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  • Dryman to Rowardennan

    June 28, 2019 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Well today was a more challenging day on the WHW. It didn't help that after leaving town I turned in the wrong direction on the trail for about 100 metres before running into a mother and daughter team from Seattle who got me turned around in the right direction. They were quite chatty and moving at my pace so I stayed with them for the morning. The challenge for the morning was Conic hill which gave a spectacular view of Loch Lomond. The Seattlites had done a lot of hiking and they went up the hill like mountain goats. The hike veered to the side of the summit but they cajoled me into hiking to the very top. Even more spectacular views. Heading down the other side into Balmaha there were some day trippers heading up from the other side. A woman carrying a baby and another woman wearing sandels. We have a rule in our family that if you see someone doing a walk with a child carrier or flip-flops it is not really a true hike. In this case I would argue that they were only doing part of the days walk and they hadn't walked from Dryman so I don't think that you can apply the rule. By the time we reached Balmaha, I was having difficulty keeping up with the Seattle girls. They were going to stop at a restaurant for lunch whilst I had brought something from town so I took my leave from them and went and had a rest in the John Muir park. My right second toe was bothering me and when I took off my boot I realized that my nail which needed trimming was rubbing the end of the boot and becoming sore. There was no drugstore in town but the shop sold nail files and trimmers and I was able to rectify the situation although the nail was still a little sore. My fear has been that I will develop a blister but so far things have been fine. I continued the hike up the lake to my left and things were pretty flat but every time there was a peninsula the trail went over quite a large elevation. It has also been quite warm here about 26 degrees Celsius so I was getting quite hot. I think that I drank about 3.5 litres of H20 over the course of the day. Before Ross Point I hit a beach area/campground where I had to have a rest on a picnic bench. By then I was really drenched with perspiration. After Ross point which I took very slowly it was a flat walk to the Rewardennan Inn. After checking into my room, I changed and went for a swim at a beach next door at a lodge. The Meeweise clan and the Seattlites were all staying in the same place so we all had supper together on the patio of the hotel until the midges got the best of us. I went to bedRead more