Day 3
Our first actual day of hiking! A brisk 40 degrees in the morning, that’s about 4 Celsius for you non-Americans out there, but it didn’t really feel all that bad. We planned ahead and made sure to bring along enough layers to deal with weather like this. Warmed up as we went along and overall it was a beautiful sunny day for walking, just lovely, blue skies, and a light breeze for pretty much the whole day.
Today eased us in to this trip. It was mostly flat for the twelve miles from Milngavie to Drymen (pronounced DRI-min). Besides the views, one of the coolest parts was meeting people from all over the world who are here doing the hike. A couple from the Netherlands, three folks from the Czech Republic who are camping as well as hiking (I’m not sure they’re wholly happy with that choice), Bobby from Montreal walked with us for the last couple of miles, and then we met Erica from DC and a lovely couple from the Queensland area of Australia, Jane and David, over dinner. These and some other folks we saw along the way seem like they’re becoming the “bubble” of people we’ll be seeing all along the way to Fort William.
The hike itself started from Milngavie and for much of it it felt like we were walking in a forest preserve back home. Lots of trees and stuff but sounds of civilization were never really that far away. Had a light lunch at the Beech Tree a bit more than half way then made it kind of early to the Ashbank B&B, our resting place for the night. Dinner of fish and chips at The Clachan, the oldest licensed pub in Scotland, rounded out the evening. Now time to rest and off to Rowardenan tomorrow. Supposed to rain in the morning. Good thing we brought our rain gear along!
JIm