Tag Archives: walk

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel

Old Trees, Stone Fence

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Old Trees, Stone Fence
“Old Trees, Stone Fence” — Old trees grow against a moss-covered stone wall in the forest along the Great Glen Way, Scotland.

From years of hiking in California and backpacking in the Sierra Nevada, I’m familiar with hiking in wilderness terrain. In those places the signs of human visitors are mostly subtle: a cleared area where people have camped, trails, blaze marks on trees, and occasional rustic dam raising a lake’s water level by a few feet. The experience is very different along Scotland’s Great Glen Way, the 80 mile trail between Fort William and Inverness. Here the marks of human presence are almost constantly visible. It isn’t all bad — each evening we stayed in nice lodging and ate great meals!

I made the photograph on the final day of our weeklong walk. We had assumed that it would be an easy day, since it would bring us to our final destination, it didn’t cross any high mountains, and it seemed (in a somewhat misleading way) to be short. We started in pasture-land and then entered forest… as the rain began. It continued for hours, all the way into Inverness. Here the route skirted a private forest (see the barbed wire!) lined with a very old, moss-covered rock wall.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel

Forest and Loch

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Forest and Loch
“Forest and Loch” — Forest scene above Loch Lochy on the Great Glen Way, Scotland.

Scotland’s Great Glen Way runs between Fort William in the south and Inverness in the north, roughly following the route of the Caledonian Canal connecting a series of “lochs,” or long lakes. To generalize, the route takes walkers (and some cyclists) through several kinds of terrain — along the shoreline of the lochs, on level paths next to the canal, past agricultural areas, through hillside forests, and occasionally to the highlands country. Almost everywhere, with the partial exception of the highlands, everything is green… as in this photograph of a hillside forest, one of the lochs, and distant mountains.

The body of water is Loch Lochy, one of the three lochs on the route. (The others are the smaller Loch Oich and the huge Loch Ness.) There would normally a route closer to its shoreline, but trail work took us up into the mountains on this day, and through many forested sections like this one. The Scottish forests are dense and very green, but they are also managed for forestry. It isn’t unusual to be walking through thick woods and suddenly come upon heavy logging equipment and hillsides denuded of trees. The foreground in this picture is one such area after some years of regrowth.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel

Forest Above Loch Ness

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Forest Above Loch Ness
“Forest Above Loch Ness — “Forest with green moss along the Great Glen Way above Loch Ness, Scotland.

This photograph comes from the second-to-last day of our walk on Scotland’s Great Glen Way . Every day was different, but this one stood out in several ways. First of all, we hiked it “backwards.” On every other day we hiked toward our destination of Inverness. But this time we were dropped off north of Lewiston, where we were staying, and we walked back toward town. A few miles into the walk we encountered our most exposed highland terrain as we crossed a high, windy ridge and then descended to re-enter forest.

This spot along that descent was a lovely surprise. Much of the forest land we had walked through was dense with trees, blocking the light and cutting off distant views. But on this bench high above Loch Ness we found this open and softly lit section of forest carpeted with green moss. Through the trees and far below we could see Loch Ness.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: England, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Travel

The Shores of Loch Ness

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The Shores of Loch Ness
“The Shores of Loch Ness” — Trees grow next to sheep pastures along the shore of Loch Ness near Drumnadrochit, Scotland.

Perhaps you noticed — Patty and I were traveling from mid-May through early June. We spent three weeks in Scotland, followed by a visit to York and London. The main focus of the trip was to complete the “Great Glen Walk,” a weeklong 80 mile trek from Fort William to Inverness. It was, in almost all ways, quite different from our familiar Sierra Nevada pack trips and hikes — the terrain was almost entirely different, and we stayed in various civilized accommodations each night. So civilized, in fact, that they served us breakfast and packed lunches for us!

I made this photograph of the very green Scottish landscape on the second-to-last day of our walk, which ended in Drumnadrochit, very close to Loch Ness. It was a bit of an odd day. For one thing, we hiked this section “in reverse,” starting well north of town and walking back there. It also took us to one of the highest points on the walk, a wild and windy place above timberline. That aside, much of the hike was through lush and green forests, and here through an area of sheep pastures. Stay tuned: there are many more photographs to come!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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