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September 23 & 24 – Days 5 and 6 of Hike in Scotland – Mountains and Moors
Days 5 and 6, 19 mile and 9 mile legs respectively, is very remote hiking. This part of the hike offers up close and personal views of the surrounding mountains while walking through beautiful glens and moors. On Day 5 we hike from Tyndrum to Kingshouse, where we stay at the Kingshouse hotel. This will be our longest day. Part of our group could not hike today due to a cold and injuries – Elizabeth (bad cold), Rolf (Achilles) and Mary (foot). Soon after leaving Tyndrum, we skirt the steep sides of Beinn Odhar to the right with the pyramid of Beinn Dorain sitting ahead, a companion all the way across the floor of the beautiful…
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Days 4 and 5 – Hiking along North Loch Lomond and Rivers in Scotland
On the third day of our hike we left Rowardennan and continue north along the remote eastern shore of Loch Lomond for 13 miles to Ardleish, where we take a ferry at the end of the day to Ardlui, which is across the lake on the Western Shore, where we will spend the night and have dinner at the Ardlui Hotel. I want to stress that none of these locations are what I would call villages. They consist of a few houses and a hotel. This section of the hike follows the northern, very remote section of Loch Lomond where the waters plunge to a depth of 620 feet and…
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Days 2 & 3 – Lowlands to Highlands of Scotland – September 19 & 20, 2022
Day 2 – After spending our first day in Scotland in Edinburgh and Glasgow, we started day two on the first leg of our hike on the West Highland Way. We would hike 12 miles from Milngavie – pronounced ‘Mull-guy’ to Drymen. At 8:45 a.m. we left Milngavie and headed north, passing Mugdock Castle before emerging into open countryside, where the Campsie Fells (hills) could be seen in the distance. After passing relatively small Craigallian loch (lake) on the right, we stopped at a small monument along the trail where we took a break. As the Way approached Drymen, we walked through small hills and a small but heavily wooded…
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Scotland/Switzerland/Germany Trip – Day 1, September 18th
Yesterday Elizabeth and I flew from Richmond to JFK before taking an overnight flight to Edinburgh, Scotland. Upon our arrival, we collected our luggage and headed to the center of town to have lunch with Susan and Suthy, who now live near Edinburgh. Susan and Suthy had hosted me and our sons at The New Club in St. Andrews when we attended the British Open during our Great Britain Trip in the summer. So, it was great to see them again so soon. And they had not seen Elizabeth since our hike together in Provence, France in 2017. During lunch Suthy explained to me that the Scots are as divided as Americans are on…
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Buckwheat – 9.10.22
I was home from college for the summer the day I got the call that my cousins had been in a terrible car wreck. Both had been taken to the hospital and were in serious condition with severe spinal injuries. As I processed this, I thought of Buckwheat and the choices he sometimes made. And then I thought of Troy. At thirteen years old, Troy had begun to play in some summer softball tournaments with Buckwheat, who was nineteen. An incredible baseball player, Troy had a promising future. But I sometimes wondered if Troy was spending too much time with Buckwheat. Although I was close to Troy, it was my…
