7: Sunshine on Scotland (Drymen to Conic Hill)

The Way doesn’t actually enter Drymen, it skirts around the eastern edge before turning and heading off to the north. As we left the village ahead of us in the dazzling sunshine we could make out the outline of a lone hiker tottering under the weight of her backpack, occasionally stopping to rearrange her load. We quickly caught up with our photographer from yesterday morning, who although cheerful, seemed to us to be finding her load a heavy one. To my eye she had a sixty-five litre pack that was ready to burst. She told us she hadn’t just come to walk the Way but spend about a month exploring the UK and our impression was that she had brought all of her supplies with her.
We quickly outpaced her, indeed we were outpacing most of the other hikers that we met on these early stages.  During our preparation for the walk, as we don’t have anything that could realistically be called a hill in Essex, Chris had slowly but surely upped the speed that we walk at. We did the same before walking the Pennine Way and felt that although different muscles are used this had been good preparation.  Today’s walk was comparable to a shorter Pennine Way day, with sixteen miles of walking and two thousand feet of elevation gain. But without a twenty-five pound pack it would surely be easier. 
Another more fickle benefit was the weather, with a practically cloudless sky and only the gentlest zephyr rustling the long grass, today was exceeding all expectations on the weather front.

Heading toward Conic Hill

After a few miles of heading west on a clear stony strip, the southern edge of Loch Lomond came into view to our left. Ahead was Conic Hill, the first major elevation gain on the route.

 

The geology of the walk so far has been fairly straightforward. On leaving Milngavie we have been walking through the Midland Valley over rocks from the Carboniferous period - which as the name implies are coal bearing strata. One of the reasons why coal is referred to as a fossil fuel is not merely because it was formed from trees millions of years ago. Those trees grew before a certain bacteria gained the ability to eat lignin, therefore the dense trunks did not rot away but were slowly covered by sedimentary rock as the land was swallowed by the sea.  No coal will ever be made now as all the mass from decaying trees is readily consumed.

We had left the Midland Valley and its carboniferous rocks about lunch time yesterday and since had walked across Old Red Sandstone. Now we are moving onto the harder sandstones of the Dalradian era. This sandstone has been cooked by pressure and heat to form slates and schists. Glaciation has since carved the valleys and the harder rocks are left as the mountains we see today. Across Loch Lomond is a series of islands between Balmaha and Arden that mark the watery boundary between the Midland Valley and the Highlands.

Walking over conglomerate

As we approached Conic Hill the geology changes again to a different sandstone from the Arbuthnot-Gavrock group which contains conglomerates amongst its various components. These conglomerates are especially visible on the final ascent on Conic Hill as pebbles and stones firmly held in a matrix of gravel and fine sand. 

We are not alone

At this point we were met by large numbers of people making their way up from Balmaha. It was a Saturday and the weather by now was more suggestive of the Seychelles than Scotland and this had brought out a throng of walkers to enjoy the view. 

This is Scotland on a very good day

There was a huge number of people coming up Conic Hill from Balmaha. The steep path up has been enhanced by wooden steps with packed earth behind them that in exposed places had been treacherously eroded by rainfall. A young lad of about ten years old was finding the return journey somewhat challenging and I offered a helping hand. His palm was clammy and shaking, so I tried to reassure him that he would be alright. However it was a testing staircase back down to the loch. 

They look fierce...

About half way from the top there was a stand-off between four Heelin’ Coos and some members of the public.  There were two calves in the group and the main danger would be to anyone with a boisterous dog. 

... but they're actually really placid. However if there's a calf keep your dog under control

We carefully edged past them. The path continued its steep descent that finally ended at the back of the main car park of Balmaha.

Link to GPS track here