West Highland Way, Day 3 - Rowardennan to Inverannen

 Distance: 22.5km

Leaving Rowardennan

The third day of the West Highland Way has a reputation for being the toughest day on the trail, and I'd have to agree. Those long stretches of navigating slippery boulders on steep terrain really did my legs in. The route also traces the shore of Loch Lommond for the entire day, which had the discouraging effect of making me feel like we weren't making much progress.

To be fair, the day did start out on a gentle note. We had two options heading out of Rowardennan - a low path that keeps close to the shore of the lake, and a high route, which follows a logging road. You might think the low route would be the easier choice. After all, the description suggests less elevation gain. Our guidebook made it pretty clear though that the route was a tough slog - it described the trail as  narrow, rocky and also slippery in wet weather. With a description like that, it seemed surprising that anyone would choose the low route - but when we left the hostel I noticed most of the hikers ahead of us where going that way. Hmmmm.

On the trail

As we knew the trail would definitely be wet, we decided to take the high route and I'm glad we did. Though I expect there were less views of the lake than we would have seen on the lower route, the glimpses we did catch were very nice. Also, as I mentioned in the first paragraph of this post, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy views of the lake over the course of the day.  

There are no towns or stores on the trail, but a hotel conveniently appeared right around lunch hour. As we'd purchased yummy packed lunches

Another hiker we met took the lower route and said it was very difficult
Stopped at a hotel for lunch, ate our packed lunch that we purchased from the hostel, filled up our water bottles
 

After the hotel the trail was very difficult - lots of up and down, very slippery and rocky - reminded me of costal hiking in the Pacific north west
 

Glad I had hiking poles
 

Rough trail continued until we got the end of Loch Lommond at the end of the day
 

Climbed up and over a hill

Arriving in Inverannen

Had a delicious dinner at the West Highland Way Campsite in Inverannen
Stopped for the night Rose Cottage B&B, super comfy room and a yummy breakfast

 

 

 

 

See more photos of our third day on the West Highland Way in our album on Flickr