West Highland Way Day 4 – Every day I’m Shufflin ‘

Wednesday May 28

AND …

My left spin and ankle are still swollen.

In fact, I slept incredibly well last night. I still wake up with a dead arm, but 60 miles in 3 days meant that it apparently did not give me a tip. My first concern was my leg and my left ankle and my pimp are very rigid. Some analgesics and anti -inflammatories appear in the hope that they will start walking. I do a couple of stretching, trying to convince some life. It is almost certain that it is an injury due to excessive use, I have probably made too many miles in a time too short. I intended to train more for this, but the circumstances had not allowed it, and I am terrible and it is left out of wise. My brain does not seem to understand that it does not come out faster than it is probably sufficiently fit.

For the third morning of a consecutive path, I can’t bother to make any porridge. I have 5 bags of things and I have consumed exactly zero. I must remember to abandon it in the next garbage container I get too. Then breakfast is Café, Granola and Palos Salami. My first planned stop of the day is Glencoe Mountain Resort, which is about 9 miles away from Rannoch Moor. I adjusted the camp, last night, I overcome my water at the hotel, so I am ready to go quite quickly and I am one of the first in the wild camp.

The weather is not so bad this morning, a little cloudy, but a beautiful view of Glen. After a mile or so, my ankle begins to relax a little and I am satisfied in a rhythm, but I make a conscious note to give me more breaks. The path follows the small lane of the country for half a mile or so, crossing the Victoria Bridge

And Past Forest Lodge, a beautiful private residence of rough stone before a sign informs me that I am now on the old Drover road that will take me to Glencoe. The road makes its way beyond a small wooded glass before exploding in Rannoch Moor. I have to stop for a moment. The view is impressive and the weather is good enough to give me views for miles!

This feels like the very essence of West Highland Way and, in fact, this section of 9 miles was my favorite of the path so far. Two people pass me to the north while I am taking a break in the 5 -mile mark and it passes a limit of the south a little later, but apart from that, I am practically alone.

The weather is good enough so that for the first time I can pack my waterproof and not feel that I might need it immediately. While I wonder, I consider that this isolated path used to be almost constant, since the crofters and the farmers would take cattle and sheep to the market, traveling distances of hundreds of miles from remote communities to the big commercial cities. I pass over the Rannoch Moor bridge and noticed a couple of spectacular places of wild camping that I make a mental reference point to use if I ever do the path again.

9 miles later I arrived at Glencoe Mountain Resort. Today there is an in operation cable car that leads to walkers and mountain bicycles through the mountain until the decrease in the leg or the gravity and power of the pedal. My main approach is coffee! I get a breakfast roll, a cup of coffee and a little juice and find a seat next to an energy point to load my phone and try to load my energy bank, you are not playing dice yet. Dang.

Agua topped, I leave and lower the hill to the Kingshouse hotel. He looks very different from the last time I spent it a few years ago, I think he has been renewed.

Before me, A82 snakes are through Glen, among the spectacular mountains while heading to Fort William. Do it from Skyfall of Adele for me, the real road used to film the infamous scene with DB5 of Bond and M is right next to the left.

My ankle does not bother me too much now, but reclince the drugs to mitigate it worse and continue. Behind the Kingshouse Hotel there are still several tents released even at lunchtime. There seems to be several good places to camp there.

The road closely follows the way for a mile more or less before reaching a very well marked point. The staircase of demons!

The publication details the history of the staircase back to 1700, when it was part of the military road used to transport English troops to fight the Jacobita revolution. I see the path that rushes through the hill in front of me and looks quite steep. I put on another audiobook and put on. I tend to adopt a slower but more stable rhythm of this type of climb. I prefer not to stop too often, except to enjoy the view routinely. The climb is not as brutal as it looks honestly and, despite the fact that the intimidating name goes at a constant pace does a relatively short work of the climb. At the high point I take the time to sit down, drink some water and rehydration drink and take a snack.

Under me I can see the resource of the mountain in the distance to the left of the Glen. Behind me, the road makes its way towards distance and what is a long descent in Kinlochleven, my destiny for tonight.

The path is more busy at this point, both with Walker and with several mountain bicycle tourists that I am interested in taking into account. They seem to be having a fairly difficult time in the uphill sections and all seem to go south.

The last time I arrived in Scotland before this trip was a family trip in 2021. We had a wonderful trip to the northern end of Scotland and the Orkney Islands. On that trip I had managed to find a fairly limited edition of one of my favorite whiskey, Cool Ila distilled on the steep Island of Islay on the west coast. He had finished most of the bottle, but at that time we received the news that my father’s cancer was terminal. I had taken a note to save the last Wee dram from that bottle to give my dad when the time came. Before addressing this trip, I decided that, as we both had a deep love for Scotland, it was appropriate to provide it at some point in this walk. I had opted the last of the bottle in a smaller and had been carrying with my lucky Coob of Highland Cuddly (to be a gift for my daughter when I returned) from the beginning of the walk. In this descent, I found a wonderful view on a lake surrounded by hills and felt like the right place. The wind had picked up at this point and I was starting to feel a bit cold, so I disagreed my waterproof I found a comfortable place in a little heather and sat down.

I took the opportunity to rest, drink my wee dram and make my dad. I sat there for half an hour or so. Remembering some of the trips we made as a family in my childhood.

When it was ready, the package turned on again. The bottle was saved and with a last look back in the view and a somewhat melancholic sensation, I started the road to Kinlochleven

… And very quickly I realized that I was in a little problem.

My ankle didn’t want to cooperate at all. It seemed that he had taken over, he did not like to particularly load bear and compete in excess because he was making my right knee hurt. If you have read my first blog post (Shameless Self Phug https://thetrek.co/dodge-hello-world/), you can remember on a previous path, I received a fairly unpleasant injury of the knee that took several months of physio to recover. He felt as if he had aggravated him. My rhythm slowed up to a very quiet deck working in the decrease of 5 miles long in Kinlochleven.

This seemed that he took eternity and was extremely frustrating. I have always found long descents harder than long climbs and both my ankle and my knee, where to make this incredibly difficult section. Group after group happened to me, some offering words of encouragement, some offered ibuprofen or sweets and others friendly enough to walk with Mies for a little as a bit of moral support. There are several interesting points in the descent, a hydroelectric energy plant that was built in 1905 to provide the considerable energy requirements necessary to an aluminum processing plant that operated near until 2000. Honestly, I was lost. I just wanted this to end!

Several hours later he had reached the bottom and the town opened in front of me. My plan had been to replenish in the town and continue and a wild camp in the hills in the final stage to Fort William, but given the change in the circumstances, I could really have used a more organized camp. Unfortunately everything was reserved. There was no space in the only camp in the town and there was literally no space in the inn, since it had considered a B&B at this time. But I was not lucky and they reminded me that I am walking in one of the busiest weeks of the spring season. So returning to plan A was. I was supplied with a pasta salad, salami sticks and flapjacks in the local supermarket and found a bank in a small park to put in what was going to be my dinner. I had read that this town sometimes has wild deer and grazing there, but none honored me with their presence today.

Tomorrow is probably my last day on the road. The last section is one of the most remote, a 15 -mile walk on the old military road and the forest track of Glen Nevis and Fort William with nothing in the middle. I arrived my water on the edge of the tap in the town, used a public bath and headed to the road. . . And very quickly reached a little wooded cleaning where several tents were installed. Having no desire to walk today, I found a place to launch. He crawled in my store and had no intention of leaving until dawn. I got more tablets and took off my shoes to get a better evaluation of my ankle … I didn’t look good.

(Nb my Onlyfeet page will begin soon …) The image really does not do justice, but the lower spin and ankle in my left leg, where very swollen and remove them, the shoe seemed to make it leave now was not restricted. I consolidated the fact that I am only 15 miles from the end and if this had been a longer path, I would definitely have been at least zero if it is not double zero at this time! It is my fault. It is a classic lesion of excessive use, I have pushed too many miles per day to not have enough training. I only had a possible day of the drag room for this trip between work and family commitments and needed to have been in before starting to push the type of miles I have been doing. Tomorrow I was going to suck a little.

Bedtime

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