![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatThe day began with the first big ascent of the walk up Conic Hill (1,107 feet, 310m). This was mostly through wooded plantation but eventually this opened out onto traditional Scottish wide open hill country with views of Loch Lomond.
It being a lovely sunny Sunday, the walk was very busy. In the ascent of Conic Hill we were mostly with other people walking the West Highland Way. Some groups overtook us, others overtook us, then stopped for a rest and we overtook them, and so on. Once the country opened up and you could see for some distance it was clear we were in a little troupe of people going up the hill. Since the guidebook said that the way didn't go to the summit of the hill, B. and I, after consultation of the Ordnance Survey map, struck out to the top of the nearest bump. It seemed like others selected a different bump:
We found a track that took us to this (actually third) peak in a row. B. insists that the first peak was the highest.
As can be seen there were a lot of people on top of the hill. I nevertheless managed to get a crowdless shot of B.
As we descended, we encountered crowds coming up. Many were obviously families. Those white bags you can see in the photo contained blocks of stone and not far below the peak we found a digger and beyond that a wide paved path down to a large car park, visitor centre, village shop and pub. There were a lot of people on this path.
The descent was actually pretty unpleasant. It was hot, the slope was pretty steep and hard on our middle-aged knees (even with sticks) with the paving enforcing larger steps down than we really wanted to take. I was grateful to sit on the village green once we got down, refill the water bottle and make use of the facilities in the visitor centre.
At this point the walk switched to a lochside walk around Loch Lomond. This being a hot Sunday in August we saw a lot of water sports
The remainder of the walk was primarily through Lochside forest and occasionally along the road. In general it was pretty gentle, though with the odd short climb. However, B started having some issues and we had to slow down. I'm not sure exactly how much, Strava is failing me by claiming we walked 27km when the guide book makes it 22.5km so it's hard to judge what our pace was. We reached our hotel around 5:30pm which is fine, but I'm a little concerned about the one 18 mile day we have coming up.
Views from the hotel across the Loch are pretty.
It looks like this could well be the last of the sunny weather. Tomorrow's walk is shorter but sounds like it is quite strenuous with a certain amount of boulder scrambling. We'll have to see how we do.
It being a lovely sunny Sunday, the walk was very busy. In the ascent of Conic Hill we were mostly with other people walking the West Highland Way. Some groups overtook us, others overtook us, then stopped for a rest and we overtook them, and so on. Once the country opened up and you could see for some distance it was clear we were in a little troupe of people going up the hill. Since the guidebook said that the way didn't go to the summit of the hill, B. and I, after consultation of the Ordnance Survey map, struck out to the top of the nearest bump. It seemed like others selected a different bump:
We found a track that took us to this (actually third) peak in a row. B. insists that the first peak was the highest.
As can be seen there were a lot of people on top of the hill. I nevertheless managed to get a crowdless shot of B.
As we descended, we encountered crowds coming up. Many were obviously families. Those white bags you can see in the photo contained blocks of stone and not far below the peak we found a digger and beyond that a wide paved path down to a large car park, visitor centre, village shop and pub. There were a lot of people on this path.
The descent was actually pretty unpleasant. It was hot, the slope was pretty steep and hard on our middle-aged knees (even with sticks) with the paving enforcing larger steps down than we really wanted to take. I was grateful to sit on the village green once we got down, refill the water bottle and make use of the facilities in the visitor centre.
At this point the walk switched to a lochside walk around Loch Lomond. This being a hot Sunday in August we saw a lot of water sports
The remainder of the walk was primarily through Lochside forest and occasionally along the road. In general it was pretty gentle, though with the odd short climb. However, B started having some issues and we had to slow down. I'm not sure exactly how much, Strava is failing me by claiming we walked 27km when the guide book makes it 22.5km so it's hard to judge what our pace was. We reached our hotel around 5:30pm which is fine, but I'm a little concerned about the one 18 mile day we have coming up.
Views from the hotel across the Loch are pretty.
It looks like this could well be the last of the sunny weather. Tomorrow's walk is shorter but sounds like it is quite strenuous with a certain amount of boulder scrambling. We'll have to see how we do.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-11 08:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-12 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-12 08:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-12 08:29 pm (UTC)