Scotland

Mountain bothies are small buildings that can be used by hikers and backpackers as shelters or a place to get out of bad weather and warm up. Many are old buildings on hunting estates that the owners have set aside for use …

I’ve backpacked across Scotland twice now in the TGO Challenge and I’m getting pretty good at figuring out what gear to bring. Still there were a few standout items on my gear list and a few bombs that I should have left …

Days 7-13 (goto Part 1) Although our stay in Aviemore was brief – just the one night – it was good to get a hot shower, dry out my gear, and refuel at the Indian Restaurant next to the Youth Hostel. Aviemore …

I got back from the UK a few days ago after a 3 week hiking trip which included backpacking across Scotland with my friend Martin Rye in the 2013 TGO Challenge and a trip to the Lake District to visit Heather and Alan …

Liathach is probably the most famous of the Torridon Hills, a cluster of mountains located in a remote section of the Western Highlands on the Atlantic Coast side of Scotland. Meaning The Grey One in Scottish Gaelic, Liathach dwarfs the tiny hamlet of Torridon, …

I am flying to Scotland in less than two weeks to participate in the TGO Challenge, backpacking across the country for 15 days. I’ll be accompanied on this hike by two teammates, Martin Rye from Northern England and Grant Sible from Austin, …

One of the most time consuming parts of the TGO Challenge, a 15 day coast-to-coast backpacking event held every May, is getting to the one’s start point on the west coast of Scotland. Challengers are required to start at one of 12 …

Martin Rye, Grant Sible and I have been planning our Scotland coast-to-coast backpacking route for the past month. We’ll be walking together as a team in the 2013 TGO Challenge this May, an annual backpacking event, where 300 hikers hike from the …

The TGO Challenge is an annual backpacking event held in Scotland that requires participants to hike coast-to-coast across Scotland, about 200 miles in 15 days. This is very challenging because hiking across the mountain ranges and moors of Scotland is very rugged …

Big news last week – I got onto the TGO Challenge for May 2013, a coast-to-coast cross-country backpack across Scotland. This is an annual event where 300 hikers cross the country during the same 15-day period using different routes that they’ve defined …

I am an emotional dishrag. I gave a talk this week, at the Appalachian Mountain Club in Boston, about my hike across Scotland last year in the TGO Challenge. The talk went great. I had an audience of 60 people and they …

Major Gear System Changes I made some pretty big changes to my gear list for The Challenge this year, replacing leather boots with trail runners, swapping in an ultralight cuben fiber backpack, using chlorine dioxide tablets for water purification instead of a …

From the Hills to the Sea After wild camping at Shielin of Mark, I started the last phase of my journey across Scotland, leaving the hills and mountains behind and walking through glen and farmland to the sea. I was sad to …

The Magnificent Trees of Glen Feshie, Day 8 The Cairngorms to Shielin of Mark Looking back on my Challenge crossing this year, the most exciting days for me were the 3 days following my zero day in Kinguissie where I walked down …