West Highland Way Day 8

Kinlochleven to Fort William 

15 miles 

1388 feet of elevation 

We woke up early and SO well rested at the West Highland Lodge. And it was cold outside! Our first truly cold day! Honestly, today we had the Scottish weather I had prepared us for!

We made coffee and tea in the kitchen and took it back to our rooms. 

I always love staying in a hostel along a hike because you get the hiking camaraderie. You have chats around the kettle in the morning about what the day holds and which body parts are aching. 

But it’s nice to have your own room in a hostel so you can spread out and drink your coffee in your underwear if you want. 

I felt like we took our time getting ready but we still headed out on the trail by 7:45am. 

We were going to stop in town for breakfast but the place that was open and sounded good (Leven Bakes) was only a takeaway spot, so we marched on as we all had TONS of food in our bags. There is kind of a scarcity of shops along some spots on the West Highland Way so we kept hoarding and buying food like little squirrels saving for winter. Our backpacks were so heavy with snacks that we said we’d stop every hour for a quick snack on our last day! 

Additionally, because of the change in the weather, we were also carrying hats, gloves, extra layers and all the rain gear. We were loaded down! 

I was honestly glad to get going so early because we had so far to go and heavy rain was meant to blow in at 4pm. With 15 miles ahead of us, I felt like we’d be lucky to reach Fort William by the time the steady rain started.  

So we walked through Kinlochleven one last time, crossed the river and headed up into the woods. 

It’s a decently steady climb out of Fort William. 

We’d put on warm hats/buffs and gloves as we walked through town, but we started shedding layers soon. In the trees we were out of the wind and so we encountered some little midge spots that had managed to survive the cold night. They really weren’t bad but we had midge PTSD from yesterday so we didn’t stop until we got out of the trees and into the wind again. 

Most of this section of the West Highland Way is very exposed, so once we got up and into the wind, we were in it for most of the day. 

It took us about an hour to get to the top of the main climb from Kinlochleven and then the trail widens and levels out a bit. 

It’s such a beautiful stretch. Honestly it’s hard to choose my favorite scenery day on the trail, but maybe because it was our last day and I was starting to feel sad that it was almost over that this day seemed especially gorgeous. 

This stretch is what Scotland looks like to me when I close my eyes and remember our years of hiking and living here. 

The wind was cold so all the layers soon came back out. Earlier in the week we had laughed about the fact that we had warm hats and gloves in our packs, but today we finally used them. And we were glad to have them. 

When your hands are exposed because you’re using trekking poles, you really need your gloves on a windy day. You can’t just pop your hands in your pockets to get warm. 

We found little bends in the hills to tuck ourselves into for snack breaks. We stopped at 9:15 for our first snack and the sun even came out for a minute.

Who wants a piece of shortbread? Anyone want some peanuts? A piece of an orange? 

We were aggressively marketing our snacks to each other. 

I had introduced the gals to Hob Nobs, my favorite British tea biscuit, so we were working our way through Patti’s sleeve of them. And Rhonda even had a package of peanut butter crackers she’d been carrying since she left Little Rock. 

We got moving again, taking photos of the mountain ranges shepherding us along and old stone ruins of a time long ago. 

We felt our first drops of rain at 10:20, much earlier than expected. I tried to ignore them at first. Sometimes it’s just a passing mist. But it wouldn’t be ignored so we stopped and put on raincoats and pack covers. We decided we’d wait for it to get heavier before donning rain trousers. 

Patti has a pink poncho instead of a raincoat and pack cover so you can always tell if it was raining when you look at photos because even from far away, she’s easily spotted. We joked that we should have kept a count of how many times someone made a comment to Patti about the bright color of her poncho. People could not help but comment. 

Well your friends certainly aren’t going to lose you! 

The rain actually didn’t last very long, but the raincoats helped with the wind anyway so we left them on until elevensies, when we pulled them off to sit on the ground and have another snack. 

Then the rain came again around noon and was off and on all day. It was a light drizzle except for one ten minute stretch of heavy rain around 2pm. 

We managed to have our lunch stop out of the rain sometime around 1 after the lower half of Ben Nevis had finally come into view. We had 7 miles left to go. 

There’s a final climb that winds up the trail to a gravel road that you walk all the way down into the valley and I was hoping to be over that last climb before the rain. We got there at about 2:30pm so I was thrilled. 

Home stretch gals! 

We descended into Fort William under the shadow of Ben Nevis which looked ominous under the dark sky. (The girls are hoping to climb it later in the week so I’m hoping they get a better weather day!)

The descent was long, around 2 miles, but it’s a wide gravel service road, a reasonable grade for our tired legs. 

Then the last two miles to the end is a march on the road, always a bit jarring after miles and miles of being in the wild. 

The rain had stopped and we’d warmed up once out of the wind, so we had stripped everything off again. Then about a mile from the end, it started raining hard again so we stopped under a bus shelter and put everything back on. Of course. It was fitting, we said, to begin and end our walk in the rain. 

We finally reached the end at 3:30pm. I was so proud. I asked two young Dutch guys who were also finishing to take our photo and then we took theirs and exchanged stories for just a minute before we wished them a good trip home and headed into the pub across the street to eat. 

Rhonda had said 3 miles ago that she was hungry for something besides a Doo Dad. (She meant a Hob Nob lol). 

We plopped ourselves down in the Ben Nevis pub for a big celebration meal. I had to refrain from taking off my boots and lying down across the chairs. I was surprised by how chilled I was, as I’d felt hot while walking, but I immediately started to get chilled when we stopped. I ordered only hot things. Soup and tea. It tasted amazing. 

After lunch we went and checked into our hotel, maybe our nicest stay of our whole trip, and mercifully, a two minute walk from the pub. 

After hot showers and a couple of hours of rest, we headed back out to the pub for a celebration drink. 

The pub was jam slammed, so we decided to beg a couple of guys to let us join them at their table. They were so gracious, not only did they let us squeeze in but they bought our celebration drinks in congratulations for our finishing the trail. They were over from the Netherlands and planning to climb Ben Nevis tomorrow. The weather looks a bit iffy but I hope it clears for them and they can make it to the top. They flew over especially just to make the climb. 

We had a great time chatting to them and when they left to go have dinner, we had one more drink and then headed off to bed. 

It’s 9pm but it feels like midnight. 

I can’t quite believe I’m not getting up and walking tomorrow. My train leaves in the morning but we’ll have one last breakfast together before I go.

Maybe on the train home, I’ll write down all the things I would have done differently just in case you are reading this and thinking about making the trek yourself. 

It’s a pretty incredible way to spend 8 days or so. Midges, rain and all. 

I’m super grateful to Patti and Rhonda for being willing to come share this adventure with me!!!