We ate breakfast in the hotel and made use of the gift of porcelain once again. There was only one other tent camper last night and no one in the cabins. I got my stuff packed up and sat on one of the cabin porches while Pam finished her morning duties. The midges are not as thick here. We hit the trail a little after 10:30.
The hike out of town was almost as steep and tall as the Devil’s Staircase. Pam was hurting bad (mainly because her calves are so tight and she doesn’t stretch them regularly). The climb was slow and painful for her and made worse by the blister (think inflamed anus) on her heel. There were amazing views of the town to our backs which we stopped to admire often to give us breaks.
Once we gained elevation, we had a nice level walk in Lairigmor. We walked by some old farm ruins and could see foresting practices in action. There would be large tracts of clear cuts next to un- harvested woods. We ate lunch at Tigh-na-sleubhaich (an old ruin) so we could get out of the wind. The best part of the wind was the absence of midges. At one point, we were able to watch a shepherd round his sheep up on the opposite side of the valley using a four wheeler and a couple of very smart dogs.
Shortly after Blar a Chaoruinn, we came to a bulletin board with directions into Fort William. Pam started acting a little strange and nervous. I asked her what’s wrong and she pointed to a sign on the board I hadn’t noticed. It read “Danger, Poisonous Monkeys ahead”. She was genuinely scared and wondered if we were safe. I explained that there are no monkeys in Scotland and that she was fine. Later we found out that Poisonous Monkeys are a local band. Nonetheless, Pam walked with extra caution in her step.
This was our longest day of hiking since our first day on the trail. After about 11 miles, the guidebook we had said we were less than a ½ mile from Glen Nevis Youth Hostel where we were planning to spend the night so we could climb to the top of Ben Nevis the next morning before finishing the WHW. This was the longest ½ mile I’ve ever hiked. I genuinely liked our guidebook, but if Charlie Loram had been around, we would have had a throw down. Pam threatened to spank me if I didn’t calm down but I said pleasure would have to wait because I wanted to finish hiking for the day.
We finally, made it to the hostel and checked in. There were only a few double rooms and they were all booked so we had to sleep in the dorms (our first night, and only time we were apart the entire trip so far). We had no choice. We claimed our bunks, got showered up, and went out for supper.
We were both in pain and tired. Dinner was nothing special, just some diner that was cheap and close to the hostel. We were back and in bed by 8:30.