WHW Day 2 – Drymen to Rowardennen

From the top of Conic Hill (weather pending), you can see Loch Lomand which the WHW follows up the entire eastern shore. There were a lot of low clouds as I was approaching Conic Hill. Another walker said it looked like we may be robbed of our views that day but as we started our ascent, the sun came out and blue skies appeared! It was a long hike up as the trail spiraled around and up the hill. Once at the top, you have the option to take a short but steep climb to the summit. It wasn’t easy, but the views were amazing!

On the other side of Conic Hill is the town of Balmaha which is a hub of activity for the Loch Lomond recreation area and the Trossachs National Park. Being that it was a beautiful day, there were a lot of day hikers walking up to the top of Conic Hill on the path we were going down towards Balmaha. After being in almost solitude all morning, it was quite jarring to suddenly have thousands of people on the trail. The trail was also quite steep going down and that’s where I had my one (and thankfully only) fall. No injury, just frustration. Once I finally made it to Balmaha, I stopped at the St. Mocha Coffee Shop for lunch where I sat outside, took off my shoes, and enjoyed the best smoothie in the world. As it was for most days, I was always more thirsty than hungry for lunch so I mainly just had a snack and refilled water.

I thought the hard part was behind me at this point. I was wrong! After my nice break, the West Highland Way started along the eastern shore of Loch Lomand which was beautiful. I saw a rare sight, Scottish people sunbathing on the beaches of Loch Lomand! According to one local I spoke with, this never happens! It was hot (record-breaking) and the trail had much more elevation gain and loss than I had anticipated. Everyone always talks about how bad the 3rd day is along the loch so this was a surprise to me. There were also a couple of stretches of road walking which were rough with the passing traffic.

Just when I thought we must be close to Rowardennen, there would be another big hill to get over. My watch died somewhere around mile 15 so I don’t know what the actual final mileage was for the day but it was brutal with the heat. I arrived at the hostel at 4:00, just in time for check-in. After a shower and dinner, I did laundry in my sink and was done for the day.