Balmaha to Rowardennan & Rowardennan to Inversnaid....

We have now walked about 40 miles since leaving Milngavie 4 days ago. Actually if we count our walk from Glasgow to Milngavie we have walked about 50 miles so far. So technically we have still not made it as far as Eugene yet!

Loch Lomond our primary scenery for 3 days

June 25th...The Midges are Coming!

Yesterday and today our walks have been along the shores of Loch Lomond (low-mond). Its a beautiful lake that is 30+ miles in length and fairly wide in some places. I would consider it similar to one of the Great Lakes. Our evening accommodation in Balmaha was just near the lake and we stayed in the hotel's bunkhouse. These rooms are generally have 2 bunk beds and small bathroom. We are finding these bunkrooms or quad rooms as they are called in the hostels are really small and sometimes its difficult to move around when four people are trying to do different things. Its been quite an experience though and interesting when mom and dad are both snoring.

Our morning in Balmaha started with a cooked Scottish breakfast which seems to the be same everywhere and we have had it several times on this trip. You get an egg, one sausage, bacon (which is almost more like ham), baked beans, baked tomato and sometimes if we are lucky, black pudding! Black pudding, for those of you don't know, is a mixture of blood, usually from a pig, onions and oatmeal congealed and served patty style. It looks an overcooked sausage patty. Today I had some Black Pudding and for the sake of needing as much protein for the trail I ate all of mine.  I found that mixing it with my eggs and beans makes it taste better and for those of you who know me I don't usually mix my food! 

After breakfast in Balmaha (no black pudding that time) we set off for our 3rd day of walking. After going over Conich Hill we were looking forward to an easier day. After about 5 minutes outside we discovered our new problem of the day...MIDGES! Midges are little tiny bugs that looks like gnats but bite like mosquitoes. When you stop moving they descend on you like flies to a cow pie! There is no getting away and bug repellent doesn't seem to work. We usually walk ahead of mom and dad and wait for them to catch up after a bit. Well after walking a while we stopped to wait and were attacked quite quickly by a swarm.  It only takes seconds for them find you as they are attracted to body heat. We had let ourselves get too far ahead and couldn't wait for fear of being eaten alive. As long as your moving they won't bother you since they are so small.  So we kept pace and ended up arriving in Rowardennan with out mom and dad.  There were several large hill climbs and since we were moving pretty quickly we ended up waiting for an hour half for them. Luckily there was only one pub in town so it was not hard to find each other.  We had a lot of nice views of the lake but due to the midges we didn't stop for long to enjoy any of them.

Chad posing for a quick picture for before the midges got him!

June 26th: Super Soggy

We spent our 4th night in the Rowardennan Lodge Youth Hostel which is right on the banks of Loch Lomond. We were in another quad room, this one was small but manageable. There were a lot of other people staying as well since there is not a lot of accommodations in the area. The place used to be an old hunting lodge and a view of the lake that any high priced hotel would love to get their hands on. The beds were saggy and the dorm style showers were hard to take in but the place was pretty cool anyway.

Rowardennan Lodge Youth Hostel

After another Scottish breakfast we headed out on the trail prepared for the midges. First half of our hike was along a gravel road and the second half was narrow trail. Nearly halfway through the road piece it began to rain, nothing major but it was a steady rain. Rain is good because it keeps he midges away because they cannot fly in the rain. We had our rain gear on happy to be midge free. It only took a few hours of rain walking for the water to begin seeping into my boots and then into Chad's boots. As the rain continued you could feel its seeping through the seams of your rain gear. The most expensive set of rain gear was not going to keep you dry today. The last few hours of our walk was pretty soggy. Even though the midges were gone, that did not leave us problem free. The issue of the day was the heavily running streams,sometimes waterfalls that crossed the trail and there was not bridge to assist. Four different times we had to cross a stream, running as quickly as a river by hoping rocks. Mom was not enjoying this and each stream crossing had to be team effort, but we made it over each one without an issue. 

We made it into Inversnaid (In-ver-snade) around 2 and had lunch at the Inversnaid Hotel. Its a pretty fancy place and they don't really like dripping wet walkers coming in but since its the only place in town to eat they kind of have to let you. There is a separate non fancy entrance for walkers but that was closed for the day so we did have to go in the main entrance. All walkers have to go into a back reception room just off the bar where you can stay for a while and order food from the bar. You are not allowed in the dining room for regular food because you are not dressed properly. We didn't really like it but it was dry and they had hot food. 

I look happier than I really am, this was a large waterfall that did actually have a bridge to use! 

Our last stop of the day was a ride up to the Inversnaid Bunkhouse, where we are staying tonight. We are in the smallest bunkroom of the trip. You can barely turn around. However, the place is a converted 17th century church and is pretty neat as long as you don't need to hang out in your room. There is a bistro/pub upstairs where we ate dinner and will have breakfast tomorrow morning. If it weren't for the small rooms these old places would be perfect. We are hoping for a little better weather in the morning. Thanks for reading and I think I will be able to post again tomorrow!