Day three Rowardennan to Crianlarich, Tuesday 6th May

When we arrived in the Youth Hostel we persuaded Kelly on reception to sell us some beers. These went down a treat with the excellent 3 course dinner that was served in the dinning room. 

A couple more beers and we retired early as day 3 is our "Big Day". When you walk the WHW is 6 days you have to have a "Big Day". 

The guide book informs us 20.5 miles with 4000 foot of ascent.

We planned to get away for 9.00 and arrive by 6pm.

The walk from Rowardennan to Inversnaid was easy going on forest road.

The sun came out and we removed the lower section of our trousers to be walking in shorts and base layer top, the day was looking good. The views across the Loch were limited by trees.

After Ptarmiigan Lodge the road gives way to a path meandering through woodland with some hilly sections until we reached Craigrostan Woods an ancient oak woodland.

Soon we arrived at the foot bridges over Snaid Burn with the impressive falls.

We had made Inversnaid in three hours we were on target. We had a quick snack and headed on to Ardleish this we had been told would take us four hours. The going was good to start with, but soon we were in the woods and the pace slowed, the path as it was become rough and craggy, meandering over tree roots muddy, it was impossible to get any rhythm just a matter of scrambling for the next four miles. To make matters worse we were now subject to the occasional shower, so we kept stopping to tog up only to get overheated as we toiled through this tough bit, the occasional view up the loch was superb.

We arrived at Ardleish in three hours pleased with our progress.

There was a pull up to Cnap Mor giving views back down the Loch.

The section from Beinglas Farm to Crianlarich was six miles the Way follows Glen Falloch. We caught glimpses of falls and rapids, but the fine mountain views were lost in the low cloud, rain had set in so we togged up again as we were tired and the air temperature had dropped.

The push into Crianlarich was a bit of a slog the path turned very muddy, and around Keilator the path became a quagmire as both tracked vechiles and cattle had churned it up.

We arrived at our B&B at 6.50pm on target but exhausted, the gps said we had travelled 19.83 miles with 3077 foot of ascent. The heart rate monitor had me using 6231 calories but my max heart rate was only 150.

Time to shower and slip next door to the Rod and Reel for some beer and food, the steak pie was excellent.