UK09: Day 3 - West Highland Way, Part 1

I awoke to bright sun streaming through the thick, evergreen canopy. Yes. Evergreens. In the Highlands. Turns out the pulp industry is pretty big up there, so there are groves of planted trees that are sustainably grown and harvested. The total area of these tree plantations is quite small compared to the open space, but I was perplexed to find that most of these groves (which I had scoped out in the satellite views as places to set up the hammock for nights) had fences around them. Turns out they're for deer (not people) and I never had a hard time finding a spot to set up camp without hopping fences.

Anyhow, the bright streaming sun was temporary. As I made my way out of the grove, most of the sky was grey, but with blue patches - although the clouds didn't look too threatening. Most of the rest of the day was spent walking through some very pleasant terrain. The trail went by a remote inn before joining what used to be an old military road. Naturally, the trail through here was pretty straight and flat so I made good time. I found some old ruins of a small stone house just off the trail on a hunch, after seeing a huge hedge of rhododendrons ("those don't look native!")

Ruins of an old house just off the West Highland Way overland hiking trail

Typical Scottish highlands terrain.

Other points of interest included a ski lift (near one of the road crossings) that was carting mountain bikers up the mountain for a super lazy (but no doubt adrenaline infused) downhill biking experience. I also passed the "oldest continually licensed" inn in Scotland, and the trail went up the "devils staircase" (which was quite overhyped) to the highest point along the West Highland Way. (400 meters elevation, I think?)

Downhill mountain biking. They ride a ski lift up and just go downhill. Pretty soon they'll just stop putting pedals on...

A spot of sunshine! The so called "devils staircase" climb of the trail visible in the lower-left.

It started to spatter a little bit late in the afternoon, and even rained for a couple minutes, but all in all I hardly got wet. I began the descent into Kinlochleven aroun 6 pm, and found a nice spot to set up the hammock along a stream (with native trees, this time!) well before dark for a total of maybe 18 miles that day.

Campsite the second night. Hammocks are SO versatile. Falling asleep to the sound of the creek was amazing.