After a quick breakfast in the hostel's kitchen, Grant and I headed into Fort William to catch an 8:45 am bus back to Spean Bridge. With only 40 minutes to cover the distance I knew it would be close, especially when we reached Fort William and still had several blocks to go and only about 5 minutes. With one minute before the bus would leave I was jogging around the train station. Happily I saw the bus sitting there with the door open. Just as I reached the tail of the bus, the door shut and I sprinted forward. Looking through the glass door I smiled and waved to the driver. A long pause followed before he grudgingly opened the door and let Grant and I in.

Before walking out of Spean Bridge, we had to doctor Grant's foot, which was developing a good-sized blister on his little toe. We taped the toe and he popped a few ibuprofen and we set off to retrace our steps from yesterday, back to Gairlochy.

A few patches of blue sky greeted us as we headed past the Commando Memorial again and we rejoined the Great Glen Way at 10:30. The route quickly led us down to the shore of our first lake, Loch Lochy. After all the walking on roads and canal paths we were happy to be on a real single-track trail and watching the dynamic shoreline, rather than the static canal.

Looking back, we could make out the vanishing form of Ben Nevis in the clouds down the valley. We stopped several times along the way to take pictures, skip stones, admire creeks flowing down toward the Loch or say "hello" to other walkers. I hoped the route would contain more sections like this in the following days.

Eventually, our path ended, and we were forced back onto the blacktop. At least the road wasn't busy, and we still had occasional views of the marshy shores around Loch Lochy. Just before noon, the enthusiastic cycling Scotsman passed us by, cheering about the lack of rain. And a few seconds later his wife peddled past, trying to keep up.

As we contemplated lunch and reached the end of this road walk, the rains finally came. We found cover along the shoreline under some fir trees with a great view. After a leisurely lunch, we continued on, walking on a dirt and gravel forest road.

The road climbed above the loch and occasional logged sections of former forest gave views to the water below. The walking was pleasant as we passed many small streams and waterfalls while the clouds began to break up. Our forest path finally ended at a gate, and we completed our traverse of Loch Lochy via a gravel road that connected with the Laggan locks at the northern end of the lake. Just before reaching the canal locks, we crossed over a marshy area and a grey heron flew right overhead. The clouds had vanished over the Great Glen and the sun poured down out of the sky. We stopped at the locks and just enjoyed the warmth and light of the valley.

While we needed to follow the canal into Laggan, thankfully the trail didn't stay on a towpath. Instead it wandered through a narrow forest as a single-track hiking path. At an aqueduct, the trail neared the main highway, and we walked that south a few hundred meters to the Loch Lochy hostel. The hostel didn't open up for another hour and a half, so we sat out in the front lawn, reading and further enjoying the sunlight. A few other hostel guests arrived and also waited around for the doors to unlock.

At 5 a hand pushed open the front door and quickly disappeared. We headed inside and selected some bunks and promptly left again to find some dinner. Grant and I headed back to the trail and took it further north to the Great Glen Water Park. We were still early for the restaurant to open, so we went upstairs and enjoyed a pint of Guinness. At dinner we each had a "Sheepshagger" ale.