Kinlochleven to Fort William

Here it is, the last day on this rainy and lonely trail. Can't say that I'm sad that this trek is coming to an end. It wasn't my most favorite, even though it had its fair share of amazing sights and challenging experiences. Today I would be making for Fort William, and my hotel at the end of the West Highland Way.

I didn't take many photos today, I was too focused on finishing and making it through the rain that hounded me all throughout the day. At least the day started with partly sunny skies. It took some searching, but I eventually found where the trail continued, and made my way up and out of the town. While trail started with a steep ascent to get back up into the hills and mountains, it was mostly flat the rest of the way, until the descent into Fort William.

Fjords were visible in the distance, signaling the incursion of the Atlantic ocean. For a good while the trail went down the middle of a long and narrow valley, flanked by scraggly grass-covered mountains. The trail hung to the right-most side of the valley, and weaved its way through the hills.

After exiting the valley area I went up and down over several small hills, and in and out of forests. I didn't take many breaks on the trail today, I was, again, too focused on finishing. The trail merged with a forest preserve trail which meant it would be a nice wide manicured path. The rain had also started to fall by this point. But my rain jacket had been on all day. In fact, I can't remember I time in the past three days when I wasn't wearing it.

Up ahead I could see the tallest mountain in the UK: Ben Nevis. I had hoped to summit it the following day, but the weather would not cooperate. After about an hour of descending I was on mostly flat ground again, and close to the end. It was a full downpour of rain by now, and I don't think I had any dry clothing left on me, except for the outfit I would be wearing while I was in Fort William and while traveling back to my hotel in Glasgow.

Here the trail left nature behind and met up with a sidewalk along a busy section of road. For an hour I walked through the heavy rain, as cars sped by me. At least this part of the trail was waymarked. I entered the outskirts of the town, and had to pull up Google Maps in order to figure out where my hotel and the end of the trail was.

While the beginning of the trail had a ceremonious marker and beginning, the end did not. It was simply a bench with a statue of some old man on it, and a sign that said "The end of the West Highland Way". There streets around me were empty, due to the rain, and there were no other hikers finishing at the same time as me, so this was a rather sad and lonely ending to a not-so-fun trek. Defeated, I headed for my hotel and a warm bed.

I spent the next day and a half warming up as best I could: the hotel heater wasn't working in the building so they gave me a small portable space-heater. Needless to say I didn't do much exploring on the day that I arrived. The next morning I went out to breakfast (the hotel didn't offer much), and shopped around for a souvenior. I had to find a pin of the hike though, as I had done on all previous hikes, in order to add to the collection on my backpack. I finally found one at the last place I visited, just before having to leave to catch the evening train back to Glasgow.

The West Highland Way had been on my bucket list of hikes for a long time, and I gotta say that I was mostly dissapointed by it. It wasn't what I had thought it would be, and it would make me doubt if I would ever want go on another thru-hike ever again.