Finally, the story.

I may have walked as far as 75km on the weekend of the previous entry, with a little under 6000m of ascent... I started at Tyndrum, walked over to Killin and back to Crianlarich (the rail stop before Tyndrum going North, not very far away). About 50 hours, Saturday afternoon until Monday afternoon. For future trips, it's useful for me to note that the limiting factor seems to be my feet, not my legs. At a slow, steady pace, my thighs can crank out plenty of ascent long after I first think they feel tired, but my feet need care.

Behind all this was my recent purchase of a bivvy bag. Such an item comes free with a light-weight easy-going philosophy (I found The Book of the Bivvy inspiring). Pack bivvy-bag and sleeping bag in a small (25L) backpack, chuck in some dried food and a little water, and because it's Scotland and the weather looks particularly changeable, a full set of waterprooofs; pick out a route on the map, sling bag on back and hop on the train.

I started out on Saturday afternoon, heading off over a couple of Munros, with nobody to be seen. Having never bivvied out before, I was worried about the weather, whether I would comfortably sleep, and so on; rain heavy enough to get the waterproof top and trousers on for made me a little nervous. Being as good a place to get wet as any, I headed up a Corbett in the late evening. Before I reached the top, the rain had stopped, and I was able to sleep out on the very summit without so much as a drop of rain.

There's a lot of daylight in a Scottish summer's day, and when you sleep out on the top of a hill, you can make the most of it... I woke up when it got light (4am), and headed off. The first hill was a little cloudy, but the sun was out by the time I climbed the second. Then I crossed over onto the Tarmachan ridge, where I saw the first people since I started up the hill the day before. And what a different experience! From wandering alone over the hillsides to following a big well-maintained path, greeting fellow walkers every few steps. The sun was by now beating down, and many were out making the most of it on a very popular hill.

I left the beaten path at the end of the ridge, and descended directly to Killin. And found it a fairly depressing place. I bought a little fruit from the co-op, and headed back up the hill. With a couple of hours of daylight left and protesting feet, I wandered along a flat boggy area (these hills are all quite peaty) to an acceptable place to lie down just before the climb.

Amusingly, after such a hot sunny day (my skin has only just lost the colour from that day), it rained overnight. Surprisingly, a full night of light rain is not particularly unpleasent in a non-waterproof bag; I was tired enough to have a good night's sleep, and my sleeping bag was wet on the outside, but not inside. I was so tired I woke later this time; slept in until almost 4.30!

When it gets light, there's no point lying around looking at the sky when you could start off, so I did. I was very surprised to sit up and see white—it had snowed overnight! That morning I followed a pleasent and complex twisting ridge mostly above the snowline (which was at most 100m above where I slept). An icy wind is uncomfortable if you're slightly sunburnt... At points there was low visibility, but otherwise it was very satisfying to look out over the valley to the North, and see the long line of hills I walked over the previous two days...

The last few hours were somewhat painful, and I suspect if I wrote this entry earlier this would play a much bigger part than it does now. Memory is so biased! Anyway, I had the problem of walking a long distance with wet feet, which is damaging and eventually painful. Carrying spare socks is nice, but eventually the problem of wet boots catches up with you, and there was no shortage of wet, boggy ground on these hills. Descent from the last hill, over a vast boggy area and down along the road into Crianlarich was painful and pitifully slow. Keep going to get it over with... I crossed under the railway line in time to see both halves of the train I intended to catch go by, whereas if I could just walk at a normal pace I could have caught it easily.

Eventually I got there, had a coffee and cake at the station tearoom, and the long wait for a train I referred to earlier. I've not been out on the hills yet since then, but my blisters have finally healed and I've forgotton there's any hard work involved, so it's about time to do so again.

Wonder if it'll be too hot this weekend.