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What’s Next ? Hiking on along the Great Glen Way

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“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.”   Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisqu   Where one trail ends, another begins. Such is the nature of Fort William, Scotland, where the conclusion of the West Highland Way also marks the beginning of the Great Glen Way. We had barely finished one route before we find ourselves looking toward the next, knowing that tomorrow morning we were heading back out onto the trail.   From Fort William, the Great Glen Way would take us northeast, tracing canals and lochs through a landscape shaped as much by geology as by human engineering. The guidebook suggested that it was a route of longer stages but gentler gradients, which sounded promising after the climbs, descents, and weather of the West Highland Way. Of course, by this point, we had learned to treat guidebook descriptions with a certain amount of caution. We would know the accuracy of that assessment in good time.   Iro...
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Reflecting on the West Highland Way

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“Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.”   John Muir   Arriving at the West Highland Way   It is important to begin by saying that we did not come to the West Highland Way fresh. By the time we stepped onto the route in Milngavie, we had already been travelling for a month and a half. We had crossed Canada by train aboard VIA Rail’s Canadian , crossed the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Southampton aboard Queen Mary 2 , walked Wainwright’s Coast to Coast , and then made our way north along the Pennine Way before arriving in Scotland. In other words, the West Highland Way was not day one of a new adventure for us. It was closer to day thirty-one of a much larger journey already shaped by foul weather, fatigue, logistics, and the effort of pushing on.   This context matters because every trail is encountered through the body, mind and attitudes you bring to it. We arrived with stronger bodies, but also with very tired ones. We arrived ready...
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Location: Fort William PH33, UK
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Stormfronts and Self Reflection : Tyndrum to Kingshouse

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"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”     John Milton.   Into the Rain   The rain never really let up overnight. Although we had been dry, warm, and perfectly fine inside our Hobbit Hut, opening the door that morning revealed a very different scene outside. Dozens of people who had camped through the storm were wringing out clothes and sleeping bags, pouring water out of tents, and trying to gather themselves for another day on the trail.   As it turned out, several had abandoned their tents altogether and taken refuge in the washrooms to stay warm and dry.   Not for the first time, we wondered whether our trusted Big Agnes tent would have held up, as it so often had in difficult weather. Were the sodden tents around us the result of inexpensive gear from places like Trespass or Go Outdoors, or simply the sheer amount of water that had fallen from the skies in the Scottish Highlands? It was difficult to know...
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Location: Kingshouse, Ballachulish PH49 4HZ, UK
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