Scotland day 2

Today we are going to hike a trail to Loch Muick, which is somewhere on the estate of Balmoral. ( We will visit Balmoral estate another day). This actually turned out to be a very pleasant, if tiring day. The loch is beautiful; the hillsides were covered in heather, in bloom; the trail started out on a nice, wide dry path. The kids were a bit bored, but we adults enjoyed just looking at the loch and the hills. We stopped for lunch on the grassy lawn leading down to the loch of what appeared to be a private home, but obviously was no longer occupied. The gnats drove us away from the water and we walked on to the end of the loch. At that point things got – well - interesting. The trail around the end was muddy, but there was a sandy beach, so the kids were happy. We continued on up the trail, which began to climb the hill. It was a bit muddy, but not too bad, although it became more and more narrow. It also began to have more and more rocks, and these rocks got bigger and bigger. The girls were delighted! They loved picking their way from boulder to boulder, avoiding the puddles. Olivia got so far ahead of the rest of us that she was out of sight. I managed to catch up with her for a while, but it was a bit tricky underfoot. We continued to climb until we were perhaps 75 feet above the loch. It was a challenging trail, but we made it all the way around – 8 miles! My legs ached and I was ready to just sit for the rest of the day. I think I got some great photos, though. There will be many photos on flickr, but they aren't sorted yet.