Tuesday Oct. 3, 2023
- Start: Tydrum (mile 53.8)
- End: Bridge of Orchy (mile 60.3)
- Distance Hiked: 7.5 miles (6.5 miles on WHW + 1.1 miles to/from my B&B)
- Bus Ride: 7.1 miles – from Bridge of Orchy to Tyndrum
I stayed at the Glengarry House B&B near Tyndrum last night, and I was overjoyed with my decision book there. The hosts, Andy and Ellen were terrific, and the relaxing bed and breakfast atmosphere was welcome change from the bustling inns and hotels I’d stayed at thus far on the West Highland Way.
No DJs playing loud music underneath my room until late into the night. No stuffed and mounted animals adorning the front entry. No misplaced luggage that I needed to track down in arrivals/departures sheds. Just some quiet comfort. So, I felt super lucky that to be spending a second night staying with them tonight.
To avoid having to make the 19-mile trek between Tyndrum and Kingshouse, and I’d decided booked a second night in the B&B. I planned to hike as far as Bridge of Orchy today and then take the train or bus back to Tyndrum this afternoon. And tomorrow, I’d return to Bridge of Orchy and continue north from where I left off.
This plan was a fairly atypical approach to the West Highland Way, but it allowed me to keep the pace I wanted without killing my feet. Two easy (7- and 12-mile) days of hiking, plus a second night at the Glengarry House definitely beat the alternative of a 19-mile death march to Kingshouse in the pouring rain.
IF IT AIN’T RAINING…
Speaking of rain, the weather looked to be anything but picture perfect today. The sky was a dark gray, and the rain was pouring down in sheets while I ate breakfast with the three other guests. I supposed I could have waited to depart during a mid-morning break in the heavy rainstorm, but that goes against my routine.
There’s an old Army saying: If it ain’t raining, you ain’t training. You didn’t wait indoors for the dry, sunny weather to appear. The enemy certainly wasn’t going to do that on the battlefield. Instead, you just put on your rain gear and accepted your fate. And so, when 8:30 am rolled around, I was heading out into the elements to start my day.
Unfortunately, the heavy rain and flooded trail meant my shoes and socks were already wet by the time I was barely five minutes into the walk. And because of the Glengarry House’s location was about 0.5 miles south of Tyndrum, I had to retrace yesterday’s steps on the West Highland Way toward town before I’d make any new miles.
Once I got to the Lower Tyndrum train platform, I could hear a train was blowing its horn to signal its arrival. Despite Tyndrum’s small size (full-time population of barely 200 people, according to my host Andy), the town was strategically placed for tourist to stops here when traveling between Glasgow and Inverness. As such, it had two separate train stations on opposite sides of town.
Tyndrum Lower station was the original station in town, built in 1873 by the Callandar and Oban Railway. Two decades later, the West Highland Railway opened a second train station – Upper Tyndrum. ScotRail operated both of them today though, with Tyndrum Lower servicing the Oban line (Glasgow-Oban), while Upper Tyndrum ran the Mallaig/Fort William line I planned to take back to Glasgow at the end of my hike.
Beyond train platform, the West Highland Way departed the smooth asphalt path and transitioned back to a single track path that was slick and muddy from the rain. I was so focused on trying to stay upright as it sloped downhill, the I barely noticed I was heading toward a raging creek. And there was no bridge leading to the other side. Instead, I was facing a 20-25 foot expanse of water that cut across the West Highland Way exactly where I needed to cross it.
The flooded creek was only ankle- to mid-calf deep, but there weren’t nearly enough large rocks poking above the water’s surface to make it across dry. My meager long-jump skills wouldn’t get me even halfway to the other side, even with a running start. And there weren’t any logs lying across the narrower sections of the creek. I was going to have to ford the water if I wanted to get to the trail on the opposite side.
In hindsight, I probably could have just backtracked to the Tyndrum Lower train station and walked into town instead. There were sidewalks all the way up to the Green Welly Shop. And I knew from my stop in town yesterday that the West Highland Way ran immediately behind that shop. I could have detoured through town to avoided this stretch of trail entirely.
But that’s not what I did. I just stood there staring at the water rushing by and tried to survey the shallowest or narrowest place to venture across. As I stood there trying to make my decision, a ginger-haired solo hiker (who I immediately recognized from breakfast at the Drovers Inn yesterday morning) came walking up behind me.
She looked at the cold water with the sighed with same exasperation I felt. Then she suggested we take off our shoes and boots and just wade across. Neither one of us was going to have dry footwear on the opposite side, but if we forded the creek barefoot, at least we wouldn’t have cold, squishy socks too.
The suggestion was as good as any plan I could come up with. So, my new companion and I took off my shoes, pulled our rain pants up our knees, and waded barefoot across the frigid creek.
EUGENE IN COMMON
Once on the opposite bank putting out shoes and socks back on, Catherine and I properly introduced each other. She was from Chattanooga, Tennessee (a town I adore) and previously spent three years living in my current hometown of Eugene, Oregon. What a wild coincidence! Eugene is home to the University of Oregon, but it’s not exactly that big of a place to have in common.
Catherine had hiked the past few days solo, but was joining forces with two friends from Tennessee once we made it to Bridge of Orchy this afternoon. Her friends hiked the West Highland Way back in 2018, but had to get off trail when they got to Bridge of Orchy due to some major foot issues.
When she announced she was heading to Scotland to hike the West Highland Way this year, they agreed to join her and pick up where they’d left off. So the three would complete the remaining 36 miles to Fort William together!
My new walking companion turned out to be a super strong hiker and an even better conversationalist. What’s more, Catherine seemed to know everyone out walking the West Highland Way. We kept such a brisk pace that we were passing hiker after hiker ahead of us. With each one we passed, she’d briefly slow to chat for a minute or two, and then we’d resume our rapid pace again.
I didn’t realize how truly fast we were going until we caught up to Ben (an Israeli hiker) who I’d seen near the start in Millgavnie. As we talked to him, Catherine pulled out her phone and then announced with surprise that we were already 5.4 miles into the day. We barely had 1.5 miles left to Bridge of Orchy!
Holy cow, where had the time gone? Had we really been walking together and talking that long already?
BRIDGE OF ORCHY
When we arrived in Bridge of Orchy, a giant rainbow was there to meet us. And so were Catherine’s two friends (who’d been tracking her iPhone and eagerly awaiting her arrival).
Bridge of Orchy gets its name from the River Orchy which flows beside small hamlet. The English built a bridge over the river in 1746 in order to create a better network of military roads between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands to help the Crown’s forces move more speedily. But that’s about the only thing of note there, other than some homes, a 4-star hotel (with a restaurant), and a single B&B.
I didn’t visit the historical bridge on my arrival (I would save that for tomorrow). Instead, I went into the lovely Bridge of Orchy Hotel, ordered myself a hot coffee, and found a nice spot to dry out while I goofed off on their wi-fi. Thanks to Catherine’s super fast pace, I still had 1.5 to 2 hours to burn before any of the public transportation to Tyndrum would arrive.
GETTING BACK TO TYNDRUM
After waiting out several more heavy downpours indoors, and finishing my latte, I had a decision to make. I had two options to return to Tyndrum: the #915 bus (which stopped near the hotel at 12:18 pm) or the ScotRail train to Upper Tyndrum (which came through town at 12:56 pm)
Given my earlier than expected arrival, I decided to go with the bus. As I stood on the shoulder of A82 across from the hotel, several more hikers made their way past me – including the four ladies from Idaho who I hadn’t seen since Rowardennnan.
As I the rain pelted down on me, I kept checking my watch in anticipation. The minutes clicked over from 12:15 to 12:18 to 12:20. Still no bus. At 12:28 pm, the bus was officially ten minutes late and I was starting to wonder whether it was even running today.
I still had my back-up plan to catch the train that ran back to Tyndrum at 12:56 pm. But I assumed the local bus would be faster and cheaper. Yet here I was – just standing beside the highway getting soaking wet and trying to avoid the giant puddle splashes from the cars driving by me. How much longer should I give this dumb bus before I headed over to the train stop to buy a ticket instead??
As I debated this question, I caught a glimmer of something. I was pretty sure I saw a yellow and purple bus off in the distance. The rain was making it hard to tell. A minute later though, I was sure. And I sighed in relief before holding my arm out to make sure the driver knew I was waiting for it to stop (and not just some random hiker standing on beside of the road at 12:31 pm).
When the bus came to the stop and opened its doors, the first words out of the drivers mouth were, “Do you have a ticket?”
I didn’t. I’d expected to pay my fare on the bus, exactly as I had on during my trek in Ireland last week. Besides, where was I supposed to buy a ticket, I wondered? There wasn’t even a proper bus stop with bench or a sign in Bridge of Orchy, let alone a ticket machine.
When I replied in the negative, the driver shook her head and announced the bus was full! “Are you kidding me?” I wanted to scream. How many people were taking the bus to Tyndrum?
That’s when I learned the #915 bus wasn’t actually a local bus line. It was a long distance Citylink coach running from Uig (on the northern end of the Isle of Skye) down to Glasgow. The brief pause at Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum were just some of its many stops along its 230-mile cross-country journey. And passengers need to purchase a ticket online if they wanted a guaranteed seat.
The massive look of disappointment on my face must have been enough to garner some sympathy though, because the bus driver asked me how far I was going. When I told her I was just going down the road to Tyndrum, she relented, and let me on. But she shocked me again when she announced my ticket would cost me £7 (or $8.50)!! Seriously?!?! To go a mere 7 miles down the highway? That’s £1 per friggin mile.
Had I known how much the bus cost ahead of time, I almost certainly would have hung out in Bridge of Orchy a while longer and just taken take the train back to Tyndrum. It was equally fast to go by rail as bus, and ScotRail was only charging £4.30. But, it was far too late to quibble now.
Besides, I gained a critical piece of knowledge for my return trip tomorrow. I’d need to definitely pre-book my Citylink bus ticket to the Bridge of Orchy, since there weren’t any train options heading back up here tomorrow morning.
In the end, today had been a super short day of hiking, but it hadn’t been boring! I’d forded a creek and braved the heavy rain. I learned something about the buses in Scotland. And thanks to Catherine, I’d been coaxed out of my introverted shell, and felt like I was finally talking to all the people I’ve been moving in tandem with these past 60 miles.
