Glencoe

Glencoe, a two hour bus ride from Glasgow, is a stunning part of the Scottish highlands. My jaw dropped the moment we entered the valley, because the view was so incredible. Unfortunately, the hikes we had read about in books were only accessible by car, so we got off at the Glencoe Visitor Centre and asked the ranger where we could hike that was within walking distance.

He pointed at a mountain outside and said, "How about that one? Almost no one goes up there, and you have to make your own way up because there are no trails." It didn't look that tall, so we decided to follow his suggestion.

Once we started the hike, we realized how tough and steep it was. There were no trails, so we had to walk through bushes and grass that were up to my knees. We had to adopt a "monster walk", with our arms out, legs bent, and backs hunched over, to keep our balance. There were many times when we were basically scrambling up the mountain, with plants right in my face.  But the ranger was right - the view was amazing!

Going down was hard work, and I was pretty miserable. We spent probably 40% of our way down on our hands and butts, because it was incredibly steep (Leonard later looked at the topographical map and determined that we had gone up and down the steepest part of the mountain). I had rashes up to my elbows because of all the vegetation I was sliding down on. I probably put my hands on sheep poop, which was everywhere.

The worst part was that when we arrived at the bottom, we ended up about a kilometre away from where we wanted to be. The grass, which looked so harmless from far away, was my biggest enemy. It hid the uneven ground and there were times when I stepped on it, expecting flat ground, and ended up a foot below where I thought the ground was. The visitor centre looked impossibly far away, but we made it eventually, exhausted and incredibly dirty.

I have hiked up much steeper mountains (this one was only about 600m tall) and for longer periods of time, but this was definitely the hardest hike I have ever been on. Not having a trail is tough!