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Monday 4 July 2022. Day 2 on the West Highland Way (WHW) from Drymen to Balmaha. 7.8 miles by Garmin. 1043 feet Elevation gain. 5 hours 18 minutes walking.
Last night we had the best night’s sleep since arriving in Scotland. Alarm woke us at 0620 to start the packing routine before breakfast at 0730. We all had our bags down for pickup and started the day’s walk by 0910. The four fast walkers took a different route from town to the trail but we all arrived at the same starting point for the WHW walk over Conic Hill and down to the scenic shores of Loch Lomond at Balmaha.
The first 100 yards was through a beautiful natural foliage arbor. We were joined by several other groups of WHW walkers from the various hotels and lodges leaving Drymen. Our two Italian friends from yesterday passed us and wanted to examine the silver toes on Karen’s shoes. Hence the meaning of the nickname: Silvertoes. It was a gradual climb along pastures of cows and sheep with an occasional light mist in the air. The trail was easy walking. The small streams we passed beside and over are called ‘burns’
here in Scotland.
A few hardy souls were camping and we passed by as they were cooking breakfast in the morning mist. The carpark off a main road into Drymen in the Garadhban Forest was surrounded by tents of campers. Although it is described as 'heavily felled' there are a variety of oaks, pines and other large, mature trees.
About 3.5 miles along our walk we come to a choice; take the downhill route through Milton of Buchanan or the uphill climb around Conic Hill, an 1184 feet hill but has the scenes of the chain of islands across Loch Lomond. At this southern end the islands mark the fault line that separates the Lowlands from the Highlands of Scotland. We decided to add to our misery by taking the high route. It was a stiff climb. And a worse descent. As we climbed the winds got stronger and Harlan was not in the mood for climbing further.
On the descent, with many walkers overtaking us, then we merged into a more level forest of Scotch Pines, Larch, and Spruce trees. We reach the parking lot and visitors center of the National Park of Loch Lomond and
then see the Oak Tree Inn’ our stop for the night. The group of four are in the bar as expected when we arrive.
Additions by Silvertoes: False Expectations–Great Inn–Loch Lomond
Observations of Conic Hill. Now we have an example of how I might wax on and on concerning a topic. I do this as I do not keep a travel journal. The blog is where I talk about things that have made an impression on me. Skip my sections if you want–no hurt feelings here!
We are approaching the ‘hill’ from the north and east. Most people will be approaching it from the opposite direction, having come from Balmaha on the shores of Loch Lomond. At the junction we chose the route to Balmaha around Conic Hill as the guide books indicate the views of Loch Lomond are incredible–if the skies be with ye!. We decide to take the chance of getting near the top and hope to get the stupendous views. We continue to enjoy the woods for some way and then come to the open moorland section. “The hill ahead is an extended ridge that looks far from conical, but its spine points convincingly
along the line of islands.” (from “West Highland Way”-Rucksack Readers.) Oh, I see two routes around the circumference of the hill, one much lower than the other–that is the one to take!
We proceed over the moorland that always holds a magical spell for me. We continue downward (ummm–I thought this was going to be a climb!) and open and shut gates. We come to a junction and the realization hits that all is not what I thought. The lower route is faint and as the eye travels along it becomes apparent it is a farm road and will not reliably end in Balmaha. So now the eye travels to the higher route. It is a gentle sloping route that disappears around the circular hill. Nothing for it but to continue on–but first we must finish our descent before we start our ascent! The way, at this point, is marked by large stone steps. At the junction we have observed a colorful backpack (termed a rucksack here) and think it might belong to Wrong Way Norma way up high on the hill. That is encouraging and we start out. There are larger rocks which make nice seats. We met
a delightful couple (Indian, Iranian??) and we start hop-scotching with us sitting on big rocks and they sitting on the next big rocks. At every turn that I think will give us a view of our destination down below, it is another stupendous view of the loch and its islets. After one such turn we look up and see a short, straight up climb to the very top. Not usually ones to let an ‘opportunity, that maybe we will never have the experience again’ we decide we are seeing enough views of the loch. However, two members of our group do go up to the very top and return with the report that it is windy and cold! Now the view of the approaches from Balmaha are quite colorful, loud, and crazy. There are families out, kids everywhere and dogs galore. One can determine one main, more or less, main path but there are people all over the place-clanjamfrie (Scottish word for ‘chaos!) I love this word-take it apart and you have the word ‘clan’ ‘jam (I think of traffic jam), free-for-all and there you have it!
People in Great Britain have a very different idea of how to
scale a hill or mountain. We learned this ten years ago on the Coast to Coast Walk in northern England. In geometry the shortest point between A and B is a straight line and that is how you go–it makes no difference if the straight line is horizontal or vertical. I believe the Scots do love their math!
Somehow we make the descent in the melee and arrive, to the loch, at Oak Tree Inn-a delightful family run complex.
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John Paul Sullivan
non-member comment
Scotland
Oh to be with you!