Distance: 96.5 miles
Elevation gain: about 3,500 meters
Difficulty: Depends on your fitness, how much you’re carrying, and how many days you
Rannuch Moor, which we walked across on day four, was my favorite part of our journey.
do it in. I’m moderately fit (these days I run three days a week, have two one-hour sessions a week of weight training at the gym, and go to two boxing classes a week). I found walking around 30 to 35 kilometers for each of our five days on the Way while carrying a 12kg backpack very challenging but, in the end, doable. I’d recommend training specifically for the walk by doing long hikes while load-carrying several weeks beforehand.
Start: Milngavie, Scotland
End: Fort William, Scotland
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Tom, my personal trainer, asked me sometime in December if my husband Colin and I had plans to do anything interesting over Christmas.
“Yes! We’ve decided to walk the West Highland Way,” I responded enthusiastically.
“Why would anyone do that?” he asked, partially in jest.
“I don’t know. It’s just something to do. It’s just a walk,” I said. “Anyone can walk.” Ha! Little did I know what was to come.
“And whose idea was this?” I’m sure he was expecting the answer to be me. But this time it wasn’t me coming up with the crazy ideas.
“Colin. He asked me towards the end of November if I’d like to walk the West Highland Way over Christmas. I asked him what’s that? He said it was a 96-mile walk over five days. I said, ‘Ok.’”
“Rosie and I never have those kinds of conversations,” Tom joked. Tom, by the way, is a really badass personal trainer. But he likes to make fun of me and all the crazy challenges I keep coming up with for myself.
But that really was how our West Highland Way walk came about. It was a spur of the moment suggestion from my husband at the end of November. I said yes. And that was that.
Had I known what we were up against, I might have put in a bit more training in preparation for it. (more…)
Inner Workings of My Mind 