An exciting first day on the West Highland Way for our merry band of 12 Canadian rock star ladies. Most of which who have never done a long distance hike before! West Highland Way was my very first long distance back in 2008 and I am so exited to do it again with this crew. I bet it also won’t be their last. I can see the long distance bug building already!

We started the day at 8am dropping our carry forward bags (all the stuff we don’t need for the actual day of hiking) with Travel Lite. This company will drop our bags off in Drymen, our destination, at our respective B&Bs.

From there the crew had breakfast together at the hotel restaurant – many trying a Scottish breakfast for the first time. Not the best one I have had by far but does give you a good idea on what is available (but yummier) on the trail ahead. Mmm black pudding.

We made our way from there to the start of the trail, the obelisk near the center of town (pictured above) and after a photo montage and setting up our various and preferred hiker apps, etc we were on our way at about 945am.

The path quickly turns from city to park path and after just a couple of kms we had our first excitement – a little detour to the Mugdock Castle Ruins. About 2kms out and back off the trail, and of course with a large hill (castles are always on high ground) but totally worth it!

Back down from the castle and on the Way again, we started to all find our individual pace and the groups that matched to establish the day’s hiking mini-crews. All of us were heading to the Beech Tree Inn or Turn up the Beet cafe’s in Dumgoyne just over half way so would see each other again there are or at dinner tonight. Walking your own pace is really important on these hikes – the body will thank you for it everyday!

Quite a few of us made the quick detour to the Glengoyne Distillery just before Drumgoyne. An easy detour on a nice day – involves maybe a 300m walk across a sheep field. We tried a 12yr old and an 18yr old whisky and both were equally disgusting to me but other visitors seemed to be enjoying it. Ha ha

From there it was just a few mins walk to Beech Tree Inn for our delicious lunch toasties and maybe a pint 😉 before heading back on trail. We were at 11km already and had only 8km or so to go before reaching tonight’s destination in Drymen. No problem!

Much of the last few kilometers of the day were on tarmac minor roads which makes the dogs bark a little (feet hurt) but allows for a nice pace and good conversations. Nikki, Shar, Mama Debster and I (my walking crew this afternoon) were having some pretty awesome laughs as we rambled on. We loved the one little community (self proclaimed the Shire) that set up a bunch of signs here and there playing on The Hobbit theme!

We rolled into our town for the night, Drymen, at about 545pm and clocked at 23km ready for a quick shower and change before dinner.

Most of the crew is staying at Kip in the Kirk B&B a converted church hall, the Hillview B&B of the Shandon Farmhouse B&B (about a kilometer out of town). We are at the Shandon and the hike up and out of town was totally worth it – what an amazing place!

For dinner we had 630pm reservations at The Clachan, on of the oldest bars establish in 1796 and wow was it amazing! The building had all the fun touches of being very old giving it a great ambience and the menu was amazing. Who needs to think about calories after walking that far? Not us!

We had a nice dinner on the restaurant side, then a few of us popped over to the bar side for a final night cap before making our way to our respective homes for bed. All of us pretty excited to get the feet up!

Here are the stats:

• Trail: West Highland Way, Scotland
• Day: 1/8 Finished!
• To/From: Milngavie/Drymen
• Start/Finish time: 9:35am/5:40pm
• Distance: 19km + Detour trail (24.5 Hiiker)
• Steps: 31.009
• Terrain: mostly flat some steep inclines largely path or rail bed some road walking
• Weather: 21C overcast not rain
• Breaky: Full Scottish Breakfast
• Lunch n Snacks: cheese n ham toastie with chips and a pint
• Dinner: carbonara
• Pints: 4
• Tonight’s home: Shannon Farmhouse
• Mood: smiling
• Body: feeling good, blisters from knee brace and heat rash
• Highlights: Mugdock Castle detour
• Lowlights: road walking
• People of interest: the old Scotsman Patrick Murray sitting outside the castle telling stories
• Spontaneous dancing: not today
• Deep thoughts: I have one pace when walking, is this me in life too?

Next stop Rowardennan .. just past the challenge of Conic Hill.

Brande