Quote Originally Posted by Alan H View Post
BTW, that's beautiful countryside, and I would LOVE to hike it for a week.

I know of the West Highland Way, which is not exactly "Wilderness Hiking" although it looks lovely. So, Jock if... IF you care to.....would you recommend a good 4-6 day, roughly 30-50 mile trek in the Highlands that really gets away from "civilization"? My wife and I are used to backpacking in the Sierra Nevada here in California for that length of time. I'm having a hard time convincing her that Scotland is someplace she would like to visit, but if there was a really spectacular multi-day backpacking trip, that would go a long way towards changing her thinking.
Well Alan,what can I say!I don't really know, is the honest answer!As I don't have to backpack for a trip up here ,I never pay much attention to what others are doing.What I would say,particularly if you are trying to persuade a doubting wife,is don't be fooled by the photographs!It really does rain, big style, up here and quite seriously I would avoid camping on the West coast of Scotland between May and Mid September because of the "dreaded midge",I kid you not!!The West Highland way goes through some spectacular places such as Glen Coe and Glen Nevis from near Glasgow to Fort William and then the Great Glen way goes from FW to Inverness at a guess I would say the total distance would be about 160/70 miles.I think most people stay in hotels and hostels during the trip.Many thousands of people come up here and climb a couple of hills(dont fall into the trap that we mean hills usually we mean mountains!) every day and then retreat to a hotel,guesthouse or some such for the night.The UK's highest mountain,Ben Nevis,is 4300 or so ft.I will post a picture of it.