We are Lisa & Luci, and we’ve had our sights set on the West Highland FKT for a few months now. We ran the full route together and carried with us camping equipment, clothes, food and water. We purchased food at shops and pubs, and replenished water along the way at public taps (we also purified water from streams along the way), making this a self-supported attempt. Here’s are further details:
Saturday 12th
We started the route at Milngavie at 1.03pm, running along the route, stopping for Kendal mint cake at shops & a drink at The Oak Tree Inn in Balmaha setting up our first camp around Rowchoish at around 8pm having covered around 29miles of the route. We cooked our dinner & dessert at camp, and had a swim in Loch Lomond.
Sunday 13th
We had a leisurely morning, cooking porridge and coffee (with creamer) which we had brought with us. We dealt with some animal scavengers, and packed up camp to set off by 9.30am.
We bought flat whites & cinnamon muffins from a pop up cafe. The first 10 miles were slow going and technical. We jogged some more and stopped off for a cola, more Kendal mint cake, a boiled egg, and filled our flasks at the Beinglas campsite. The next section became more runnable and we kept moving til we reached Tyndrum where we stopped for fish and chips and breaded scampi. From here we passed through one of the most beautiful sections while dust fell, passing through Bridge of Orchy around 8pm. We continued running/hiking until 10pm by which we had reached 69miles, roughly halfway between Bridge of Orchy and Kingshouse. We set up camp by a small river & cooked dinner.
Monday 14th
Early start, packed up and set off by 515am eating our breakfast as we walked. Rainy start but once it got light we had great views of the mountains around. We passed through Kingshouse at 7.30am where we grabbed a coffee. We climbed up Devil's Staircase & descended into Kinlochleven. We moved faster both because we were tight with time for our bus home but also because the terrain was more runnable especially through Lairigmor. We ran down & into Fort William going view the FKT finish point before continuing onto the finishing statue of the man.
This route was beautiful! 10/10 experience. We found that the gpx file we downloaded from the FKT website had some corners cut short, but we followed the full west highland way marked route. Please let us know if you have any questions about our submission!