Day 8 - Oykel Bridge to Loch Carn nan Chonbhairean (18k, 400m ascent)
Although I knew this was the day that worsening weather was forecast to start sweping in, I was still in a slight state of denial. That stopped when I woke to the sound of rain lashing the tent. I hurried down my usual breakfast of a few nutri grain bars, some nuts and a coffee, before the rigmarole of pulling my kit on and readying myself for the day ahead. By this stage I was pretty much sleeping and walking in the same gear, so it didn’t take too long before I was out in driving sleet throwing the tent down.
I usually try and take a bit of care when packing up the tent, so when it’s next needed it isn’t a tangled nightmare, but it was just too cold with a stiffening Northerly wind. We must have been packed and away from our campsite in under half an hour - a record. The sleet intensified as we headed up the track that followed the River Oykel and when we reached the ruin at Salachy (easy to miss) it had turned into thick, wet snow.
The path up from Salachy was rough and steep and evidently not well trodden. OS maps show a more circuitous loch side path which may well be a better option. I was drenched inside and out by the time I reached the main track that would take us up through the woods towards Glenmore Lodge. At least the woods offered us a degree of protection from the wind, but as we left them to join the loch side track by Loch Ailsh, it really bit into us, the wind chill was quite severe.
Eventually we reached the dwellings around Glenmore lodge and were greeted by enthusiastic dogs, evidently undeterred by the cold. We continued up to the lodge itself (shut up tight for winter), hoping to find some shelter for a short break. But there seemed to be nowhere to escape from the wind and in the end we dumped our packs on a bench and stared longingly into the conservatory. I visualised balmy summer evenings with groups of friends sat drinking wine and staring at a sunset over the loch. Back in the present I had the more pressing concern that my Platypus water bladder had frozen solid along with my energy bars. I sucked on an energy gel hoping it would give me a bit of sustenance and hydration. It was so cold we were only able to stop for a matter of minutes.
As we struck off from the lodge I was having a real mental battle. The conditions were pretty severe and I knew we had three days across the remote expanses of Assynt to get through. But as we left the Glen Oykel forest and would up onto the outer aprons of Glen More, the storm lifted and the sun even came out, casting it’s rays over the now completely snowbound landscape. This lifted my spirits hugely, and somehow taking on the Cape Wrath Trail in midwinter didn’t seem such a daft idea after all. We were alone to enjoy and survive in this utterly majestic landscape.
Our spirits were so high in fact that we pushed on several extra kilometres from our planned camping point, reasoning that with the weather set to worsen, it made sense to try and reduce the distance of the following day. In the end we found a small plateau by a babbling ghyll to pitch the Akto’s side by side, like two bulbous green cucumbers nestled in the virgin snow.
