That’s day 2 of 8 wrapped up on the West Highland Way, we made it from Drymen to Rowardennan. Today was the big Conic Hill climb day and it lived up to its reputation! The extreme winds didn’t help mind you.

The crew started the day with yummy breakfasts in our respective B&Bs and everyone started their day at their own pace and time and somehow a bunch of us still ended up finding each other along the Way.

Cheryl, Charmaine, Shar and I had a great full Scottish breakfast at the Shandon Guest House at 745am then set out for the day at 830. The wind was crazy (kicked up on the middle of the night) and we wondered if it was going to bring the storms or clear the storms.

The day stared with about a Km of road walking and then quickly turned to forest track which was just amazing. A couple of Km into the forest track we were so excited to come upon Kristi and Lori, creating our fantastic crew for the day!

You can see in the background here the infamous Conic Hill, a 371m – our destination from this path! The walking was fantastic through the forest and then moorland paths – the views amazing!

Once we hit the Conic Hill approach, the path got real! So well groomed but it was definitely up and up and up across sand and small rocks with large boulders to step up and reduce erosion. The wind was in our favour pushing us up the hill – thank you!

Once at the trail top, a few of the crew took the additional 5-10mins to the very top of the hill for the 360 views! After a bit of time feeling such gratitude to be standing looking over Loch Lomond with the sun shining on us – we started our way down. The wind continues to blow hard, a couple times I had to lean into the hill – felt like I was gonna blow away.

The way down took me what felt like forever with this knee – I felt really good about myself when kids were running past me in sandals. Great confidence boost! lol

Just after coming down from the Hill, we had a short forest walk and then we arrived in Balmaha, a great little Loch side town, where we had lunch at Oak Tree Inn.

After a great lunch, toasties and pints, we were back on the Way to tackle the 11km to our home for the night, Rowardennan Hotel. The path was forest track or right along the Loch. Other than the clegs (horseflies), midgies and black flies it was a fantastic walk. The up hills were frequent and much tougher than usual thanks to the Conic Hill burn from earlier but wow what an amazing section of the trail!

We arrived at the Hotel at about 5pm, already talking about ghosts seeing the place was established in 1696, and showed up for a nice dinner and rehash of the trail all together!

Brande