Awesome week on trail comes with good soaking
The pub, with its corner fireplace, serves as both restaurant and meeting place for walkers. We exchange stories, and stumble off to bed.
Day Three: Rowardennan to Inverarnan, 22.5 km
It’s overcast but no rain. We’re now firmly in Rob Roy country (he’s an 18th-century highlands folk hero).
We’re still on the loch’s shore, where the path is a challenging mix of roots and boulders. Guidebooks describe it as “torturous,” despite extraordinary ferns, waterfalls and forests.
Six hours in, we convince ourselves a turn was missed and wearily head back. Then the Day One couple appears. The man pulls out his GPS to show we’re on track.
I sheepishly pocket my map and we’re on our way. We share dinner with our new Scottish friends, Stephen and Jane McNaughton, at the Drovers Inn, established in 1705.
Day Four: Inverarnan to Tyndrum, 21.25 km
We hit old military trails as yesterday’s rigours are forgotten.
The rain is back, as are the sheep. We move from farmlands to a thickly wooded conifer plantation, and happily eat lunch on a hillside, the mountaintops shrouded in mist.
Nearing Tyndrum, we walk through heather, bog myrtle and pinewoods.
It’s a peaceful end to the day, despite having trekked in earshot of busy route A82.
Day Five: Tyndrum to Kings House, 29.75 km
Our longest, favourite day. The path starts on the glen floor, zigzags up through woods and descends through spectacular moorland toward Loch Tulla. A few more miles and we’re out on Rannoch Moor, a landscape of peat bogs and small lakes and sky, surrounded by heather and mountains. We’re smitten.
The wind is fierce but rain holds off. For most of the day, we see no one else, save our Scottish friends. Guidebooks say this point is as far from civilization as any place on the Way. It feels like it.
Day Six: Kings House to Kinlochleven, 14.5 km
We start in sunshine near Glencoe, feeling like tiny blips on the massive glen floor surrounded by towering peaks. Soon we’re cloaked in heavy mist on the Devil’s Staircase, a zigzag ascent to the Way’s highest point at 550 metres. We again miss views of high peaks as clouds dip lower, but there’s a soggy beauty. We sense the enormous presence of the surrounding mountains.
Day Seven: Kinlochleven to Fort William, 24 km
Our last day brings excitement, along with torrential rain and wind. By the time we cross the gorgeous but unforgiving expanse of the valley Lairig Mor, we’re soaked.
Walkers in ponchos and rain gear flutter in the distance as we splash through mud.
The peak of Ben Nevis, the United Kingdom’s tallest mountain, is obscured by clouds as we make our final descent into Fort William. We feel elated nonetheless, and lucky to have experienced a week of such awesome beauty.