Day: 017
Date: Friday, 17 June 2022
Start: Rowardennan
Finish: Drymen
Daily Kilometres: 23
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 496
Weather: Overcast and raining most of the morning and mostly cloudy and windy in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Hotel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Buffet continental breakfast
Lunch: Ham & cheese sandwiches.
Dinner: Scotch pie/Macaroni pie (shared)/Sausage roll, icecream.
Aches: Dave - tired feet. Julie - nothing to mention.
Highlight: The views from Conic Hill out over Loch Lomond and beyond, as the rain cleared in the early afternoon, were spectacular and a just reward for the steep climb up from Balmaha and a dreary morning’s hiking.
Lowlight: The smoke alarm going off in the hostel at 2:30am woke everybody.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
Dave got the best deal in the hostel, sharing his male dorm with only two others, leaving plenty of room, while Julie’s dorm was full with little room for belongings or packing. The whole hostel was woken at 2:30am by the loud smoke alarm, with most residents (but not Dave) making their way downstairs to assembly points, but it proved to be a false alarm. The reason for the alarm was not explained, but I suspect someone was smoking somewhere.
Julie and I met in the dining room at 7:30am and ate our fill of the excellent continental buffet breakfast before getting our gear and leaving the hostel at 8:30am. It was quite a miserable morning, with low cloud and steady light rain. Some residents had already set themselves up in the hostel’s beautiful lounge overlooking Loch Lomond looking like that was where they were staying for the day. It was appealing.
Less appealing was going for a swim in the Loch, as were two guys as we left the hostel grounds.
It was another day of two halves. There was low cloud and light rain all morning as we followed the West Highland Way (WHW) along the loch through dripping wet and very green woods. The trail was puddled and, in many places, like a stream underfoot, but there were good views of the loch and its shoreline, including some lovely little pebble beaches. Nearer Balmaha, when the primary goal of the WHW seemed to be to keep walkers off the parallel road, we spent more time walking on the road, which was easier and drier.
At Balmaha, which we reached at 11:30am, we took our first break in a pretty shoreline reserve eating our lunch at a picnic table in continuing light drizzle. It was quite dreary. However, as if by magic, as soon as we finished our lunch and began the steep and long climb away from the Loch up Conic Hill, the rain stopped and the clouds lifted and began to break up. A lot of day trippers had the same idea and we had plenty of company on the climb. The views were great and well worth the effort. The WHW didn’t go to the very top of Conic Hill, but close enough and the very top was cloud-covered.
From there the crowds disappeared as we walked eastwards on the WHW for the balance of the afternoon, before detouring to our accommodation in the village of Drymen at 3:30pm. We were both very happy to have an early finish after our last two very long days, and we have a nice room in which to relax.
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