West Highland Way - Day 2 - Drymen to Rowardennan
West Highland Way - 2026 - This article is part of a series.
My Route Today#
Breakfast at the Drymen Inn#
I’d had a horrible sleep the night before, making my way from Edinburgh to Mingavie and then undertaking the first 21 km leg of the West Highland Way. The combination of those things no doubt contributed to the excellent sleep I had at Braeside Guest House. I went to bed at around 9:30, set my alarm for 7:30 am and woke up before that around 7 a.m.
I had chosen to have breakfast at 8:30 so I had time to wake up slowly, lollygag a bit, drink a cup of that awful freeze-dried coffee they have in hotel rooms, and get my luggage packed up to be moved to the next accommodation.
I’m not one to take pictures of my food - so here’s an image I grabbed from the internet that fairly closely shows what the breakfast was made up of. A full Scottish breakfast varies of course, but in my brief experience with it, the mainstay offerings are:
- Two big slices of what Canadians would call “back bacon”, but much thicker than what we’re used to
- Eggs
- A cooked tomato
- Baked beans - this was a first for me; I haven’t eaten baked beans for many years, and here I was having them for breakfast.
- Baked full mushrooms - for me, these were the tastiest thing on the plate - just loved them.
- Blood sausage - this was my first time eating this, and I quite liked it.
- “Tattie (potato) Scones” - these were absolutely foreign to me. They were like flat, thick “crêpes” - I liked them too
It was a bit difficult for me to finish the entire breakfast because at home for the last year or so, I’d been in the habit of eating no breakfast at all and recently during the trip only eating a small breakfast. The dining experience could not have been better here. I left satisfied, and maybe a bit too full.
Geocaching My Way Out of Drymen#
(road north out of drymen) There is a geocaching “power trail” that begins on the road leading from the north side of Drymen. It follows the “Rob Roy Way” trail, and eight of the caches from this trail are hidden along the road until it intersects with the West Highland Way. So this morning I decided to follow that route and find what caches I could.
My priority was the walk, not finding geocaches, so I made a point of not spending much time searching for caches I didn’t find immediately. In the end, I found 5 of the 8 possible hides, all placed along this picturesque country road.
As it turns out, I caught up with them soon later, and we started walking and talking together for the next hour or so. They were Bernie and Laura from Michigan, and as it turned out, I’d spend a lot more time walking with them on the third and fourth days of the trek. As it turned out, though, after going through a gate before the ascent to Conic Hill, they must have stopped for a rest, and before I realized that I was far ahead of them by that time.
Ascending Conic Hill#
There was a virtual geocache at the summit of the hill that before today I’d assumed I would climb to, but once on site, given my energy level and given that it seemed like almost half of Scotland was climbing up the steps from the direction of Balmaha and further on to the summit, I decided without any guilt that I’d forego that extra climb. Perhaps the pictures I could have captured up there would have been more expansive, but other than that, I had no qualms about skipping that climb.
As mentioned, there was a serious flow of people—adults, kids, dogs— coming up Conic Hill during my descent down. In this section, the path was almost entirely made of man-made rock steps, and I grew to thoroughly dislike those steps. The constant focus you needed to make sure you didn’t slip was mentally tiring. When the rock steps ended and the descent levelled out, I absolutely rejoiced.
It was almost like dessert to be able to search out a cache that took me a couple of minutes off trail, away from the flow of humanity up the hill. I made a quick find of the cache and returned to the trail and immediately set my next waypoint on another find, a “multi-cache” that I had figured out the final location of before the trip began.
When I arrived at the promised location of the multi-cache, things didn’t go so well at all. I made a long search for the cache in multiple promising places. According to the hint, I was looking for a stump, and I’d say there were at least thirty in the area because of recent logging. I finally just gave up, sat on a large stump, had a bite to eat, and rested for a while. When I was ready to go on, I got up, said to myself, “Okay, one more quick look, and that’s it”. Well, would you believe it? I saw a promising place I hadn’t searched before, and there was the cache! That was a memorable find!
Balmaha to Rowardennan Hotel#
I spent a few minutes around the Balmaha shoreline but soon was off on the trail again. Until I reached my hotel at Rowardennan, I took a few pictures. The trail was straightforward to walk and even though one would expect there would be picturesque views along the loch side, trees between the trail and the shoreline were constantly in the way of a clear view of the loch.
Another reason for fewer pictures during this section of today’s walk was I ended up walking and talking for quite a while with a young Dutch guy whose English was very good. He was camping along the way and throughout our conversation the catchphrase I repeated out loud with him in mind was “Ah, the energy of youth!”.
Eventually I needed to stop for a rest and was glad to sit beside a gate and eat the rest of my lunch while a periodic stream of walkers went by. I felt like a Walmart greeter for this section of the trail.
Finally just after 5 p.m. I reached Rowarddenen Hotel, my accommodation for the night. Two other women - I learned the next day they were Swiss - arrived just ahead of me and I announced to them in a letter that to me this was “O M G I M I”. One of them understood OMG immediately but the other caused a frown; I filled that in “Oh My God, I Made It!” which got a laugh out of them.
Evening at Rowardennan Hotel#
Before supper, which I’d reserved at 7 p.m., I made a point of going out to ask the friendly woman at the front desk why on earth there were so many people walking up to Conic Hill today. I first asked if I could ask a dumb foreigner question, and I learned that since there were school holidays this week after Easter, and the weather reports were good, many people would decide on the spur of the moment to come out to enjoy Loch Lomond and climb the hill while the weather was good. Mystery solved! I ended our conversation with “Now I can sleep!”, which brought a laugh.
I kept it simple at supper: I got a hamburger and fries with a pint of beer. I consciously ordered simple food like this, not wanting to eat anything exotic for fear of upsetting my stomach in any way.
After supper, there was a nightly ritual of rubbing Voltaren on my right knee and calf, something I did pretty well every night during the entire trek.
I slept well that night and woke knowing that the upcoming leg of the trek was billed as likely the most strenuous of them all.
Gallery#
Pictureque oaks line the road
Camera Model: RICOH GR IIIx
Click for Map Location:N 56.0725000 W 4.4507139
Pictureque oaks line the road
A mosy old marker still pointing the way
Camera Model: RICOH GR IIIx
Click for Map Location:N 56.0843194 W 4.4441056
A mosy old marker still pointing the way
A stream close to the foot of Conic Hill.
Camera Model: RICOH GR IIIx
Click for Map Location:N 56.1000000 W 4.4954194
A stream close to the foot of Conic Hill.
The ascent proper begins afer this bridge
Camera Model: RICOH GR IIIx
Click for Map Location:N 56.0998500 W 4.5014556
The ascent proper begins afer this bridge
Another rocky creek
Camera Model: RICOH GR IIIx
Click for Map Location:N 56.0997056 W 4.5016917
Another rocky creek
Climbing Conic Hill - these are bags of rock to installed as steps
Camera Model: RICOH GR IIIx
Click for Map Location:N 56.1005722 W 4.5155111
Climbing Conic Hill - these are bags of rock to installed as steps
Looking north from the grounds of Rowardennan Hotel
Camera Model: iPhone 15 Pro
Click for Map Location:N 56.1501806 W 4.6424333
Looking north from the grounds of Rowardennan Hotel
Looking north from the grounds of Rowardennan Hotel
Camera Model: iPhone 15 Pro
Looking north from the grounds of Rowardennan Hotel
West Highland Way - 2026 - This article is part of a series.
Related
West Highland Way - Day 1 - Milngavie to Drymen
Return to Battle Lake
