Scottish Highlands Service Trip and Barge Cruise

I do not remember which I discovered first, the writings of John Muir or the Sierra Club. My familiarity with Muir and my membership in the Sierra Club both date back to 1975 or 1976. My love of Scotland, Muir’s birthplace, is more recent. I first visited there in 2000 and again in 2001. I hope to someday go back, to kayak around the Inner Hebrides, especially around Oban, and to climb Ben Nevis. I wish I could join New York state resident Richard Grayson’s Friday, April 9 through Tuesday, April 20, 2010 Scottish Highlands Service Trip and Barge Cruise, a Sierra Club Service Outing to John Muir’s land of birth. According to Richard, this will be “the Sierra Club's first international service trip in some 15 years.”

Richard has been a Sierra Club member since the 1960’s and a Trip Leader for several years. I recently met Richard and had the opportunity to hear from him firsthand about the upcoming Sierra Club Service Trip to Scotland that he will be leading. I promised him I would give the trip some PR on Summit to Shore.

After meeting in Inverness, the largest city in the Highlands, trip participants will work with a Scottish environmental organization in such activities as fence removal and planting native trees in the forests of the Highlands. Trip participants will work six days, with Wednesday being a free day to explore. During the work week, the group will stay in small accommodations with communal cooking facilities. After the work week concludes, everyone will board a barge for a four day, three night slow and scenic cruise down Loch Ness. The trip will end in Fort William, near Ben Nevis, the highest point in Great Britain. Visit the the Sierra Club web site for a complete brochure: