Day Three: The West Highland Way
friday May 17th
just passed inversnide - just before the Bridge Of Orchy
21 miles / 33.8 km
This morning while breaking down camp I had my first encounter with midges, tiny flies that lay siege to Scotland in the summer. Luckily it was still early enough in May that they were only just coming out (of the ground? no idea) so I really cannot complain. However, they ate me alive while packing up and left me with that horrible itchy feeling for the first little while down the trail.
Prone to jetting of with minimal research I had no idea about midges before arriving in Scotland. I considered all the sprays, nets & other midge related gear in the outdoor shops in Glasgow, but I thought they might all end up at the bottom of my pack, never used.
However, I now know that all that gear is absolutely necessary if hiking in Scotland during the summer.
Around midday I passed by a sweet heard of mountain goats relaxing by the water. They were very peaceful and completely uninterested in me. I also passed by this sweet old farm house from where I could finally see the end of Loch Lomond and the rolling hills of Glencoe in the far distance.
After leaving Loch Lomond, the trail leads o the little town of Tyndrum. A very sweet little place with opportunities to stop for a beer, resupply or find accommodation. I stopped into a little gas station shop and treated myself to some fresh apples, oranges and a block of sharp cheddar.
Passed Tyndrum the trail was beautiful (pictured above). It traced the main road at first which wasn’t so nice, but soon enough it lead me back in the country side. Most excitingly the hills were suddenly much larger, a glimmer of what tomorrow would bring in the famous Glencoe.
I remembered my dad saying, “you know they are big hills, not mountains” to which I replied I like hills too. I did wonder though what Ben Nevis, the highest point in the UK sat at the end of this hike would look like. Would it feel more mountainous?
Half way through this hike and I had run into an interesting dilemma. I was not trying to walk 20 miles a day, it was way too much, but I kept getting into the next town, campsite, or recommended stopping point on the trail in the early afternoon. Alone and with only one book for company, I would then decide to keep walking. The next five miles would be fine, but when early evening set in along with the last several miles I would feel totally worked.
This pattern persisted for my entire time on the West Highland Way, leaving me totally exhausted at the end of each day, almost too exhausted to even make dinner. A cycle that began to turn me into a grump despite my usual sunny disposition.
Back in the village of Tyndrum I thought I would walk a short ways out of town before finding a nice spot to spend the night, but that isn’t how it was working out. Evening began to fall and I started to feel nervous about finding a good spot. Then the wind started to pick up and the few spots I cam cross felt too exposed. Thing was, this was also my tent’s maiden voyage, and I didn’t know her well enough to have any ideal let alone confidence of how it would go in the good old Scottish weather that seemed to be moving in.
Just before the bridge of Ochary at around 7pm I finally found a place to camp. It probably wasn’t the best spot in the area but I just needed to stop walking.
I felt so tired that I had almost no appetite, but forced myself to eat a little couscous with some roasted nuts I had made for the hike. These roasted nuts ended up being my favorite food I had prepared, a collection of hazelnut, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and walnuts were perfect atop oatmeal in the morning or couscous in the evening.
As I ate dinner I began to feel so much better, of course, and a beautiful sunset unfold paining the hill tops bright orange. The sky turned more brilliantly red by the second, a dinner time show that restored my mood and likely told of some wet weather moving in.
In the night weather moved in. Still getting into a rhythm with my new tent, a non-traditional new age rig with only hiking poles for structure, I had to leave the tent in the pouring rain several times in the night to reenforce the stays.
It wasn’t a great night and the rain would continue all the next day.
