rather have a taste of it than not at all!

As we approach the 3 months to go marker, my anxiety and excitement are colliding, am I organized enough, have I prepared all of my essentials, is there much more I can get or do to prepare, are we there yet????

The anticipation is driving me mad, and then I think I hope it doesn’t go too fast? Remember to stop smell, breathe, look and take in the moments.

Niki