I’m not sure how rare these critters are in Spain.
I got a good look at this one from inside my tent.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
not recommended – West Highland Way, Scotland
Trip report by site editor Rick McCharles
I flew into Scotland on a Thursday.
Friday I hopped the train directly to what most consider the best multi-day hike in Scotland, the West Highland Way.
… The West Highland Way, from Milngavie to Fort William, a distance of 95 miles … Hills, dense woodland and wildlife make it one of the favourites with hikers from all over the world. …
This kind of hyperbole is typical of the WHW.
I was quickly disgruntled.
Unless you are a Glasweigan bent on bragging rights for walking out the pub door all the way to the top of Ben Nevis, I can’t see any reason to spend a week of your life doing this hike.
Problems:
• midges (Spring and Summer) • bad weather • many sections walking on roadways • litter • inconsistent signage • inconsistent trail maintenance • too few highlights / km
You won’t get lost. The trail is blazed.
But why spend a week on this route when there are so many better hikes in Scotland? And the world.
As many guidebooks recommend, I skipped the first two days and started at Balmaha. On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
That section alongside the lake was OK, especially between Rowardennan and Beinglass Farm. Not one of the great walks of the world, but OK.
From there to King’s House Hotel was disappointing in many ways.
But I must admit, the torrential rain from King’s House over Devil’s Staircase was the quintessential Scottish Hill Walking Experience. Even the Scots called it a “heavy rain”. High praise. My most lasting memory.
Next day the forecast was for clear skies. I hopped a bus at Kinlochleven, giving up on the WHW for good. I wanted good weather to climb Ben Nevis.
Over the 3 days on the West Highland Way I have only 22 photos worthy of posting. That’s sad.
I love Scotland. But why is the hiking so unimproved there?
Why was the first National Park not established until 2002?
That famed son of Scotland, John Muir, must be rolling in his grave. Authorities are trying to promote a John Muir Way, a 73km coastal walk.
As Lonely Planet Walking in Scotland says:
… you can’t help but wonder what Muir would think of a path through two power stations, one of them nuclear …
He would not be amused.
Walk the John Muir Trail in California. Not the one in Scotland.
And don’t make a special trip to hike the West Highland Way. Instead, go to … Spain.
Mt Blanc to Matterhorn – day 6
Hiking trip report by site editor Rick McCharles. Day 6 of 7.
day 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | info
Out of bread, as usual, I wanted to stop in the quaint, quiet town of Gruben for supplies.
There was only one stale loaf of bread left in the small hotel shop. What! This is Europe. The grocery stores are terrible. But you can always get good fresh bread! (subsidized by the National government)
Turned out that these blokes had tented by the river in town. And then bought up all the bread first thing in the morning.
Here are manly men, even the 2 wearing skirts. They were the first to pass me on the trail since I started this hike.
Amongst the 7 friends they were fluent in French, German, Spanish and Italian. Nice.
We hiked the same day towards a challenging goal, Augstbordpass. It was high. Well above the helicopters.
In fact, Augstbordpass is the last high pass before the Zermatt valley. Many are excited to cross it. I was less so having opted to do the high, long and difficult 31km Europa Way traverse to finish.
But it was fun to drop down and down towards the valley far, far below.
A hiker walking the other direction tipped me to the fact that Ibex were posing on the rocks.
We assumed they’d been staked there by the tourist industry. What a photo op!
When we finally got to the valley floor, I dashed around like a madman trying to resupply with food. And still catch the bus up the other side to the trailhead. I wanted to get up high so I could start the long traverse to the finish first thing in the morning.
… the U.K. hikers passed me again! Waving from another bus.
Blast.
Pushing hard, I did manage to climb back up to 2300m to greet St. Bernard at dusk.
Kev Reynolds:
The satue of St Bernard … commemorates the opening of the Europaweg in 1997. This patron Saint of mountain travellers was … Bernard of Menthon, who had spent many years caring for travellers and pilgrims in trouble after crossing the alpine pass named after him…
Bernard died in the 1080s and was beatified shortly after. In 1923 Pope Pius XI conifrmed St Bernard as patron saint of the alps. …
I could just see the top of the Matterhorn in the distance.
The goats were my only companions up there.
My best tent site of the trip.
Mt Blanc to Matterhorn – day 5
Hiking trip report by site editor Rick McCharles. Day 5 of 7.
day 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | info
From my ideal tent site it was a pleasant wander down into the valley of Lac de Moiry.
At the same time, an American couple hiking the Haute Route were descending from their night at this interesting farm refuge.
We crossed the Lac de Moiry dam at about the same time.
And met up at the bus stop on the other side.
We decided to cheat (again) by skipping the next pass, and bus instead to Zinal. It was an “easy” pass but I was turned off when I saw a car joy riding the switchbacks up that slope. I’ve no desire to hike where there are roads.
If you ask hikers what impressions they remember of the Alps, early in the conversation they’ll mention the cows and their loud cowbells.
Everybody loves them. I never got tired of them.
Famed Hotel Weisshorn disappointed.
The area around the hotel was under some serious construction. I’m happy I didn’t stay there. The American couple walked on to Bella Tolla cabin.
I walked from the Hotel to the next high pass. It was easy and interesting, though the typical afternoon rain began again.
Another superb hiking day.
I had supper on the other side sitting out of the rain near a giant teepee. (Europeans love North American Indian culture.) Then chased some deer away from a spot they liked to sleep upon in the trees and set up my tent.
About 4AM one of the deer was barking up a storm. Perhaps barking at my tent.
Mt Blanc to Matterhorn – day 4
Hiking trip report by site editor Rick McCharles: Chamonix to Zermatt: The Walker’s Haute Route. Day 4 of 7.
day 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | info
After the rain storms of the previous day, the dawn at Cabine Dix was clear.
This hut is famous with climbers as it’s a perfect jumping off point for crossing the glacier early morning while the snow is still cold and stable.
I watched the Yellow-billed Choughs, entertaining mountain birds that are found anywhere hikers might picnic.
I love ladders and had long been looking forward to those at the Pas de Chevre.
I dashed across the glacier below the hut. And rushed up to be first over the ladders.
I finished the 3rd ladder much more frightened than when I started at the bottom. These are long and scarifying.
Thank Gods I didn’t try to cross the previous night in the cold and dark.
There’s my goal. The Matterhorn, still many days away.
I was pretty happy making the descent to pretty Arolla, one of those picture postcard swiss villages.
I relaxed by the river for a couple of hours. Then caught a bus across the valley, climbing quickly to Le Sage.
Near a typical high elevation farm I saw an interesting scene. It looked to me like the Swiss helicopter rescue service was doing some training.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Compared with the previous day, my climb over Col du Tsatse 2868m seemed easy.
What a great hiking day!
See the rest of my photos from day 4.
Or start reading from the beginning of this 7-day journey, a valuable resource if you MIGHT want to do the Haute Route yourself.
… on to day 5
Mt Blanc to Matterhorn – day 2
Hiking trip report by site editor Rick McCharles. Day 2 of 7.
day 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | info
Morning dawned clear yet again.
I quickly descended from snow, rock and ice to lush alpine meadows.
When hiking I like to rise early. Put in a full hiking day of 4-6hrs. Relax for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. Then put in another 4-5hrs of hiking. Setting up the tent at around 7-8PM.
Here I am airing out the bunions at Champex-Lac.
Waiting for the bus, I stopped by the finest alpine flower garden in the Alps, Champex-Lac Alpine Garden.
Sadly in early August most of the species were already done. The bees seemed only interested in thistles.
Up high in the mountains wild flowers were still going strong. But Champex is too low, too hot.
Soon I found myself up above one of the most famous ski resorts in the world, Verbier. I skipped over 15km of valley walking by taking bus, train, train and cable car. This cheat was well worth doing.
In Summer the sprawling ski town seemed to be more fixed on mountain biking than hiking, however.
I departed as quickly as possible for the wonderful Sentier des Chamois, a traverse high above the valley. Some exposure. But good opportunities to see Ibex and Chamois.
Late in the day I spotted another Chamois on a very attractive chunk of snow.
Normally very shy, this Chamois hung out with me for many hours … once I set up my tent on his snow supply.
hiking and biking Sportgastein
Sportgastein is the highest ski resort in the ski-intensive Gastein valley in Austria.
In the Summer it’s a lovely place to hike or bike. The best destination out of the alpine town of Bad Gastein.
A few pics from my two days there.
It was more work than I expected climbing up to Nidersachsenhaus. Great views though.
more of my Sportgastein photos on flickr
everyone’s Sportgastein photos on flickr
hiking the Stone Sea in Germany
Jeni and just about everyone else told me to travel to the most beautiful lake in the country. It looks like a fjord.
You get there from Berchtesgaden, 30km south of Salzburg. Hitler’s mountain residence, the Berghof, was located near here though Der Fuehrer rarely visited due to security worries. Today the Nazi Eagle’s Nest is a restaurant.
Nationalpark Berchtesgaden was established in 1978 and has gradually become one of the region’s largest tourist draws. While technically in Germany, this spot is surrounded on 3 sides by Austria.
The day I was at the lake a boatload of tourists disgorged every 10min to visit a famed pilgrimage church.
From the church I climbed up an interesting gorge to Kärlingerhaus, a popular mountain lodge.
Nice. But my real goal for the day was to reach the Steinernes Meer. The stone sea. A bleak and rocky plateau.
Weird. Geologically ineresting. And beautiful.
At Riemann-Haus I could have escaped back down to the valley.
Instead I had a beer on their deck. And listened to some Army mountain climbers sing group songs before setting out for the cliffs.
Immediately after … I got badly lost. (A gorgeous sidetrip, as it turned out.)
What direction would you go if your guidebook told you to take route 411?
A highlight of this hike for me personally was seeing many Chamois up close. For the first time.
Even better was crossing a high mountain pass alone to meet Mt. Watzmann.
What a great evening I had up there!
This is the best hike in the Bavarian Alps. A hiking region surrounded and overshadowed by more famous neighbours: Dolomites, Austrian Alps and the Swiss Alps.
But I’ll be adding the Stone Sea to our list of the best hikes in Europe.
It’s fantastic.
I posted 80 photos from this 3 day hike on flickr.
There’s only one guidebook in English: Walking in the Bavarian Alps. It’s one of the weakest Cicerone guidebooks I’ve used.
harsh night on an Italian mountain
Trip report by besthike editor Rick McCharles.
I was super excited to hike the Alpe di Siusi region of the Dolomites.
… Seiser Alm, (Italian: Alpe di Siusi) is the largest high altitude Alpine meadow in Europe. Located in Italy’s Bolzano-Bozen province (South Tyrol) in the Dolomites mountain range, it is a major tourist attraction, known for skiing and hiking. …
I planned 3 days, 2 nights. A big trip. Lots of mileage.
To get started, I cheated by riding the cable car to Compaccio 1844m (5050ft), a busy mountain tourist trap.
Arriving late afternoon, I was quite quickly forced into a cave.
OK, it was actually a storage space under a ski lift. I relaxed, dry, for about 90min.
The typical late afternoon rain ended. Some blue sky appeared. So I set off across gorgeous alpine meadows in the direction of the high peaks. Towards Rifugio Bolzano. I was following the Walk 24 itinerary from Walking in the Dolomites: 28 Multi-Day Routes by Gillian Price.
I was alone in the early evening except for many friendly cows.
Surprisingly, the skies threatened rain once again. To stay completely dry, I quickly set up my (technically illegal) tent on the side of the mountain. There I got pounded with a severe storm. Thunder and lightning non-stop for at least 5hrs. Super dangerous in the mountains. I feared for my life.
It continued raining all night.
I stayed in the tent 10hrs before I finally heard it stop.
Unzipping the fly , I was astonished to see this winter wonderland. It was July. In sunny Italy.
Snow is always better than rain for a hiker. I packed up as quickly as I could. And headed back down the mountain. The only other hikers I passed were a couple from Norway. They had the same idea. Hiking in the snow is beautiful. Hiking in the rain, a drag.
That night I ended up in a soft bed in a terrific hostel in the quiet mountain town of Brixen.
All’s well that ends well, I guess.
But I REALLY want to go back ….
By the way, my friend Jeni had a similar experience on this same route. She got lost, taking a wrong trail/animal track. On the side of a steep mountain she decided to rope herself to the cliff. Gathering her wits, she finally decided on the safest way out of danger.
Even when there are hundreds of other hikers around, the mountains can still be very dangerous.
This was a cautionary adventure for me. It was almost as scary as the lighting storm I experienced on the John Muir Trail.
hiking Port Joli Head, Nova Scotia
Trip report by besthike editor Rick McCharles.
Finally, a success story from my hiking days in Maritime Canada.
I loved this pretty little 8.7km day hike loop, the seaside adjunct of Kejimkujik National Park. That’s the only National Park in all of Nova Scotia.
It was all good. A lovely coastal walk to visit the seals.
besthike.com 