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Kingshouse to Kinlochleven (9 miles)
This was the shortest leg of the trip and the weather forecast had been consistently unpromising. However by Wednesday night, it was beginning to look like the worst of the rain would be done by midday and since we didn't have to checkout until 11am we opted to remain in our infeasibly large room (admittedly without much of the luggage) until 11am.
It was raining pretty steadily as we left. The first hour was spent walking more or less alongside the A82 through Glencoe. Then, just as the rain began to ease off, we swung right and began to climb out of the glen up the Devil's staircase (which even the guide book admitted was not as bad as it sounded).
The Devil's staircase took us up to a saddle and then for a walk in the lee of the hill. The rain having stopped and the hill protecting us from the wind, we had our first real midge attack. It was mostly fine, so long as we kept moving. Our B&B host for the night reported that a horrendous swarm of midges had come through earlier in the season and it wasn't too bad now. Once we rounded the hill and were face to the wind, the midges got blown away. We started a slowish descent over a number of quite full streams until we came out at the top of a forest path by a hydro-electric station.
We followed the forest road down into Kinlochleven, a small industrial town at the further end of Loch Leven from the A82 through the highlands. There is some minimal tourism, though as our B&B host noted this mostly involved a bunch of walkers coming in in the evening and then leaving early the next morning. The landscape about showed less sign of having been cleared/grazed by sheep. The forest we were in looked fairly managed but on the hill sides across from us were trees that looked like they had self-seeded and been allowed to grown naturally.
The forest road was quite steep and mostly followed the big pipes from the dam of the hydro station. We were sufficiently distracted by this that we took a wrong turn at the bottom of the path, continuing to follow the pipes rather than turn off across a little bridge into the far end of the town.
It was raining pretty steadily as we left. The first hour was spent walking more or less alongside the A82 through Glencoe. Then, just as the rain began to ease off, we swung right and began to climb out of the glen up the Devil's staircase (which even the guide book admitted was not as bad as it sounded).
The Devil's staircase took us up to a saddle and then for a walk in the lee of the hill. The rain having stopped and the hill protecting us from the wind, we had our first real midge attack. It was mostly fine, so long as we kept moving. Our B&B host for the night reported that a horrendous swarm of midges had come through earlier in the season and it wasn't too bad now. Once we rounded the hill and were face to the wind, the midges got blown away. We started a slowish descent over a number of quite full streams until we came out at the top of a forest path by a hydro-electric station.
We followed the forest road down into Kinlochleven, a small industrial town at the further end of Loch Leven from the A82 through the highlands. There is some minimal tourism, though as our B&B host noted this mostly involved a bunch of walkers coming in in the evening and then leaving early the next morning. The landscape about showed less sign of having been cleared/grazed by sheep. The forest we were in looked fairly managed but on the hill sides across from us were trees that looked like they had self-seeded and been allowed to grown naturally.
The forest road was quite steep and mostly followed the big pipes from the dam of the hydro station. We were sufficiently distracted by this that we took a wrong turn at the bottom of the path, continuing to follow the pipes rather than turn off across a little bridge into the far end of the town.
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