Drymen to Rowardennan

7 May 2012 - Drymen to Rowardennan

Distance - 15.2 miles

Weather - Cold in breeze & a few showers

We stayed at - Rowardennan Hotel, Rowardennan, Stirlingshire, G63 0AR
Cost £96.00

New Views of Loch Lomond

The forecast said to expect heavy rain in the afternoon, so we left quite
sharp with the intention to get the high part of today's walk out of the way before it hit. We've experienced Conic Hill in the rain and hail and it didn't need to be repeated.

The first mile and a half out of Drymen, to meet up with the WHW was, as before, a slog. The forest at the top has had a lot of clearance done on it since the last time we were there, so we had great views of Loch Lomond and surrounding hills that we had never seen before.

Coming down off Conic Hill

Conic Hill isn't a big hill and following the WHW, the ascent isn't too bad as long as you're not too tired.

When Alistair did the WHW 20 years ago with his pals, he was inexperienced enough to walk from Milngavie to Balmaha on the first day. That's 21 miles with overly full backpacks, camping gear including cookers, but without any training. Luckily they decided to leave the kitchen sink behind. In the end they took the alternative route, avoiding the hill but introducing them to 'the road to hell' - a mile and a half straight, unending stretch of road to Balmaha. That expedition didn't end as planned - seven left, but five didn't make it past Inversnaid.

So this time around we sprinted up Conic Hill, thanks to only carrying day sacks and having had a bit more preparation and rest.

Coming down is steep and slippy. An elderly man fell off the path as he was passing me, rolling a couple of metres down. I tried to catch him, hurting my arm in the process. He was OK, perhaps a bit shaken and embarrassed.

We had a nice lunch of cullen skink at Balmaha (who knew endangered lizards could be so tasty?)

As we headed out of Balmaha, there was a group of lads in there twenties kitted out with large rucksacks etc. ahead of us. One asked us "Which way is it?"

Alistair replied "Straight ahead."

"Not that way?" he asked pointing to a path on the right.

I confirmed it was not that path.

Alistair said it should head to the right later, steeply up to a viewpoint.

The lads had a bit of a conflab and we continued on and up the path to the view point. We could hear them not far behind us as we reached the top and took a few deep breaths and some photos.

As we headed down the other side, we realised we couldn't hear them any more.

I then realised that the guy hadn't actually said what 'it' they were heading for, and that their non-presence possibly suggested they were actually aiming for Conic Hill rather than Fort William. Easy mistake to make. At least they got the nice view.

Scenery around Rowardennan

The next bit to Rowardennan has a few ups and downs along it, some of which are quite puffy. It's largely through woodland along the bank of the loch. We got some good views, especially from that viewpoint at Balmaha.

We were lucky with the weather, only getting a couple of showers before we got to the hotel. It opened up after that, and the bar gradually filled with wet, and then very wet people.

The hotel room is a bit posher than yesterday's, bigger, with nicer furniture and larger telly. It was also more expensive, no surprise there!

Dinner was early, for us, and was pretty standard Brake Bros pub grub, with the expected WHW supplement.

Good day all round.