Loch Shiel, a Winter Canoe Adventure.

[-Tim-]

Prologue

As with most canoe adventures the journey actually begins well before the paddling starts.
It was the 20th November 2011 when I received a Facebook message.....

“Ok here we go , there has been chat about a trip up into Scotland to explore true beautiful and wondrous country, with its right of access which opens up the ability to travel and your own pace with no real agenda conceding to camp site when and where.
I have decided to not open this up to a general paddle as it is easier to camp in smaller numbers and make the logistic so much easier, I also think that this should be an adult paddle this will make it easier to paddle when we can get holidays and not have to wait for schools (although this can be got around by calling a canoe trip "sport “and as most schools don't go canoeing , it can be classed as an extra to the school program this meaning no school time is lost on paper)
What I propose is that we have a little chat about time off work time of the year and where we want to go;
Here's my thoughts, loch Shiel near fort William .
6 nights 5 camping 1pm a railway carriage used by walker ect (it's ok it has power http://www.glenfinnanstationmuseum.c...eeping_car.asp
Linnet paddle one car at the end the other at the start, food and cooking shared.
As two cars then maybe five people
Time of year
March till may (this time of year will open rivers as well)
May till Sept midge season
Sept till Nov rivers again drysuits a must

That's all for now let me know what you think?”

[-Tim-]

With this my appetite was well and truly wetted, permission was granted by my long suffering wife Mandy.
However, the date for the paddle had changed; the last week of Jan 2012 was the chosen date........”GULP” it’s going to be cold. I have done some winter camping in the hills and mountains of Snowdonia and the Lakes but that was 17 odd years ago......will my old kit be ok?
I quickly set up a secret Facebook group for us to discuss “stuff”

Part 1, the area Loch Shiel (Location HERE)

Loch Shiel is a freshwater loch it’s length from Glenfinnan to Acharacle is approximately 26km (as the crow flies) but as we are in canoes and the loch “dog legs “it would be round about 28km of Loch paddling add some more on for exploring. Loch Shiel is situated 20 km west of Fort William in Scotland. Its nature changes considerably along its length, being a deep loch enclosed by mountains in the north east and becoming shallower surrounded by bog and rough pasture in the south west, here the 4 km River Shiel drains the loch into a sea loch, Loch Moidart.
Loch Shiel currently lie’s only just above sea level and was in fact a sea loch a few thousand years ago when sea levels (relative to Scotland) were higher. Who knows it may well become a sea loch again in the near future.

[-Tim-]

Part 2, Prior Preparation Prevents ---- Poor Performance

As I have said before I had done some winter wild camping before and had at the time invested in some good quality kit, it however was old. So I sat back and I imagined different scenarios and packed, made and tested kit then thought again and re-packed until I have covered as many the bases I could.
The first test was my sleeping system, a Thermarest, a three season Vango sleeping bag with a two season Buffalo bag as a liner. The first idea was to sleep in the back garden but due to laziness I ended up in the conservatory with the outside doors open, by the morning however I had kicked my legs out of the Buffalo bag and undone the zip on the Three Season Vango Bag. There was a frost that night so I was happy about my bags. Not sure though if my trusty Thermarest was truly air tight. Another night on the floor was needed, this confirmed my suspicions. Fortunately Christmas came and Santa bought me a new self inflating mat.

Next to be tested was my trusty meths fuelled Trangia, we will mostly / hoping to cook on a on a wood burning stove and or a fire box. But we may need a back up stove; however meths stoves are not too easy to get going in the cold (I found.) Now a lot of stoves do have a pre-heater so why not a Trangia? I donned my white cow gown on and popped the burner into the freezer for a while, I then mixed together some cotton wool with petroleum jelly (aka Justin Case fire lighters) I pulled out a chunk lit it and placed the now cold burner above it, the theory being it should warm the meths up enough for it to “jet up” although it sounds dodgy... it seemed to work ok.
I made up yet another face book page “Where the hell are they” whereas friends and family can track us via text messages and grid references, this kinda worked quite well too.

The tent... Now I own two tents that should be capable of withstanding whatever weather the Scottish winter can throw at me, I had to choose one.
Choice 1/ Wild Country Trisar+ a bomb proof three pole semi geodesic 2 person back packing tent that has looked after me in many an adventure.

or

Choice 2/ my Robens Fortress, a three person four pole full geodesic self supporting tent with a big porch.
Decisions decisions, I opted for the bigger tent although it would not be as warm as the smaller I guessed we could be in for some “ahem” interesting weather and with more room to change into /out of my dry suit and other clothes and a porch area I could stow a lot of “stuff” in. Sorted!
What to wear? Being an out-doorsy kind of guy I have fleeces galore to wear under my dry suit and warm wear galore for the campsite, but my gloves were wearing a bit thin and I needed some new warm socks too, a letter to Santa sorted those out as well, Seal Skinz winter mitts and Merino wool four season socks. But a trial with the thick warm socks along with my dry suit socks inside my 5:10 Canyoneers squeezed my feet a just too much for comfort and would have restricted the circulation in my feet. As luck would have it I have some neoprene “muck” boots, I tried them on with my dry suit, and YAY! They fitted! The fit is snug against my calves too not floppy like “normal” welly boots so with this in mind I shouldn’t have too much water ingress whilst kneeling and as we would be touring and not white watering these boots should suffice. But it left me with a quandary; I was going to wear them around the camp on the evening and night-time which due to the short days may well be a fair while. Santa to the rescue again, I pooled the money I was given and bought me some North Face Chilkatt snow boots, warm and waterproof boots with grip a plenty good according to the blurb for -30.

[-Tim-]

Part 3 The Plan in a nut shell!
We are to meet up at Fort Bill’s Morrison’s 0800 Saturday Morning. Eat, greet and chew some fat over a breakfast and then do some shopping yippee. A quick drive to the “put in” at Glenfinnan check the water conditions if we are happy we then off load our gear whilst two of us will wait there whilst the drivers do the infamous car ferry. The paddle plan is to paddle along the loch to the river then into the sea Loch (Loch Moidart) wild camping as we go. Sounds easy or will it be only the weather gods can decide?
As with any plan it will be open to alterations if needs be.

Part 4, the journey up
After a “short” 71 mile trip to Dave’s house Dave was my travelling companion for the trip, Welsh Dave to give him his full title, however Dave is a true Scot; the Welsh title is another story. The boats now securely strapped to the LandRover’s roof and the kit casually lobbed in the back, what was forgotten was left. Kisses hugs and well wishes were passed between wives and kids, it was time to set off, Sat Nav was set 367 miles to go. Our first stop was at Scotch Corner services where we indulged in double espressos, from here onwards it became a caffeine fuelled journey.
The wind had picked up considerably it was tried in vain to blow the Landrover across the carriageway, but it was soon into the blowy journey that a strange phenomenon that was named the “Wee Man from Argyle!” a strange tapping noise coming from the roof as well as this the boats were visibly distorting with the wind, so with this in mind we pulled in every 50 or so miles to check that the boats were still secure and no straps were flapping. Still the “Wee Man” tapped away.
At 0300 hrs the caffeine from the coffee and numerous cans of coke had started to wane we pulled the Landrover into a flat(ish) lay-by, hoping it wasn’t the local “dodgy” spot. We contacted the second car who were hot on our heels and told them we were going to attempt some shut eye; we pulled our “stashed” blankets from the back of the car and dozed, minutes later car two pulled up. Now happy the team were together we slept until 0600.
Two blustery wet hours later and after being told numerous times that “had it been light the views from this road were stunning.”
We arrived at Fort ‘Bill, Morrisons at Fort ‘Bill to be precise, where we had a full English breakfast and bought some provisions and whilst the weather battered us we strolled around the shops one just happened to be a Whiskey shop, in said shop there on the counter was a cake, no ordinary cake a Glenfiddich whiskey cake no less reduced from £25 to £5 because it was nearly (or was it just) out of date....bargain Dave says “we’ll have a bit of THAT!“
Also we visited Nevisport in Fort Bill so Dave could buy a map of the area and we could stock up/gaze at outdoors goodies. Stu with his (to me) mild Scottish accent asked for a tide time table, he received a blank look, a tide time table! Again and a few more blank looks “time when the sea goes up and down” *blank*
Me with my Midlands accent “sorry he’s Scottish, a t-i-d-e t-i-m-e-t-a-b-l-e”
To which she answered in the broadest Scottish accent you could ask for “noo don’t sell them here”

Our turn for the puzzled looks.

Our view off the car park at Fort Bill...


Provisions bought we set off to our destination ....Loch Shiel. Upon arrival at the Glenfinnan end we gazed upon the loch in all its wild glory, however the wind was still a gusting and with a fair amount of fetch the waves were rolling in complete with white horses, today paddling was a no go. (We are in Scotland in January what did we expect?) this was a mantra I repeated to myself over and over again in the following days.




Stu piped up “I know a wild camping spot just up the road” we “U” turned and headed back from whence we came for a mile or two to a small car park/picnic spot next to one of the crystal clear rivers that feeds Loch Sheil.

Campsite 1


We pitched our tents in some trees, here the ground was boggy, fortunately for me I had bought my snow pegs and they worked a treat as normal pegs were easily pulled out the sloppy ground. Nearby was a small road bridge, it was here that we set up our evening retreat, our starter was pea and ham soup followed by a scrummy beef curry, washed down with some wine, life is good. It was soon time for bed as the clock was saying eight:-0 it had been a long day after all. A quick gulp of Woods rum each whilst staring at the stars this was enough to send us to our tents to find the land of nod.......
During the night the wind howled and the rain fell horizontal most of the time(We are in Scotland in January what did we expect)
In the night the sound of the river had altered, not a lot but enough for me to investigate, ok I popped my head out from under the flysheet, it had risen by about a foot, hmmm thinks I, I’d better keep an eye out and so I did I dozed and peeped, dozed and peeped until dawn. I think I dozed a lot more than I peeped because by morning the river had dropped back down to the level it was when we arrived.

The following morning the water was but a few inches away from touching the pegs of my guy ropes


After breakfast and after we had broke and tidied up our camp we also tidied up after others who had left a couple of bin bags worth of rubbish, why do they do that?

The Feast that broke the fast

Time again to check out the loch, it was all systems go! YES!

[-Tim-]

Part 5, Loch Sheil canoe camp...

We unloaded the boats and gear by yet another crystal clear river, lowered them down a twenty foot muddy bank and tied them up, Dave and Stu set off for an epic car ferry, whilst Andy and I chatted and then paddled our boats in the flow then chatted some more, hid from the rain, the chatted.
Now about one hundred meters upstream was a small piece of white water. I thought that I would kick myself if I didn’t go and have a look, so I paddled and polled up to it when I heard Andy holler “they are here!” it was 1500hrs



We put our boats into the water and reached the bridge to what looked like eight inch standing waves, no wait these were not standing waves but waves, proper waves, waves that came from the loch!


Oh dear the wind must have picked up again and picked up it had once out in the loch the waves were about two foot tall, the boats were coming off the tops of the waves and slapping down into the troughs only to be lifted out of the water again. If only I could have got the camera out and timed it perfectly the picture would have been exceptional, but as I was battling with the wind that was a no go. We passed a boat that had not fared as well in these conditions as all was showing above the water was the bow, or was it the stern, who knows??


Heads down we pushed on until we all reached some shelter afforded by an outcrop of rock, the planned campsite was out of the question it was too far to paddle in these conditions (We are in Scotland in January what did we expect) with the light now starting to fade we needed a campsite and we needed it soon, Dave and I scouted the next cove and to our delight we found a great campsite, a sheltered one at that.
Dave went back to get Andy and Stu whilst I started to put up the tarp,




again the land was boggy and again the snow pegs came into their own.
With the boats upside down and tethered to a tree we pitched our tents.




We spent the evening hunkered in the shelter of the tarp while Dave rustled up chicken fajitas cooked over a fire box which was raised off the ground, the wood indecently did its best not to burn, but we persevered and in the end by chopping through the wood exposing the dryer bits and also using cotton wool and Vaseline we got it going. We were determined to cook on an open fire!



For pudding we demolished the Whisky Cake which due to us being in Scotland was doused in Whisky Sauce, again being in Scotland the whisky sauce was just plain old malt whisky, yum de yum yum!
That night the hail came down in a wild maelstrom of white hard pebbles drumming on the roof of my tent, I peeped out and saw the tarp material had sagged with the damp and the hail had started to “pool” up, a hurried tarp rescue operation was instigated and within minutes I had it sorted before I snuggled back into my sleeping bag(s).

[-Tim-]

At this stage of the adventure time was immaterial, it was light (just) so we broke camp and it was decided to put some paddling time in before breakfast before the wind picked up.





Again the weather was clear enough for a fantastic vista of snow covered mountains, the kind of mountains you drew as a child, the sides of the mountains dropped dramatically into the loch....WOW! Whilst soaking up the views (and the rain) on a hill side a deer was spotted along with another, WOW again. Stu pointed out a campsite (for another time mabe), a small bay with a flat beach area and a few trees, the bay had a small island in it, ok it was a rock that jutted out of the water but it was great just to paddle around.




Within what was an hour or two (as I said time was immaterial) we pulled up on a fantastic beach again the views were stunning, the Trangia stove was lit and porridge of the microwavable variety was in order. It was here that we had an epiphany, Jelly babies are the food of the canoe gods (cue light streaming down from the heavens like a Monty Python sketch complete with an animated trumpet fanfare), eat them raw and they give you a bit of a sugar boost, drop one into hot water for a fruity warming drink and add them to porridge for some sweetness.



Rejuvenated and enlightened we paddled on wards into the wind. Dinner time today was nonexistent none of us were hungry, maybe we were fed by the views who knows? We paddled and rested padded and rested until it was time for us to look for a campsite, one was found on the map, a flat piece of land with a small stream flowing through it.
We were tired as we pulled up to the beach, after scouting the immediate area it was deemed far too wet because the stream did not drain directly into the loch but as soon as it hit the flat land it dispersed and water logged the whole area. We moved further round to where the land was not so water logged, it was still wet mind, I pushed my fingers into the earth and a puddle formed....interesting.


The tarp was set up and soon after the tents were erected, it was here my fears of a porous groundsheet was realized, this was easily overcome by various plastic sacks and a bivi bag, I was unimpressed!





Disaster strikes one of our team.

Dave went for a wander to phone to His wife Gill, he was away for a while when we heard groaning and various other strange noises, thinking it was a Dave and Gill thing we left them to it but as it went on we had to investigate it. We found Dave writhing in agony; he had slipped on the dodgy ground and dislocated his knee cap, an old injury of his. We supported him and administered first aid before telling him why we took so long to get to him, bless him he saw the funny side.

Tea that night was various cup a soups followed by Chorizo sausage in noodles with a chilli sauce again cooked by Dave the limping campfire chef.



I had previously prepared a bannock mixture at home and was dying to use it, so bannock for pudding it was, but being as we were in an extravagant mood I added some fruit and from the alcohol stash came a bottle of woods rum with an alcohol level at 57% and me with quite a few cuts on my fingers made the mixing a painful experience, but boy it was worth it. I have to add we had custard with the bannock of which we ended up with surplus, out came the jelly babies and a new pudding was invented.




I had been monitoring the temperature with a cheap thermometer but I don’t think it was any good we resorted to seeing how thick the olive oil came out of the bottle to determine the temperature, the olive oil when used that day came out with the consistency of margarine.


Full and tired one by one we made our way to our tents.

It was dark when we started to break camp and was eating breakfast at 0800, during the night the wind had dropped and by “morning” it had turned 180 degrees, time to sail up...



Andy’s boat was newly rigged up for sailing especially for this trip and although he had sailing experience he had never sailed a canoe before and we couldn’t risk a dunking dry suited up or not, so with this in mind I rafted up with Andy, Stu sailed his boat and Dave wanted to try his small downwind sail. It was my first time sailing too but as the boats were tied together as a catamaran they were as stable as well....... two canoes tied together.


I enjoyed the sailing however whilst we were not paddling we were not generating any heat and started to chill down a bit, my “waterproof mitts” were found not to be waterproof although wet they retained the warmth protecting them from the wind chill.



Now there is a light hearted debate going on in the open canoe world about which is the fastest colour for a canoe, with this in mind.....
Stu says to Dave “Why are you in front? I’ve got a big sail on my (red) boat and you’ve got a small sail on your (green) boat!”
Enough said on that matter.

We pulled in to Eilean Fhianain commonly known as burial island

“The Chapel, c.1500 Believed to have been built to replace a wooden structure by Allan MacRuari, 4th Chief of Clanranald, "the dread and terror of all neighbouring clans". Abandoned 17th century, since when all dressings have been robbed. The rubble walls still enclose a stone altar slab, with a seamless bronze bell of Early Christian type (possibly 10th century), a small cross in a niche, plus various important graveslabs, including one much weathered example of the Iona School, c. late 15th century, depicting a sword and foliage scrolls. Among the many monuments scattering Eilean Fhianain in the shelter of hawthorn, larch and Scots pine are several late medieval graveslabs and a group of weathered cruciform stones, probably 18th century.”



We snacked on chocolates and sweets to keep our energy levels up, a quick look around the island but as the wind was cutting through everything chilling us down (We are in Scotland in January what did we expect) we didn’t stay too long, back into the boats for the final stretch.
After about half an hour or so the wind dropped, more so than that there was not even a breath of wind, the loch now turned into a mill pond.



By now it was obvious that Dave was struggling due to his injury, it wasn't wise to progress into moving water, the Loch Shiel adventure ended today. Plan B was beginning to be implemented but first we needed a break before the car shuttle. We moored our boats up at the slipway and made our way to the pub.....which was closed. A cafe come bakers was open so four soggy dry suited unshaven paddlers filled the small shop requesting coffees, outside of the shop was some benches and tables where plans were made. The owner of the shop offered free top ups to our coffees, what a guy.

Next installment will be the "plan B" Loch Lomond.

Cheers
Tim

[BJ]

Fabulous travelogue, great photo's.

[Tigger004]

Truly excellent writeup, a good mix of humour and serious script broken by great photos, this is one jealous reader sat here just wishing I had been there, thanks I enjoyed that...

[jus_young]

Awesome write up Tim.

[-Tim-]

Dave and Stu set off for the cars with help of a fellow Stu knows. Andy and I walked up to the post office/cafe we arrived there at about five to four and ordered more coffee, after a chat to the ladies who ran the cafe part they told us they were closing at four but will speak to the postmistress to see if she would allow us to stay there until half past and she did. I have to say here that the Scottish people in the “middle of no-where” were very very nice.

After what seems to be ages were back in the cars and heading off to the Glenfinnan railway sleeper carriage for a night of luxury a shower and a real dry bed.
0600 hrs my alarm goes off....loudly Dave woke up whilst I frantically searched for the phone turned off the alarm before I returned to my slumber. It wasn’t only Dave that woke up but the rest of the carriage oops and to make it worse I was the only one to go back to sleep. That morning I was on the receiving end of some frowns, (note to self turn off alarm)


A quick shopping trip at Fort William before the road trip to our next destination Loch Lomond.
The scenery whilst driving through Glen Coe and Rannoch Moor was stunning even through the driving rain.



Markers six foot high line the sides of the roads and along with permanent gates with a sign saying “Road closed due to snow” today they were open but it shows how wild the winter weather in this part of the country can be.

We arrived at the put in at Loch Lomond. Where we unloaded the boats off the cars and filled them up with our soggy camping gear.
By now the wind was up again blowing down the Loch, our put in was at Luss and the first part of the paddle there is an unprotected channel of water that the wind just howled down, so we ferry glided across until we were in the lee of an island, we paddled around the bottom of the island a short hop later we were on Inchconnachan. We landed on a small spit of land.



More tarpology was the order of the day as wind howled across our campsite, a wind break made up of a canoe, one tarp, four canoe poles and two trees protected the cooking/social shelter.




It was here we celebrated Burns night with Haggis, Neeps and Tatties with whiskey sauce, being in Scotland it wasn’t whiskey sauce but malt whiskey splashed over the top. The Haggis was not cut but “savaged” with an axe and a poem recited...


Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae let the Lord be thankit.

Huddled under the tarp with the wind howling and the odd spit of rain we ate a fantastic meal and drank the last of the whiskey.....Good times.



The following morning I was up early (again) and decided to explore the island by foot, in search of the islands Wallabies introduced by Lady Colquhoun.








Wallaby tracks...


It is one of the very few places outside Australia which has a viable population of wallabies. None could be found by me although on one of the beaches I saw tracks that could only have been made by a marsupial. I saw a small wooden bungalow that was built in the 1920’s, the bungalow was the holiday home of Lady Arran Colquhoun.




I had been out for a good two hours and the guys were up and about when I arrived back at camp. After a chat we decided that today was the end of the adventure as bad weather was coming our way and as it was late in the week we couldn't afford to be land locked for days on end. But we managed to fit in a circumnavigation of the island before we packed away. It goes without saying the views were stunning and was good to paddle an un laden boat again and in such glorious surroundings to boot.













Once again we were back in the boats and ferry gliding across the water to the cars, with freezing fingers we lashed the boats tight to the roof. As we tidied up the straps the first flurry of snow came down.
With the mysterious Wee Man from Argyle once again tapping on the roof we commenced on our road trip home.

Cheers

Tim