A little while later a helicopter flew over, came in low to have a look at us I guess? I filtered water for the bags and bottles again at the burn.
Overnight my bed socks had been warm, but I could not for the life of me get my wet ones back on the next morning. I really wish I had bought a new pair of Smartwool or similar. The ones I was using had a cotton like inner and then a man made outer. The inner was cold as ice, and had kind of shrunk a bit. I could not get the damp socks back on! The thick bedsocks had to go back on. So now, after putting on my damp boots, my second pair of socks were damp as well. I hung my first pair on the outside of my pack in hope. As the day wore on my feet swelled with the moisture, and on reflection I should have stopped to re-lace /loosen my boots, try the old socks again or whatever was needed, In a group setting it can be hard to hold everyone up to faff about. I chose to carry on, big mistake! I had given my daughter advice a day or two earlier - to always stop and check things out if something isn't right. Really should follow my own advice.
The pace picked up as we headed down into Laggan. There are toilets and picnic tables here but no shop was open. There is a shop but it seems it may have closed a while ago. There is a detour along the busy road for cafe facilities if they are needed. There is also a local pottery, but we decided to carry on. This was another of those days where we had no real notion of where we would pitch. We knew we would be heading into commercial forest areas. A different sort of wooded area to the ones we had to so far encountered.
Next stop Pattack falls. The route to here involves a pleasant quiet road which follows a section of the Spey, and then a wooded section leading down to Feagour and Pattack falls. It may be possible to camp around this area, but it is quite close to the A86, and we hadn't really covered sufficient distance.
It had been very warm and all the water taken from Glen Banchor had gone from our bottles. So I took water directly from the falls. A chap with his grand-daughter came for a swim at the falls, and seemed dubious about the quality of water from this source. Lets just say I am still here and lived to tell the tale. Other options might have been to pull water from the Spey, or to have carried more from Glen Banchor. The Harvey map suggests drinking from streams is unadvisable. Any advice anyone can provide about water quality along the Spey and surrounding Burns most appreciated :).
There are times when backpacking in hinterland, that halfway between wild and inhabited, where things can get quite difficult. Access to the waters edge may be fenced off for example, whilst at the same time there is nowhere to purchase water! In the heat at least 2 to 3 litres per person is needed just for drinking. For the next couple of days we were to pass through these hinterland areas which were either farming areas or areas planted with single species conifer forest. A sort of desert for hikers, we were definitly in the countryside but the streams were were full of acidic peaty water from the run off through the forest floor, or beside cow pasture or sheep pasture. The lochs are quite peaty also. But needs must, so we decided to both filter and pretty much drink our water as weak tea. Stopping a couple of times a day to brew up. This might have been belt and braces, no-one became ill.
Our party had split into two groups for a while earlier in the day. Our group followed the A86 between Pattack falls and over Gallovie bridge as the route suggests. Our other group followed signs for Pattack - newly erected in Black wood. These signs apparently led to a dead end and a return to the A86 had to be made. You have been warned :).
We all met up at Sawmills, which actually is a sawmill on an industrial scale. We pondered the map here a bit as we had completed our daily distance at this point. We considered heading down to the head of Loch Laggan to the little beach shown on the map, or continue further into the forest to look for a camp beside one of the lochs higher up. We chose to try for Loch Doire nan Sgaith ( NN 515 863 ).
Along the way we saw hearth stones in a couple of the larger vehicle passing places along the forest track, seems these have served as camp spots. Just after passing one of them Nathan mentioned that we were passing a site where fairies had been seen. Now at the risk of being chastised, I will now mention that I actually saw a stone which looked like a rams head shining in the sun, then I looked down and saw fawn prints in the pathway. Maybe it was a bit of dehydration, or an effect from drinking the water at Pattack, or maybe fairies do exist?
At Loch Doire nan Sgaith we found a sheltered spot, large enough to pitch 2 tents, away from overhanging branches. Clearly the area is regularly used for camping as hearth stones are set up here. A few logging vehicles passed along the track nearby and a forest warden, with his land rover stopped to ask if we intended to build a fire. We advised we were using our stoves only. He wished us a good night :). Where did he come from?
Made a great spaghetti carbonara and filled our bottles from the stream leaving the loch. Enjoyed ginger tea with a hint of lemon. Very nice!
My original socks were still soaking, wouldn't even dry in the sun on my pack, so I hung my socks in a tree. Lynns socks also now were wet from the trackless section leaving Glen Banchor, Lynn donned her spares. I decided to sleep in my second damp pair to try and dry them.
The area around is wooded, and there was a bit of wind picking up as the sun fell. Some-one mentioned the "Blair Witch project" for some reason. Not the best thing to talk about lol. My daughter chimed up " what is the Blair witch? That night was really windy, and heavy showers came in.
Click here for Day 5 - to somewhere near Fersit
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