Tiani Brueggert had been planning her family's weeklong camping trip around Loch Ness for months. Although her husband, Joel, and their two teenage daughters, Chloe and McKailey, preferred to stay in bed-and-breakfasts, Tiani would hear none of it, insisting her "average American family" rough it in tents along the legendary banks of the Loch.

Their backpacks loaded with gear, the Brueggerts set out on their walking tour in Fort Augustus, the Loch's southernmost town. An eighteen-mile trail awaited them as they hiked north past scenic Loch Ness through forests heavy in spruce and pine.

The first day's journey ended eight hours later in Invermoriston. Crossing the Telford Bridge, the Brueggerts posed in photos of the majestic Moriston Falls, then followed the river farther west, but by seven-thirty, they were back in the village, their bodies spent.

The sun was still high when they stopped for dinner at the Glenmoriston Arms Tavern and Bistro. Two hours later, the exhausted family finally made camp on the banks of Loch Ness, just southwest of the inlet. There were dozens of other campers at the site, most on holiday from Europe. A few were fishing, all were enjoying the remains of a Highland summer sunset.

By the time they had crawled into their sleeping bags, the graying skies had darkened into storm clouds, and the Glen's southeasterly breeze had intensified, whipping up whitecaps on the Loch's threatened surface.

The more experienced campers quickly battened down, anticipating a rough night.

The two Brueggert girls were in their tent, having fallen asleep within minutes of their heads hitting their pillows. Joel was lying on his side next to his wife, reading by flashlight, but Tiani was in too much pain to sleep. It was the second day of her period, the heaviest bleeding day of her menstrual cycle. Her lower back ached, and both her ankles were swollen from the day's hike. She knew another long day lie ahead, having scheduled her family to be in Drumnadrochit by the next night, and the trail would be steep one—assuming she could even get her feet back into her hiking boots by morning.

Swallowing two more aspirin, she turned to her husband. "I'll be back in a few minutes, I want to soak my ankles before it rains. Joel?"

Her husband mumbled a reply, his eyes already closed.

Tiani crawled out of the tent, pulling on her hooded navy sweatshirt against the wind. Locating the wooded path leading to the Loch, she staggered gingerly through the forest down the sloping trail, her flashlight barely cutting the darkness.

The pain forced her to pause at a park bench situated in a small clearing littered with trash from an overflowing steel barrel, then she continued down the steepening path to the shoreline.