WHW and back again

Last weekend I returned from my third time hiking the West Highland Way. He is my trip report. More pictures can be found here.

Day 0: Milngavie to Drymen

I picked up Gerry around 13:30 at the Edinburgh airport and we drove to Milngavie.

After some final shopping at Tesco (2 cans of Guinness per person for emergencies) we parked on Main Street opposite to the police station. We headed to the tiny obelisk in the center of Milngavie, shot a before picture with the MYOG stic pic and started walking around 16:00.

The weather was perfect, sunshine with some clouds and just a little bit of wind. Our initial speed was surprisingly high, with a few short interrupts for geocaches we managed to walk at more then 5 km/h. This wasn’t good enough to reach the Glengoyne Distillery in time for some whisky tasting because it closed at 16:00 already. We passed it around 18:00 and kept on walking when the sun set an hour later.

Our initial plan was to walk just a few kilometers and pitch the tents once we found a good spot. To my big surprise we were able to reach Easter Drumquhassle Farm after a nice and quick walk of 18km.

We pitched the tents, opened a Guinness and had a cold dinner. A few minutes later it started to rain so we crawled into our tents and called it a day. I was able to read a few minutes before I fell asleep.

Day 1: Drymen to Rowardennan

A rooster woke me at 7:00, after coffee and some cookies we packed our gear and headed off. The rain had stopped but it looked like it would start again any moment so we started in full rain gear. We were right, it started raining again before we reached Garadhban forest.

I had made the mistake of not wearing my waterproof socks so my feet were wet after a few minutes. The socks were pretty far down in my pack so I kept walking.

The weather got progressively worse, it was raining hard and the wind was blowing us up Conic Hill. This was not too bad compared to the wind blowing right in our faces the way down to Balmaha.

Down in Balmaha we visited the Oak Tree Inn for a great Bacon Bad Boy Double burger and I finally had the time get out the Gore-Tex socks and a dry pair of socks.

After a surprisingly good espresso we headed back out into the rain.

The trail ran close to the beach a few times. Just like the other two times I walked here I wondered how the beach would look on a sunny day and just like the other two times it was raining. But it seems like the third time was the charm. After we passed the Cashel camp site the rain stopped and a few minutes later a few rays of sunshine fought through the clouds.

We quickly decided that it was time for a break to enjoy the famous Irish isotonic drink and probably the most precious thing in Scotland: a few minutes of sunshine.

The trail snaked between the road and the lake. After a few more miles we finally reach Rowardennan and a little later the Victorian hunting lodge that houses the youth hostel.

We reached the hostel one day earlier than we originally planned but the hostel was nearly empty and it was no problem moving the reservation one day forward.

Day 2: Rest and Ben Lomond

This day was planned as a rest day but I felt pretty good and wanted to use the dry weather. Initially I wasn’t sure if I wanted to climb Ben Lomond again. I’ve been up there two times already and the summit was in clouds but I just kept walking up the short and steep route via Ptarmigan.

I was halfway up before I even noticed. When I reached the top of Ptarmigan and the lowest clouds I thought about turning aroung. It had started to drizzle and the wind was blowing again when an older Scottish hiker came the other way.

me: Hi, is visibility up there just as bad as down here?
him: <grin>It’s even worse.
me: <sigh>Why should I keep going to the summit?
him: <even_bigger_grin>Because it’s there…

And he was right so I kept going.

Visibility really was horrible on top so I stopped just long enough to take some pictures of another party and have them take my picture. Then I headed back down via the longer way to Rowardennan.

The trail down was excellent and I couldn’t resist jogging downhill. I had to slow down a few times then the trail was steep or the wet rocks looked slippery. Racing down felt great but I had to slow down intentionally to make sure I wouldn’t kill myself when it started to rain.

I covered roughly 80% of the distance running and it took me about 45min to get down 900m I climbed during the previous two hours.

After a nice hot shower and a short nap it was time for a visit the pub of the Rowardennan Hotel.

Day 3: Rowardennan – Inverarnan

Not surprisingly it was raining again when we left the next morning. My memories of the next section were pretty bad, the few kilometers around the Inversnaid hotel were the most strenuous ones on the whole WHW. To have more time we started walking early and to my surprise the path was easier than I remembered so we moved along pretty quickly

Due to the rain the last few days we passed a small waterfall every few hundred meters and shortly before we reached the Inversnaid hotel a roe deer right next to the trail but it escaped before we could shoot… a picture.

We paused in the deserted hotel for tea and a muffin. When we moved on we reached the bad parts of the trail I had remembered. Constantly climbing up or down, stepping over wet roots, mud or slippery rocks we we moved along at a snails pace.

We were happy when the torture finally ended and the trail leveled out along the shores of Loch Lomond. From a sandy beach we enjoy a great view over most of Loch Lomond before we walked on and reached the Doune Boothy a few minutes later.

Two middle aged guys were staring at a fire waiting for their noddles to cook. Both guys seemed a little slow and their behavior was explained when one of them rolled a joint and started smoking when we were about to leave.

Beinglas Farm was already close and after a pleasant walk through a birch wood we reached a little over an hour later.

We could choose our site because we were the first two tents at the site. The ground was equally wet everywhere so it didn’t really matter. When we were done we were greeted by an escaped sheep that was interested in our tents.

Beinglas Farm has a common area with a gas stove. We used it to cook dinner and I was lucky that it had a pan, too. When shopping the freeze dried food I accidentally bought Travellunch Meatballs and Mashed Potatoes which needs one.

By the time we were done it was getting dark. I was pretty tired and returned to my tent, fell asleep quickly, was woken up again by the roaming sheep moeping right next to my tent and immediately fell asleep again.

Day 4: Inverarnan – Tyndrum

Grey clouds and a light rain greeted us the next morning. After a quick breakfast I went to the tiny shop to restock. The service was just as unfriendly as our check-in the day before.

The views on the previous days were nice but this was the first time it really felt like we were in the highlands.

Sunlight shining thought the clouds on the hills around us created a few memorable views and for the first time signs of civilization weren’t constantly visible – sadly the nearby road was still audible.

The rain stopped about the time we took a small tunnel under the railroad line to get to the western side of the rails.

A few kilometers later we climbed the hill behind the Keilator Farm to reach the fork to Crianlarich and the middle of the WHW. Surprisingly it still wasn’t raining but a cold wind was blowing. Gerhard found a protected spot about 50m along the path to Crianlarich under some conifers where we sat down for 30 minutes and had lunch.

When we moved on we passed a wooden bench and table just a few hundred meters away right next to the trail. It has a stunning view over the hills and river Fillan so if you plan a break in that area, keep walking just a little longer…

The rest of the day stayed pleasant and passed quickly. We passed Kirton Farm with a gazillion sheep on the pastures around it and stopped for a hot bacon and egg roll at Strathfillan Wigwams.

A little down the road we passed a sign to a “Holy Pond” a few meters before the path crosses under A82. A 50m detour showed that the “pond” was just a wider section of River Fillan and I wouldn’t consider it a must-see on the WHW. Then we walked through the Tyndrum community forest and passed a few ponds (one supposedly with a sword) before we reached Tyndrum.

Here we pitched our tents at the By The Way hostel and campsite.

Gerry was complaining about pain at his heel and a closer examination showed that one sole had a solid bump right at that position. Fortunately Tyndrum has an outdoor store with an excellent selection where he could find a good replacement. Afterward we went for dinner in Paddy’s Bar.

Day 5: Tyndrum – Inveroran Hotel

It rained most of the night but stopped before we got up. After breakfast and a quick stop at Brodies’s to restock we continued the WHW on the military road.

It was a typical Scottish morning and we experienced sunshine, heavy wind and some rain before lunch time. At Auth we stopped for a second breakfast and successfully located another geocache.

A few minutes later we passed two Israeli hikers we had met the previous two days. They were cooking coffee and invited us to join – an offer we couldn’t refuse.

This section was probably the easiest one of the whole WHW, very little climbing and the military road was easy to walk. The drawback was a lack of great views. Most of the morning we walked with Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh to our right. Very little change while we passed them.

The views improved once we passed Bridge of Orchy and started climbing the hills behind it. We had to stop constantly to take pictures of Loch Tulla and the surrounding hills because the combination of clouds, sunshine and sometimes rainbows was exactly the reasone I love visiting Scottland.

It started to rain for real when we were about 500m away from the Inveroran Hotel. I started running for shelter but was still wet to my bone before I reached the hotel.

It looked like it won’t stop raining anytime soon so we decided to skip my favorite campsite along the WHW in favor of a real bed.

This way we got a nice dinner and had a whisky with the two Israelis, who had caught up with us, while watching The Last Samurai in the cozy sitting room. The movie was just as bad as I remembered but at least the whisky was good.

Day 6: Inveroran Hotel – Kings House Hotel – Kinlochleven

Next morning the weather was as good as it gets in the Highlands, warm with a little wind and just a few clouds. We started early and enjoyed and easy walk through the moor.

Even though it was Wednesday this was the busiest day we had seen so far. Probably due to the great weather we met more people that morning than all the other days combined.

But the good weather deteriorated and it started to rain around lunchtime when we headed down to the Glen Coe Ski Center. After a few minutes in the rain we reached Kings House Hotel where we met most of the people from the morning again.

According to them the weather was about to improve and after I checked it again online we decided to continue to Kinlochleven in hope of more sunshine and an easy walk.

We couldn’t have been more wrong. The rain steadily increased and it was pouring when we reached the bottom of Devil’s Staircase. Still hoping for an improvement we kept on walking. But when we reached the top we were greeted by hail instead of sunshine.

The trail down was flooded and the combination of X-Talon 280 plus GoreTex socks I wore got it’s first real test.

The X-Talon were not waterproof and it looked pretty funny when water was pressed out of the shoes again by the GoreTex socks. I could feel cold water every time I stepped into water and naturally assumed my feet were wet, too.

But when I checked later I was happy to see that only a few tiny spots under my heel and the ball of my feet were actually wet.

The weather improved a little on our way down to Kinlochleven but it was still a lot worse than we expected. A few showers later we finally reached the big tubes running from Blackwater reservoir down to the hydro-electric plant.

We checked into the Backwater hostel to dry our gear and get a hot shower. There we met two more Israeli hikers, two Scottish hikers and helped them empty a bottle of Johnny Walker(?).

Day 7: Kinlochleven – Fort Williams

The next morning was cloudy but at least it wasn’t raining while we climbed up from Loch Leven. The first few hundred meters the trail rose steeply upwards between birch trees until it reached the old military road again and turned into a wide trail that slowly climbs on the way to the Lairigmor pass.

Next we passed through the remains of a conifer plantation. The first time I passed here in 2005 most of the area was still covered by trees. Two years later the area looked like a battlefield and not much has changed since then.

After we passed a commemorative cairn we finally entered some woods and were protected from the wind that was constantly blowing.

The quality of the trail improved and we enjoyed some easy walking on soft trails covered by conifer needles. But this changed to the worse when we reached a junction with a small path to Dun Deardail. Here the WHW continued on some forest roads that wound downhill towards Fort Williams.

When we thought our feet couldn’t hurt any more from walking on the hard forest road the WHW reached the road between Fort William and Ben Nevis and continued on the side sideway.

Slowly we marched on. When we reached the first few buildings of Fort Williams I thought we were nearly done. But a sign at the first roundabout in Fort Williams where as far as I knew the WHW was supposed to end announced the “end of the original WHW”.

Some genius had the great idea of moving the end to the far end of the pedestrian area in the center of Fort William.

We kept on walking, clearly not happy about this decision. If they really wanted to improve the quality of the walk they should have moved the end to the summit of Ben Nevis, which would have been a fitting ending.

After another annoying two miles or so we reached the new official end of the WHW. With our torture finally over we dropped dead on the bench relaxed a few minutes right next to a metal sculpture of a tired hiker with sore feet. At least the person who moved the end had some sense of humor…

Day 8: Great Glen Way

Our initial plan for Friday was to take the Jakobite Train steam train to Mallaig. But the weather was too good to spend indoors so I decided to add one more day of walking while Gerry decided to stick with the train.

The trail looped from the train station around Loch Linnhe through Inverlochy until it reached the Caledonian Canal and the first locks in Corpach.

Most of the way to the canal was spent walking through the populated area on tarmac but walking without my pack still made me feel like I was walking on the moon.

After a little over an kilometer I reached the next set of locks in Banavie where I watched a few boats being lifted up towards Fort Augustus.

I continued another few kilometers until I turned around and went back to Fort William to meet again with Gerry.

Last time I walked the WHW I met some hikers who had finished the Great Glen Way and asked them for their opinion, which wasn’t very positive. After hiking about 20km along it I have to agree that it’s nice and easy, but boring compared to the WHW.