Day Two: The West Highland Way
thursday May 16th
Milarrochy Bay Camp site - just passed inversnaid
13.5 miles / 21.7 km
I woke up quite sore. My shoulders were tender after carrying an unexpectedly heavy pack for twelve hours the day before.
This was my new backpack’s maiden voyage: The Hyperlite Mountain Gear Southwest 2300. I love this bag, it weighs nothing and most importantly for Scotland it is water proof. Most of it anyways, the small pockets on the waist belt are not which seems silly, as that is were you keep important little things like passports, phones, money & snacks. I’ll write up all my thoughts on this pack.
Anyways, despite the bag weighing nothing, I was traveling as I tended to with a little bit of everything. I had no idea how long I would be traveling or where exactly I would be going with this bag. Thus, while the majority of its content was hiking and camping related, I was also carrying city clothes, my beloved white slip on vans & way too much food.
Interestingly my shoulders felt better with my pack back on, my little toes however were not happy at all. After walking for only a little while I stopped at a lovely beach to tend to my two smallest toes. These finicky little toes of mine snuggle very closely to their neighboring toe making them prone to blister. I taped them up and added a few bandaids to some other prone angles of my feet, then enjoyed the view and had a little second breakie.
Today the trail continued along the Loch & through Trossachs National Park. I had decided to walk all the way through the park. Wild camping is prohibited inside the park during the summer season. Eager to wild camp for the first time I hoped to find a sweet and legal spot to camp right outside the bounds of the park.
The lilacs were blooming everywhere as I walked along for the second day on the trail. Wild flowers like a view are good for the soul and this walk had both, as the trail gained just enough altitude to offer views over the Loch.
After a very long day, a little too long, I found a place to set up camp. A private, peaceful little spot where a little stream flowed out of the hills to meet the loch. It was windy so sheltered my tent back in the trees.
There was still lots of day light left so I very slowly explored the beaches around my camp site. Then I slowly made dinner, which was some Indian daal lentils I had picked up at a gorgeous health food store in Glasgow. I also had a lemon with me to keep things fancy & a generous squeeze of lemon significantly elevated this dinner.
As the sun began to set I had a quick hiker’s shower in the stream, then feeling fresh and cold I hopped into bed to read my book until it was too dark to see.
