Bienglas Farm to Bridge of Orchy

The morning brought a dryer outlook to the day than yesterdays did. While dark gray clouds still hung around in the sky, there were more patches of blue this morning than the day before. After a nice big traditional english breakfast I grabbed my backpack and set off at a later-than-usual start time of 8:30 am.

Puddles littered the trail and made it quite the zig-zagging-game of avoiding them. Once or twice I skimmed the tops of puddles while trying to hop between them but I wasn't going to let that get me down. A slightly wet shoe toebox is better than a fully soaked shoe.

Waterfalls and rivers were in full rage this morning after the deluge of rain. It made some crossings a little sketchy by having to balance on top of large rocks in the rivers waters, but overall it wasn't too bad. I soon left these raging watery challenges behind as the trail ascended into dryer pastures.

Most of the morning was spent hiking through yellow grass fields and hills, with the occasional ruins of a building popping up on either side of the trail. Eager to put my good fortune with the weather to use, and being in happier spirits thanks to fully dry/clean clothing and a full belly, I started to walk at a brisk pace.

By 11 am I was up above the fields I had been walking through for the past 2.5 hours, and had wide views of the mountains and hills around me. The clouds on the other hand were not being so cooperative and had thickened throughout the morning and were now threatening rain once more. Luckily no rain was falling yet, and instead of a fog was beginning to descend.

After walking above the fields for a short amount of time the trail took a turn down and into some thinly-needled pine woods that slowly transitioned to some confifer trees. There were lovely little streams running through it, and the colors were really popping in here. It was a very pleasant walk through fog and trees and whatnot. But this lovely experience ended about an hour after entering the woods, because the exit from here was a massive section of deforestation. What a terrible thing to have on a national scenic trail.

Over and under stone bridges, through more short stretches of woods, until I was once again walking through wide-open fields of green flanked by mountains on either side. Truly a beautiful site, even with the heavy clouds.

By 12:30 pm I had reached the place I was originally planning to stay at, but becuase I was in such good spirits and the clouds were slowly going away, I decided to keep going and head for a popular spot, and the place I was going to go to the following day: the town called Bridge of Orchy. At 1:30 pm I came to a large town and grabbed some lunch at a restaurant. An hour later and I was off.

Bright sunshine was now in abundance as I took the trail out of town and back into the mountains. Massive and impressive formations of mountains and hills dominated the views around me. The trail after the town was really wide, and practically level for the entire rest of the day. Needless to say, at my brisk pace I was making great time and covering a lot of distance.

I walked into Bridge of Orchy around 4:30 pm, tired and exhausted after such a long day of walking. The spot for camping in this town was along the river that ran alongside it, next to the bridge the town is named after. The only buildings in this town were a church and an inn that you could stay at, but I opted for camping. It took a little while to find a level spot to set up, but eventually I found something. There were also a good amount of other people camping here as well. And there was a proper bathroom since a lot of people were also parking their RV's here. I snapped some photos of the bridge, and the surrounding countryside, made some dinner, and let my feet recover while sitting at a park table in the small camping area with some other hikers.

Rain started to fall around 7pm, which meant it was time to retreat and get inside of the tent. Only two more days left now, and today was a great day.