Healthy Heart

     There is something fascinating about the heart of things. Whenever you reach it, you feel that you really know whatever it is that contains that heart. In people it is reached over time and is brought out slowly as trust builds between them, and as the relationship grows the heart becomes more and more evident. The heart of a place is something that contains so much that is the epitome of that place. Scotland is unique because it offers both opportunities. As I have grown in relationships with people here I have begun to get a sense of the pulse and spirit of the people. But until last weekend, I had yet to experience the Heart of Scotland. It is an actual forest located in an area that could also be referred to as the heart of Scotland, right near the center. A beautiful forest on an average day I am sure, it was stunning last weekend when I got to visit. The autumn colors were fully on display and the sound of the rivers, waterfalls, and streams were present all around. Moss was everywhere and there were so many different types of trees! Much different experience than a Colorado forest to say the least.

     Some of my Scottish friends I have made while here, Jan and Malcolm, offered to take my American friend, Dan, and I along with their Northern Irish flat mate, Andrew, along for a weekend away to Aberfeldy to experience a great piece of Scotland. We stayed in a cottage next to a river:

     Our main objective for the weekend, aside from just enjoying some time away, was to climb a hill called Shiehallion (sha-how-yun, as far as I understand), which is a Gaelic word that according to Wikipedia means "fairy hill of the Caledonians." Check your sources, I do not know a single word of Gaelic. Now, having climbed at least one mountain in my life and having lived at higher elevation my whole life than the highest peak in Scotland, I figured this hike would be a walk in the park. And to be fair, the actual physical demand of the hike was not that high. Typically, however, a person does not expect to have to hike through a hurricane. As we made it up quite a bit of the hike it began to rain and the wind began to howl. The rain was horizontal and I had to walk leaning left just to walk straight. Being the rugged and experienced mountain man that I am, I had decided before the hike that jeans would not be a bad idea because it was cold. Again, I failed to take into account a chance for hurricane. As my jeans turned to "jeggings," my movement became impaired, and it was about this point that we lost the path. The weather was nuts, and we could not see all that far ahead of us, so shout out to the Eagle Scout, we decided it would be best to turn around.

We still got some great photos and certainly walked away with an incredible memory. I saw a boat I would love to own, although part of that may have been the setting:

And if that's my boat this would be my backyard:

And this would be my view from that dock:

So in the end, a failed hike did nothing to spoil the weekend. It was great, finished hike or not.