The next day we left Dryden and Francis and continued on our way. The sun was again shining and today promised to be as amazing as the day before. It wasn’t long before we were climbing through another wooded area and the view opened up. This time it wasn’t just the Highlands but also Loch Lomond in the distance. Again, being up so high gave us a view we couldn’t believe. And suddenly we were hiking through the tall grasses with a large Loch within view.

The area was highland with few trees and very very beautiful fall colors adorning the tall grasses of brown, gold, purple, pink, orange, and even in patches, bright bright green grass. That was one thing about Scotland that was very interesting, there was no brown grass other than the tall grasses on the hills. Every bit of the shorter grass was so green and so unlike fall grass back home. Also, the birds still sing in the fall which is not at all what they do in America. With the trees starting to turn, and the crispness in the air, it was wonderful. And we started to see more sheep as we went along. Once overhead, I saw a Falcon and heard it’s cry. (Oh, that is one thing I forgot about the post about the first day. We saw a guy who had a golden eagle, just showing him off and talking about him in the middle of Dryden’s square. It was enormous!)

While stopping for lunch in with the loch view on our left and Conic Hill in front, we sat on the stone wall and just looked around the countryside while Marc read us the first few pages of The Hobbit. It was perfect.

And then we started our climb of Conic Hill which was quite a feat and very amazing. The view just kept getting better and better as we climbed higher and higher. Marc, Jordan and I climbed the rest of the way to the top and saw the most amazing sight I think I have ever seen in my life. Conic Hill is pretty large and very tall. From the top we could see even more of Loch Lomond and the tiny islands that dot its surface. All around us the highlands rolled in hills of gold and the purple of heather. We stayed for a bit and I sat down to write but didn’t get much down because I just wanted to take in the view forever. I wanted to stay, but we had to keep going. That was probably my favorite place of all time.

We climbed down the hill (after meeting some Canadians and Americans that Isaiah (who had gone on before us) had talked to and told to look out for us). At the bottom of the hill there was this nice little wood. We stopped at a small town and had some delicious ice cream and talked to this older Scottish man (which Isaiah had also met before when he went on ahead), and we learned that Scotland in the Highlands had not had the warm (It had to almost be in the 70s) and sunny weather at this time of year for at least 20 years. We were shocked. God had blessed us so much to hike in beautiful weather!

We continued on our way, this time, right next to Loch Lomond, no longer that high up in the highlands. The Loch was beautiful. It was neat to see the tiny tree covered islands and see the clear water. In America, I have never seen water that clear although I suppose that it is that clear perhaps high in the Rocky Mountains or something, but we have so much pollution that you can’t normally see the bottom of the lakes. In Loch Lomond you could see the bottom. The air was so clear and the water was so cold, and it looked like glass it hardly moved. Francis had told me that the water in that part of Scotland is so good that they bottle it and send it all over the world. And after tasting that water, I believe her. It tasted clear and cold and crisp, if water could. I’ve never had water that good. We could have drunk out of the streams (which we never did because we had water bottles, but we definitely could have because it wasn’t polluted and gross).

We met a girl from the University of Glasgow who was studying in the Highlands for a week. She told us not to go off the path because the ground is so soft you can sink up to your waist in mud (which she had done previously that day). The moss in the forest was so green. We climbed up one of the hills again and ended our hike in Rowardennan.

When we got to the hotel (which we had booked that morning to make sure we had a place to stay. It was difficult finding one), we were expecting to stay in the bunk house but something messed up and we ended up staying in a REALLY NICE room in the hotel part which normally was like 80-90 pounds but the manager was so nice and let us pay 60 pounds total. We couldn’t believe it. We had a really good meal at the pub attached to the inn. I had fish and chips because the fish was from the Loch and fresh (it was the best fish I’ve ever had in that dish), and I ate it all even though it was huge. Then I had apple pie with custard over it. The custard was absolutely amazing.

And thus ends day 2.