West Highland Way With a 3 Year Old - Day 4 Trail Notes - Rowardennan to Inversnaid - Anna Hardie

day 4 trail notes | rowardennan to inversnaid

stats

weather:

full sun

accommodation:

wild camp

steps:

22,062k

planned mileage:

8.36 miles

actual mileage:

6.58 miles

total day mileage:

9.59 miles

day 4 morning was just lovely. the weather was already looking to be a hot, sunny day & the loch was calm. we had some porridge, took some photos together then packed up ready for another day on trail. little got another play on the pebble beach then we set off up the hill to join the trail again. i was slightly dreading the steep climb first thing as my legs weren't warmed up, but it actually took like a minute to get up so it wasn't a big deal at all.

we made our way down into rowardennan, desperate to find a stream or tap to fill our bottles up. i had used nearly all of our water last night & in the morning cooking & wasn't overly keen on drinking loch water, so we were on the hunt for somewhere to refill. the walk into rowardennan was nice, downhill in the shade of the trees so we got there pretty quickly. i had expected it to take us a lot longer so in my head i had planned lunch at the hotel but it was closed until 12, which was an hour half away. not wanting to waste this time when we had about 8.5 miles planned for today, i decided we would just move on & hope for something at the youth hostel shop instead.

the hotel had a water tap outside so i started to fill our bottles until i realised it was warm & cloudy water. i was thirsty, but not that thirsty. just as we were doing this a nice passerby pointed us in the direction of the scottish water tap about 5 minutes down the road at the ben lomond carpark, which we would be passing anyway. bottles filled up here & i stopped to plaster up my knee from the fall on day 1. it was starting to rub a fair bit on my trousers, especially with the heat, so it was starting to become uncomfortable. i was also slightly stalling walking as we were in the shade & i didn't have it in me to be in the sun yet.

we reached the youth hostel & discovered it was shut for renovation. this really wasn't ideal as i was hoping to get something big before a long slog in the sun. we had food on us but the thought of cooking noodles or soup, anything hot really, in this sun wasn't appealing. we did have our wraps, so that would do i guess.

pace was slow to not moving. for some reason i just couldn't get littles legs going & she wasn't interested in any of my encouragement tactics. thankfully i managed to get her going with the promise of something sweet at a honesty box on route. not long after the youth hostel we passed the bens bakes honesty box & it may have single handily saved our day. the lovely owner left a goodie bag out for little knowing we would be passing through at some point today. it had home bakes, crisps, chocolate, jelly & some sweeties in it with a encouraging note for little. she was so over the moon at this thoughtful gift that it just lifted her spirits right up & made her so happy. such an incredibly lovely gesture that went such a long way. i picked up some apples for us & a wee juice for me & off we carried on, spirits high.

this section of the trail splits into two routes; the high route & the low route around loch lomond. the low is known for being slow, technical & tiring, whereas the high route is known for being a boring uphill access track that joins to the end of the low route a few miles later. a local told me earlier in the day that the high route was the original route & that the low route was a diversion for planned tree felling on the high route. years later, no felling done as planned, two routes stayed.

obviously with little legs & a heavy bag we took the high route. our pace was too slow in the sun already to consider the low route & it would possibly take us extra hours in the day that we didn't have. i didn't want to add any more pressure or stress onto our day, especially while we still had to get to a good wild camp spot eventually. only 3 people for passed us the whole duration of the high route, which surprised me. the whole morning was filled with people passing us to dead quiet with one little split of the road.

despite us being in the trees for the majority of the morning & early afternoon, there was no shade. the sun was really coming down hard & we felt it even more since we were on the uphill climb of the high route. i did eventually manage to find a spot of shade by the trail which we decided was a great place to stop for lunch. little decided on soup, she tucked into the goodie bag from the honesty box while i made this. our spot had a fantastic view over to the loch & we sat watching jet skiiers below. it felt like hours we were on the high road for & it didn't feel like it was coming to an end. eventually, we made it to the spot where the two routes joined again & felt like we had reentered civilisation.

by late afternoon i was really not enjoying the west highland way. i was struggling with the heat, the lack of energy from little & the unexpected comments we started to receive earlier in the day. due to little being so young & us attempting the west highland way, it brought a lot of attention to us constantly throughout the past 3 days, which i completely did not see happening, so i was so taken aback by it & a little overwhelmed. it was genuine comments coming from a good place i think, but there was so many stopping to tell us she could break records with her age or that she must be the youngest ever to attempt etc. it added an insane amount of pressure on me to complete & for little to succeed so she wouldn't let these strangers down. instead of it being a fun mum & daughter adventure, it now felt like there was an expectation set otherwise we were failing. i put on a nice happy, grateful smile every time a comment was made but by around 3 oclock it got to me. out of no where, i burst into tears. i felt like i had completely underestimated my ability, littles ability, the actual trail & what we were doing, which further pushed me to want to quit.

at this point i phoned kieran, my husband, to stress cry to him. i needed an adult to talk to about how i was feeling & to give me a reality check, but it actually made me feel worse. he was about 4 hours away from me & me phoning was not fair on him. it made him feel helpless & worried for me instead of knocking me back into sense. this made me cry again. once i finally calmed down, i decided that even if i wanted to quit, i had to make it to inversnaid as this was the nearest road access where he could pick me up. that was my end goal of the day anyway, so one way or another i was getting there - either to camp or to go home.

my end goal was inversnaid but i said if i found somewhere on route to camp, then we would. so we started looking for somewhere suitable. the wild camping spots were non existent up until now, so i was slightly on edge at this. most people who would be wild camping on this day would be looking to stop around the same area as me so it became a game of 'not fast, you're last' in my head. we passed a few spots that i had as potentials in my head but they were taken. cue the stress tears again. little was so taken aback by my random outburst of tears that she was calming me down & telling me not to worry. something i wish i didn't put my 3 year old in a position to have to do. a wee hug from her & i sorted myself out. i quickly realised i didn't actually have the energy to walk the extra 2 miles to the hotel regardless if we were being picked up or not, so finding a spot to camp was my only option.

thankfully we found a beautiful spot on the loch which was off trail enough that it was quiet but close enough that it wasn't hassle to get back to in the morning. there was one guy close by already pitched, but i asked him if he would mind so we weren't too close & he was happy enough so we started pitching. out of no where, the the wind picked up to what felt like gale force speeds, making pitching incredibly stressful & almost impossible. every time i got the tent down to start pegging the wind would pick up & almost take the tent away. somehow i managed to get the pegs in & little noticing what was happening, appointed herself on rock duty to cover the pegs like last nights pitch. absolute superstar who saved the day. we discovered that the flat pebble spot which we originally picked was not actually where we ended up pitching. the wind had blown us slightly to the side, now meaning we were on a slope. by this point in the day i was exhausted, i was stressed & frankly didn't care, so a slope would do. it wasn't as bad as i thought but i did have to pull little up a few times in the night as she was sliding down her mat.

knowing we would have a longer day tomorrow to make up the missed miles today wasn't something i was happy thinking about. the last section of loch lomond is known for being the slowest & most technical so the thought of having to cover an extra 2 miles before even reaching that point was annoying. i was really contemplating what we were doing & how out of depth i felt attempting this trail. surely it's not as bad as it actually is? no way would 40,000 people come from across the whole to do this trail if it was this bad. right?

i looked at my map to see how far we had come & how far we had left. we had managed (struggled) to do 20 odd miles so far, so lets try one more day. if it really was as miserable as the past few days, then we would go home. one last shot. i decided we would take it step by step tomorrow; get to the inversnaid hotel & get something proper to eat. do the loch section & reassess, then push on to finish at beinglas farm. easy, right? we shall see tomorrow.