On the Steep, Steep Side of Ben Lomond

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I woke up this morning a little late—the hostel was providing breakfast at 8 am, and I woke up at 8:15. I wandered out into the group kitchen. The breakfast looked lovely—cereals, biscuits, croissants, and yogurts—but after two days of flying and an eight mile hike, I needed a shower. So I grabbed a biscuit on my way back to the showers.

Bad idea: we hiked Ben Lomond today and it was a lot harder than I expected. But first we had a quick session of our literature class to talk about Robert Burns, the poet who wrote the words to “Loch Lomond,” which is a really great song that has been running constantly through my head while we were here. I like Burns’ poetry a lot because it has a good rhythm for being read out loud.

We finally left for the hike at about 10:30. Remember I’m hiking with a shoulder bag because of my broken arm. The bit is through a forest, but then we hit a sign that says “Warning: Forestry Work.” That’s the understatement of the century—the next stretch was just stumps of trees that had been cut down. The acres of dead stumps and branches had a huge impact on me—now I think I understand better why Hugh Nibley was so impacted by his grandfather’s logging business. It was a devastating sight.

The rest of the hike is solid uphill and I was definitely not in shape for it. Once you got near the top, it started to get very windy as well. But, in spite of rocks and wind, I made it to the top! Hurrah for the gimp! Luckily, the weather has been clear the whole time we’ve been here, so I got some really good shots from the top of the mountain. The wind was so strong at the top, even I was worried about being blown off. And the sides up there were really steep—“on the steep, steep side of Ben Lomond” indeed!

I hiked down the mountain with John Bennion. I asked him about the “forestry work” when we got to that part of the hike. He explained that the British have a rather different attitude towards forests than we do. Since the British Isles have been so long inhabited by people who change the landscape, there really isn’t any genuine wilderness like there is in America. Everything has been shaped and changed by man. Therefore, they see their forests as more of a resource to be managed than an asset to be preserved. They have regularly scheduled rotations of planting and harvesting trees. It’s an interesting mindset. I like the fact that they are replanting, which is more responsible than what Americans sometimes do, but I’m not sure how I feel about viewing nature as purely a “resource” to be farmed.

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