Argyll Hills - WHW day 5

Another fine walking day full of autumn smells, and the bracken more brown than green. Left the car at Rowardennen and walked to Inversnaid and back. My watch said it was 17 miles and on this occasion it did feel a bit of a haul. Lots of very narrow and rocky ups and down, perversely it was the busiest I have seen it, perhaps with folk starting out on Saturday – depending on how you carve it up, for many the stretch from Rowardennen to Inversnaid would be day 3 – Monday. I can’t believe that I left my walking pole in the car (noticed at mile 1 and decided not to go back). Found an excellent stick at mile three which served me well and I felt like Gandalf. Extricating it from a stream was quite exciting.

Nearly the whole time was spent in woodland with glimpses of the loch. The Craigrostan Woods were impressive, with excellent information boards on what they are doing to sustain and enhance the Atlantic Oaks, although there seemed to be almost as many birch and hazel trees. No woodpeckers (let alone squirrels and pinemarten), I had hope to see a green one – the spotted ones are all over the place at home.

The hotel at Inversaid is closed, the car park is available and I think one of my next forays will need to be the stretch from Inversnaid to Inveranan – and back. The going will be tough as it was today so I might complete a different chunk first and leave a bit of a gap before I return to the Atlantic Oaks.
Oh and the boots were fine.