After a quick breakfast, we were in the car by 8:15am, and, in spite of less than 4 hours of driving today, we arrived back in Portree by 6pm. It was a long day with several amazing sights. We started out by heading north beyond the Old Man of Storr, where we had hiked the…Read more
The route for today goes north to Dunrobin Castle, then retraces the route south back through Inverness before terminating in Grantown-on-Spey. The map can be found here. The morning began heading north along the A9 in eastern Scotland, past a few of the coastal towns on the way to Dunrobin. Our morning plan was to…Read more
The final days drive is a long one. It begins by following the snow roads through the Cairngorms National Park and ends in Edinburgh. Spending the night in Tomintoul instead of Grantown-On-Spey will cut a half hour off the drive and may make it easier to reach Blair Castle before the 4pm cutoff. Once you…Read more
Todays route is under 3 hours of driving, crosses Scotland from west to east, includes some iconic stops and terminates in Inverness. Map The rain hit us again this morning as we started our way south on the A87 toward Skye Bridge. Low clouds accompanied the rain which limited our view as we exited the…Read more
Final section of a 3 day hike Distance: 3.5 miles Elevation Gain/Loss: 190/1160 We combined this section with 3 others to create a 3 day backpacking trip beginning in Skyline Ridge and Russian Ridge Open Space Preserves. You can start there for the full story. These were the final few miles of a hike that…Read more
3 Days Backpacking the Ridge Trail, End of Day 2 and Beginning of Day 3 Distance: 5.8 Miles Elevation Gain/Loss 850/560 This is the 3rd section out of 4 traversed in a 3 day hike along the ridge trail which started at Skyline Ridge and Russian Ridge Open Space Preserves. We had hiked nearly a…Read more
First part of day 2, on a 3 day hike. Distance: 8.1 Miles Elevation Gain/Loss 1280/665 We completed this section as part of a 3 day hike beginning in Russian Ridge. You can find details on that section here: Skyline Ridge and Russian Ridge Open Space Preserves. Elevation Gain/Loss above reflects the southbound direction of…Read more
3 Days and 2 Nights Distance: 5.1 Miles Elevation Gain/Loss: 810 feet/780 feet Trail Map Russian Ridge is the northern end of several uninterrupted segments of the Ridge Trail which are in close proximity to a couple of the rare backpacking camps in the area. So I thought I would try to string them together into…Read more
A great beginning, 5.8 miles completed, 403.9 miles to go Distance: 5.8 Miles Elevation Gain/Loss 1,215 feet/1,290 feet Having 403 miles remaining of a 400 mile hike is hardly a cause for celebration. But getting started is a worthy event, and picking a starting point from so many choices took some time. After pouring over the…Read more
A Quiet Trail and a Bike Return Distance: 7.4 Miles Elevation Gain/Loss: 715 feet/845 feet one-way In spite of the name, the route for this hike includes only a short section in Huddart County Park and a couple of miles in El Corte de Madera. The majority runs along a relatively direct and seemingly rarely used…Read more