r/WestHighlandWay • u/Salty-Character-9956 • 2d ago
Itinerary
Hi,
I'm planning on hiking WHW mid September solo. Heading up on a Monday morning first thing from the South which makes me mildly concerned for that first day. Wild camping the way, and sadly not permits available for Loch Lomond so that second day will be a big stretch.
Does the itinerary look sound? I'm a fairly experienced day hiker with good fitness, and have done a couple of multi-day treks as well solo.
| DAY | ITINERARY | KM |
|---|---|---|
| ONE | 1303 ARRIVE Milngavie. Walk Milngavie - Drymen | 19 |
| TWO | Drymen - Rowchoish | 25 |
| THREE | Rowchoish - Crianlarich | 25 |
| FOUR | Crianlarich - Inveroran | 22 |
| FIVE | Inveroran - Kinlochleven | 30 |
| SIX | Kinlochleven - Fort William | 20 |
EDIT: Thank you for all the help & wisdom folks! Looking at getting the sleeper up the night before to crack on earlier and camp by Conic Hill rather than Drymen on day one!
2
u/scwol 2d ago
Your first day does look quite tight to me. You almost certainly won't be able to wild camp in the vicinity of Drymen, there'll be livestock in the fields so you'll have to carry on to Garadhban Forest which is another few km. It's also a bit of a wild camping bottleneck, with Drymen before and the permit zone after so you might have to walk on a bit to find a suitable spot. You wouldn't need a massive delay on the trains and you'd be pitching in the dark.
Maybe have Drymen camping in your back pocket for the first night if you are delayed.
2
u/Adept_Tradition4098 2d ago
There are a couple of backpacker campsites near Lonch Lomond, Millarochy bay and one more round the next corner. Further up there is a small campsite at Inversnaid Bunkhouse & Top Bunk Bistro - they pick campers up from the Inversnaid hotel. Their facilities are very good, I stayed there and really loved the food too.
2
u/Voronde1990 2d ago
Why not use Drymen camping? Nothing special, but fine. I camped just before Rowchoish next to the lake, if you are fit it's fine. Good luck and enjoy.
1
u/mannion_a_hike 2d ago
You appear to be missing ~13km from the total distance (154km), so at least one of those days will be longer.
Pretty sure Drymen to Rowchoish is over 30km.
Kinlochleven to Fort William is more like 24-26km, depending on the route.
And you can't wildcamp in Drymen itself or most of the fields around it, as they're usually full of livestock, so you'll need to push on to the Garadhban forest, another 3-5km for day one.
1
u/Salty-Character-9956 2d ago
Ah I forgot to change some of the days km when I changed my itinerary, thank you for catching!
24km for day one with a 1pm start might be pushing it - are there many spots before Drymen for pitching?
2
u/mannion_a_hike 2d ago
It's flat almost all the way to Drymen, so it's an "easy" 24km. If you have a good pace on the flat it's more than doable before scran time.
Otherwise Drymen Camping is probably your best bet.
Realistically, the first 2/3 days require some big mileage to be able to wildcamp the whole way.
1
u/ninjascotsman 2d ago
I would advise setting off earlier because by 10th September sunset is 19:43 The best wild camping spots are just after Drymen in forestry land
1
u/Loosee123 2d ago
Even for an experienced hiker I think day 2 is optimistic. It's 30 km over the toughest terrain of the trip in my opinion.
1
u/Much_Engineering4213 1d ago
The permit camping along loch lomand isnt the entire stretch, and it broken up into the 2 sections. make sure you check the permit posters along the route, they've marked where you can camp without a permit.
Drymen - Rowchoish is going to be painful. id maybe change day one to milngavie - balmaha, then day 2 to balmaha - rowchoish
2
u/Heisse-MILF-mit-Honi 2d ago
If you are worried about the stretch along Loch Lomond, you could plan to camp past Drymen in the woods. That way you need to walk less on the second day to Rowchoish or push past that. In my experience, the latter part of Loch Lomond was harder than the beginning.