More Cape Wrath Trail

First night in a bothy, where Will and I showed up at 9:30 pm, to the surprise of two other backpackers who probably thought they would have the shelter to themselves! Actually they were very welcoming about it, and one was from the States. It was probably my best night of sleep on the trail – after a long full day – we had started hiking at 5:30 am and combined the mileage of two scheduled days into one. Inside was free from midges and wind, so we were set.Crossing a wire bridge. Our guidebook notes mention high water alternates to take during wet weather patterns, but we just haven’t been subject to many high water issues.We didn’t know we were hiking on the International Appalachain Trail until Will spotted this marker. It’s like I’m connected right back to North Carolina, at least geologically.Venison burger.I’ll try to shorten this story – basically there was a bothy marked on our map but apparently isn’t available anymore. We found this building which probably USED to be the bothy, but now houses a large diesel generator, some electronics equipment, and an array of large, burbling batteries. There was a 92 decimal noise warning sticker on it. There was acoustic foam in a large crate that had yet to be installed – it was all very new looking, and we had seen some signage for new hydroelectric energy projects in the area. Well we decided to sleep inside with it. What a mistake! At 4:00 am sharp, it turned on full blast. We instantly shot up out of our sleeping bags, hearts pounding. I think I mentally understood that, ok, there’s a large generator running in this small space and it’s going to be alright, but the physical experience was so overwhelming that I could barely function. Well, we got our stuff together, went down the road and camped outside a derelict old house. Got a few decent hours of sleep after that point.Another wonderful stay in a bothy the next night!Settling down to bed at 10pm. Look at all the light. I usually sleep with my unworn puffy jacket covering my eyes now.We were holed up in another bothy when a load of cows and sheep came right by the window and down to the loch. There was a Frenchman (who now lives in Scotland) with some border collies moving his animals.