We got up early enough to eat, pack up, filter water, and hike the mile across the island to meet the ferry at 10a as planned. During the night, we were woken up by what sounded like a car door slamming. Pam wanted me to investigate, but I thought a low profile was the best defense. She insisted on looking out and saw a deer right outside of our tent. How he operated the door handle, I have no idea.
Back on the mainland (so nautical!) we went to the grocer and picked up a picnic lunch of salami, Wensleydale cheese, apples, bananas, and dark chocolate Kit Kats (which we have never seen in the USA). We only hiked about a mile or two before we stopped to eat lunch on the beach near Milarrochy. It was a beautiful walk along the shore of Loch Lomond all day–sometimes in trees, sometimes on the beach, sometimes along a road. Along the way, we saw a tour bus of older folks from Glasgow and tried to talk to them but the Scottish accents were indecipherable to us so we just nodded a lot and laughed when they did. We also talked to a ranger who explained why there is a camping ban along the Loch. Apparently, a large number of Glasgow low-lifes would drive right up to the beach and blare music, drink copious amounts of liquor, generally be obnoxious to everyone, litter, and were just destroying the place.
We strolled another 5-6 miles into Rowardennan where we met a few of the aforementioned Glasgow townies that were thoroughly enjoying their pints and were quite forward. We decided to eat an early supper outside of the hotel and have a coke (apparently ice is a precious commodity in Scotland). There’s a war memorial in town that is a very interesting design—kind of obelisk, kind of window, but very unique right on the shore of the loch. We decided to head on into the woods towards Rowchoish Bothy and if we could find the shore trail to the bothy, we’d take it and see about staying there for the night.
This was a nice wooded old roadbed with a gradual climb to a few hundred feet above the loch. We missed the lower trail that led to the bothy, but that was fine with us because we had heard that the trail is not well maintained and there’s a lot of rough sections with downed trees and boulder scrambles. We eventually came to a park bench overlooking the loch and a large manor house on the other side. We were probably 400’ above the loch. The bench had a nice dedication to Tom Wheldon which read “Someone like you only happens once in a lifetime. Thanks for happening in ours.”
We were getting pretty tired by now being old, carrying full packs, and not in the best of shape. Pam decided to get philosophical and threw out what she was a thought provoking starting question—“Who was Ben Lomond anyway?” I wish I could describe how punch drunk we were at this point but words fail me. She was serious and didn’t realize Ben was a gaelic form of mountain. She thought the manor house we had just seen was Ben Lomond’s house.
We finally saw a trail joining ours from the loch side and figured this was the trail coming up from the bothy. We were too tired to back track the ½ mile to the bothy so we decided to stealth camp in the woods if we could find a level spot. After another mile, we found a decent enough space overlooking the loch with some nearby streams we could filter water from. Home for the night.
