John Muir Trust work party at Li and Coire Dhorrcail, 15th to 19th April.

Woaw, so this was a fabulous introduction to a John Muir Trust (JMT) work party, and the JMT ethos.  The JMT is all about protecting, or enhancing the fabulous wild parts of our country.  The work, and end goal is similar to that of Trees for Life (TFL), but the two organisations’ approach is very different.  Whereas TFL can appear to come across as a very tree focused organisation (something it really isn’t), the JMT presents itself as an organisation protecting the wilderness experience.

However, TFL state that they are restoring a wild forest, for it’s own sake.  And JMT plant trees, manage the deer population to encourage regeneration and see trees as part of a healthy ecosystem.

The format of the JMT work party was a little different to what I’m used to.  JMT don’t provide accommodation or food and transport to site.  But the work parties are free.  This one was the most hardcore one I could see on the list.  A 9 mile (yes, that’s nine miles) walk in to the spot where we would wild camp, with all our kit, would ensure that I would be sure to meet some fantastically experienced, or foolhardy fellow volunteers.

I’d somehow roped Manoj into accompanying me, and on the 12th we began our road trip, stopping at John Garrett’s over night.  We then drove to Fort William so that I could introduce him to Heather and Stuart, whilst wishing them well on their forthcoming cycle ride to NZ (cycling to NZ, hmm, now that’s an idea, more about that in a future entry…).  The next morning we picked up a few last minute supplies and drove to Kinloch Hourn.  It took slightly longer than expected thanks to the 22 mile single track road.  We then walked the 9 miles in.

Bizarrely, even though the path to Barrisdale was totally unsuitable for it, one of the work party attendees, Doug, decided that he would cycle from the Kinloch hourn car park.  The more we walked the more I realised that Doug must be completely mental.  Perhaps not surprisingly, we caught up with Doug as we were approaching Barrisdale, three hours into the walk/cycle.  He looked like he might not make it, and commented that he was ‘running on empty’.  He seemed like a nice guy and I wasn’t looking forward to carrying him , and his bike, back to the car park.  But, just then, the path descended its final slope and turned into a vehicle track.  Doug was away, and we marched on, relieved.

Thankfully we made it the wild camp spot just before dark, pitched our tent, and then spent the next four days shitting in holes.  Oh, and we also removed some fencing materials and threw together a new footpath with a few stones that were lying around.

Many thanks to JMT’s Sandy Maxwell for putting the weekend together, and providing a brief history of JMT and John Muir one night around the camp fire.  And to Lester Standen for giving a great insight into his work for JMT out in the field, and indulging my thirst for knowledge and search for the mystery bird (which turned out to be a cheeky Reed Bunting, with a fairly strong Northern accent).

Coire Dhorrcail is amazing.  I’ve seen some magnificent landscapes whilst travelling this beautiful country, but I think this is probably the most geographically fascinating.  I love wild camping, and our little group had some great conversation around the camp fire.  If this is what JMT is all about then you can count me in…