Alright, so just a quick update incase anyone finds this thread again. No pictures as my phone isnt waterproof.
Had planned Drymen-Fortwilliam at 12 miles a day, Friday - Thursday. Thought i would do a bit more than that, but that was my minimum target each day.
Started from Drymen (beside the bed and breakfast) and head off up through the forestry. Got pretty good weather apart from one quite heavy shower on Conic hill, apart from that it was all good. My 12 mile campsite was on Ross point, but i ended up doing 16 miles and found (eventually) a flat spot for camping just beyond Ptarmigan Lodge.
Next morning i woke up to light drizzle, which then increased to a steady monsoon, which never gave up till i got in my tent later that night.
From Ptarmigan to Inversnaid was mostly alright walking, but Inversnaid through to Doune bothy was an absolute swamp. The majority of the trail was running in 2-3 inches of water, and it became pretty pointless trying keep my feet dry. Eventually got to Doune Bothy about 1pm and stopped for an hour for lunch and to try and dry my feet off, but the damage was already done and the soft spots/blisters had started.
Another guy looking for shelter arrived not long after me. He was doing it from North to South, camping as he went but was trying to decide whether to stay at the bothy for the night to dry off instead of continuing on to Rowchoish bothy. Hope he did stay there, as would only have had 2-3 hours daylight to tackle the section back to inversnaid and beyond. And he already seemed a bit sickened by the rain :\
I decided to push on another 3-4 miles to Beinglas campsite for the night. Turned out to be a bit of a mistake as it quickly became very mucky when tramping about to set up the tent, but my feet couldnt of took much more that day. Was a pretty wet and windy night, with some explosions,whistling,popping and banging thrown in. Seems they were having a quick fireworks display about 10pm ish.
Needless to say i awoke in a bit of a panic not sure whether i was in the middle of a gunfight or if my tent was getting ripped apart by windy. There was quite a bit of fumbling for the door zippers and torch to see what was going on
Sunday was quite good for weather,sunny and a bit of wind. Was a fair bit of snow on some of the munros also. Plan today was 12 miles to tyndrum at least, but most likely push on to Iveronan, 20 miles. Was making pretty good time, had done 8 or 9 miles when i stood on a stone on a downhill section in the trees between crianlarich and Tyndrum.The stone rolled down and my foot slipped away/twisted and i seem to have hurt something between my heel and ankle (achilles tendon? ). Its now slightly swollen
I was intening just to get to tyndrum and camp for the night and hopefully it would of healed overnight, but it ended up taking me almost as long to do 3 miles as it did to do the previous 9 or so. I ended up looking at the map and deciding the sections over the next 2 or 3 days were not somewhere id like to be with a dodgy foot, so i called to arrange a pickup at Tyndrum, and hobbled on.
Thought my lift was gonna beat me there too
So that was it over. Am pretty annoyed as i was enjoying it despite the poor weather, wasnt expecting anything else tbh. Will continue the walk from Tyndrum either on my next long weekend or possibly even over the xmas holidays.
Im not sure ill be tackling Loch Lomond side in the wet again any time soon however. Im glad i did it, but too anyone planning this walk, you really do want dry weather for that section.
