Even with the all the conveniences of the hostel and a dry indoor night, the pouring rain was still challenging. Once again we were sharing tables with fellow hikers at breakfast. A British couple and German girl that we were now become familiar faces as we made our way to fort William. Somehow midges were also swarming in rain. Maybe its the adversity the stimulates the uplifting conversation, but we found ourselves engaged in a conversation with the hikers from Britain. Turns out they were on their "shakeout" hike for their upcoming 500 mile hike through the Pyrenes in August. Coincidentally, I happened to be thinking about the permit I had secured for the John Muir trail in August. It's pouring rain, 50 deg F, and we are discussing our upcoming hikes in Sunny warm dry climates with no midges. The Pyrenes sound great and I immediately started looking at those trails.
Our companion from Hong Kong was having some foot and boot problems. Unbelievably, her Topo trailventure 2 WP boots had delaminated across the midsole. I wear the same boots and have not had that problem. It lead to her trying a glue repair that was not great. So, she was going to catch a ride to get her 10 miles up the trail. The pouring rain helped her make that decision too.
We had a 20 miler ahead of us in the rain. Even with the luggage service, we were still carrying our regular multi day packs filled with raingear, technology, clothes, and lunch. It all needed to be protected in the rain. We use the Z packs dyneema covers. They are fine but in a downpour, but need to be adequately wrapped tightly around the pack. Pretty much everything in our packs is in dyneema dry bags, but a few miscellaneous things can still get wet if the pack covers aren't quite right. My Nikon Z50 mirrorless camera gets double protected in the pouring rain. I use the Hyperlite dyneema camera bag which is waterproof, but I also put the camera inside another dyneema dry bag when its a downpour. Unfortunately, this means no pictures for the hike. My drone also resides in a dyneema dry bag.
We were hiking in our goretex jackets and quick drying hiking pants. A combination that had worked so far in. This rain storm was challenging that clothing combination as wet pants were feeling like chaffing and some irritation might occur from the movement. The debate regarding switching to sil rain pants ensued. We can hike so much faster unencumbered by solid rain pants. Ultimately, by the time we were at the bridge of Orchy we hoped for the best and simply peeled off an upper body layer at the train platform. The sil stayed in our packs.
We walked town into town and considered stopping for a bathroom and water break at the bridge of Orchy hotel. The hotel seemed a bit busy with non hikers since it is right on busy A82. So, we hiked over Mam Carraigh at 1184' ft into Inveroran. We met quite a few day hikers ascending this hill. There were not any views over the surrounding hills and lochs due to the socked in rainy conditions.
The decision to hike over into Inveroran for our lunch break really worked out. The Inveroran hotel, bar, and wee shop was perfect for hikers. We had a bathroom break, found a good sandwich, water, and sat inside out of the rain. A real treat to have a fresh lunch instead of our nuts and fish jerky from our food bags.
There was a nice wild camping area just past the hotel on the river. After that we were quickly on the Drover's road heading up and across the moor. The road is uneven rocks. Somehow with right step frequency a decent pace can be managed across this road. Though it can be a challenge with a misstep leading to some uncomfortable joint motion.
With rain slowing to a drizzle and approaching Glencoe Mt. I was able to pull my camera out of the drybag and take a few pictures. The check in at Glencoe Mt. was easy and our duffels were waiting for us. We were told to get our food orders in quickly at the cafe because it was late. No worries, we had all our dinners in our duffel. The provided hot pot mean not using the stove to rehydrate our meals
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