Hike!
I finally got outside for a while. It was sort of rainy the whole time with some patches of amazing sunshine and vibrant countryside. I'm afraid my pictures on the camera won't do it justice and the iPod photos/videos are being stubborn and won't come off the device. Anyway.. Dr. Julie Rattray and her partner Ronnie picked me up from the dormitories this morning at 9:00. We drove up past several Lochs (no, not the famous one with the monster in it). We jumped out at one and I took the first picture here.
The second picture is of a salt Loch that goes all the way out to the ocean. The hike started out with a few brisk switchbacks. These switchbacks then met up with an old jeep road and quickly straightened out for a while for a easy ascent for about 600 meters. Ronnie's GPS was handy at telling us how far up we had gone. Total ascent for the climb was around 1000 meters, total distance around 8 miles, done in about four hours!
The low parts of the hike ended up being a well beaten path with some large stones and gravel. Higher up, stone slabs were cut into steps and made for a relatively easy ascent, if not taxing for climbing more stairs than I could count. Dr. Rattray and Ronnie told me about how the Scottish Forestry division had been culturing pine here since the 1950s (I think?) and that they plant and clearcut every so often. I could see the remnants of the old pines in downed trees left to rot and old stumps greater than 2ft in diameter.
Once we got higher up, the trees disappeared and were replaced with thick grassy areas with small shrubs. Apparently, treeline is very low altitude in Scotland even though things were already starting to green up. Large slab faces required some scrambling, but it wasn't until after we reached the summit and began coming down the other side that real scrambling began.
Well, those pictures and video are on the iPod, which I will try to get uploaded as soon as I figure out where free WiFi will allow me to email them to myself... This last picture is on the way back on Loch Lomand. Cool tree.
I finally got outside for a while. It was sort of rainy the whole time with some patches of amazing sunshine and vibrant countryside. I'm afraid my pictures on the camera won't do it justice and the iPod photos/videos are being stubborn and won't come off the device. Anyway.. Dr. Julie Rattray and her partner Ronnie picked me up from the dormitories this morning at 9:00. We drove up past several Lochs (no, not the famous one with the monster in it). We jumped out at one and I took the first picture here.
The second picture is of a salt Loch that goes all the way out to the ocean. The hike started out with a few brisk switchbacks. These switchbacks then met up with an old jeep road and quickly straightened out for a while for a easy ascent for about 600 meters. Ronnie's GPS was handy at telling us how far up we had gone. Total ascent for the climb was around 1000 meters, total distance around 8 miles, done in about four hours!
The low parts of the hike ended up being a well beaten path with some large stones and gravel. Higher up, stone slabs were cut into steps and made for a relatively easy ascent, if not taxing for climbing more stairs than I could count. Dr. Rattray and Ronnie told me about how the Scottish Forestry division had been culturing pine here since the 1950s (I think?) and that they plant and clearcut every so often. I could see the remnants of the old pines in downed trees left to rot and old stumps greater than 2ft in diameter.
Once we got higher up, the trees disappeared and were replaced with thick grassy areas with small shrubs. Apparently, treeline is very low altitude in Scotland even though things were already starting to green up. Large slab faces required some scrambling, but it wasn't until after we reached the summit and began coming down the other side that real scrambling began.
Well, those pictures and video are on the iPod, which I will try to get uploaded as soon as I figure out where free WiFi will allow me to email them to myself... This last picture is on the way back on Loch Lomand. Cool tree.
Looks like you had an amazing day! Thanks for sharing the cool pictures!
ReplyDeleteOK seems ur having way too much fun in my most favorite country in the world so knock off!
ReplyDeleteI heard a joke today. If you ken see it, it's gonna rain soon, if you cannae, it is already raining.
ReplyDeleteGosh, you are certainly jumping in quickly. I really appreciate these terrific descriptions. I must say, Mom and I probably need to replicate this trip (sans the lab stuff) in our future. Dad
DeleteThese photos make me want to run through the hills with a broadsword screaming "There can only be one!!".
ReplyDeleteNessie is not a monster!
ReplyDelete