Magic in the Mountains

May 9, 2024 (15 miles)

Kinlochleven- Fort William

We are officially done with the WHW! It felt like a very long and tiring day but it feels good to be done. We woke up this morning to rain but thankfully it stopped just as we were starting to pack up. The MacDonald Hotel was situated right on Loch Leven so I tried to take in the view as much as I could as we were leaving. We walked the half mile back to town and passed tons of people heading to trail (they were confused to see us going to “wrong” way back into town). We got the “big roll” at Leven Bites and man oh man was it good! Easily our favorite breakfast on trail- it was a roll with eggs, bacon, sausage, haggis, and black pudding. There was so much we could hardly finish them, it was plenty of fuel for the day.

Once we finished breakfast we started up the trail. The biggest climb of the day was right out of the gate and it felt extra hard with a full stomach. We got some views of Kinlochleven once at the top, but there were so many people we wanted to keep moving. We made our way through a high elevation valley once we were finally up and over the pass. We could see the trail stretch out for miles in front of us as it wound around the valley. The fog set in and blocked most of the mountain tops around us, but it was still beautiful. We even started seeing sheep again!

We passed several stone ruins of old houses and plenty of people congregating around the ruins. We have seem a lot of people each day but for some reason today felt so crowded. We hiked faster than most of them so it got annoying having to pass people all the time. The trail was pretty flat through the valley so we were able to fly down the trail.

The trail today was mostly made up of small, loose gravel so it wore down our feet and made it hard to find traction. The trail eventually left the valley and curved around the mountainside before we started going up again. We climbed through hills and pastures (and passed a lot of people) before eventually coming out in a logging zone. All the downed trees made room for some long range views and we even started seeing the broad face of Ben Nevis!

We went up and down through the logging area before one final big push up to the logging road. When we got to that point we decided to forgo the packed sandwiches we had brought for lunch and just push t0 the finish. Thankfully the trail all the way down to town was just logging road so we were able to get a move on. A few miles from the end, the trail spat us out on the sidewalk and we kept cursing. We made our way from the outskirts all the way into the epicenter of town which felt a little disorienting. We paused for a picture at the old finish and walked a few more bocks to the true end of trail. It wasn’t a big emotional finish but maybe that’s just because it was only a week instead of six months of my life.

There was a brewery and pizza place right at the finish so we got celebratory pizza and drinks at the Black Isle Brewery. We then had to walk 2.5 miles back down trail to our campsite at the base off Ben Nevis, Glen Nevis Campground. We got here with just enough time to set up camp before going to dinner at the restaurant. We had a yummy meal and are turning in early… climbing Ben Nevis tomorrow!