DAY TWO - EASAN DORCHA - LECKIE BOTHY (KINLOCHEWE)
(21k, 350m ascent)
After a cold night we packed up and set off into the dark. The glen was frozen solid and we crunched along a good track towards Coulin Forest, accompanied by the slenderest of crescent moons. The previous evening the track from the house at Torran Cuilin (NH023551) had looked clear, but was not marked on the OS map. We took the most obvious track that swung past the house into the forest before rising NW along the contours.
We were looking for the track that heads almost due North and would take us out of the forest and around Carn Dhomhnuill Mhic a Ghobha towards Kinlochewe. The path is easily missed. As you make your way along the main track, look out for a line of deer fencing to your left that rises north. At this point the smaller path can be found on the other side of the main track over a small gully (see map).
The path above the woodlands was very icy making for a difficult descent towards Kinlochewe. Again we found a couple of differences on the ground to the OS map. The forest marked at 025580 has been felled, although the forest area is still fenced. We stayed above the fence line and contoured to 030595, where a rough descent along the fenceline took us towards the river.
Here the OS map shows a path following the river quite closely but we found this rough and indistinct. It would be better to follow a line roughly due north along the lower slopes rather than straying too close to the river.
In Kinlochewe, it being a Saturday, the hotel (with an excellent bunkhouse attached) was open so we stopped for a coffee by a warm log fire that was very hard to leave. Kinlochewe also has a good store and Post Office. Outside this I met a distinguished fellow in tweeds and a deer stalker who it transpired runs the Cape Wrath Trail website. He wished us all the best, but at this stage the Cape seemed an awfully long way away.
There is an excellent track from Kinlochewe up the glen towards the Heights of Kinlochewe that follows a stunningly beautiful river tumbling over rock slabs and waterfalls. The bothy at the heights of Kinlochewe (071641) is no longer in use although we found it open and it could be used in an emergency. We therefore continued up the glen to Leckie Bothy. With the river starting to freeze, deciding against camping, even though it took us a few km out of our way.
At Leckie (an estate rather than MBA bothy) we managed to scavenge a few bits of wood, but only succeeded in kippering ourselves rather than getting a fire going. The wood was just too damp and frozen but we left a pile to dry for others. We were treated to a beautiful sunset and a bitterly cold early evening, but as clouds blew in during the night, temperatures stabilised and we slept well.
I was struggling to adjust to the weight of the pack and getting into the routine of a long trek, and was already looking forward to our stop in Ullapool, whilst reminding myself that it always takes a good few days to get mountain fit and adjust to carrying 20+kg. Still, the Cape seemed more remote than ever, almost mythically distant from a chilly bothy less that 30k from our starting point.
