What’s your ideal way to spend the Summer Holidays?
If harnessing yourself to your dog and battling the elements through 96 miles of Scotland’s Highlands sounds like your cup of tea, let us introduce Lindsay Cloughley.
After taking up Canicross with her Malamute Suko, spending a few weeks in Canada learning how to dog sled and with the fitness and confidence of the team of two rising, Lindsay decided to take on a somewhat more challenging adventure.
She put the idea out to some of her “dog” friends, and before she knew it: 8 intrepid dogs and their slightly wearier owners, had determined to take on the West Highland Way.
The team for the challenge consisted of Cani-crossers Lindsay and Suko, Jacqueline and her Siberian Husky Cheeko, Neil and his Husky Lupa, Emily and her two Collie mix’s, Dog Scootering was Matt and his two Alaskan Malamutes Fury and Rebel, and on bike(-jor) was Alan and Callie, plus support team of Bill, Marianne and Marc.
And so from the comfort of your chair, Lindsay’s re-count of their epic adventure:
Day 1
Milngavie to Balmaha, set us off on a false sense of security, sun splitting the skies, dry paths, a great mix of paths, forest tracks, some road side running and last but not least conic hill, which was practically a gorge walk or more of a climb, the descent was less than pleasant when hitting the 18 mile mark and harnessed to a large dog eager to get down fast.
Day 2
Set the mood weather wise for the following days. RAIN!! Fitness wise this was our best day, day 1 was the warm up and getting over the initial excitement and nerves of the challenge ahead. After an initial climb , we had great tracks through lomond national park, windy tracks lots of descents and some climbs, the run picked up the pace after rowardennan where we were or smoother and wider paths, again small climbs and gradual descents, great terrain to get some speed when attached to a harnessed pulling machine
. The terrain slowly got harder, and straight after passing Inversnaid it became unbearable , no steady paths, clambering through rocks , boulders and leap frogging stone to stone. This horrendous path was made worse by a mountain goat in the trees egging the dogs on. Once through it we soon hit a normal path, passed by some Deer and stunning waterfalls and were at the end of Loch Lomond and had reached end of Day Inverannan.Day 3
We were all beginning to feel the real pain after clocking up 41 miles, the weather was now miserable non stop , soak ye right through rain …ah well , what do you expect west of Scotland?? The terrain on Day 3 was the kindest, well as kind as it could be, however for myself and Suko proved to be stressful due to 5 high styles, with no gates to let dogs through. Suko is a large Malamute and I am not the tallest or strongest woman, so getting him over a style has never been a strong point, but with the aid of my running partner Emily, between us we came up with a strategy of getting him over , (you don’t want to know
) Not only did we have the styles to leap (ouch) but we had the drama of passing through fields, with sheep, horses, bulls, and last but not least a herd of highland coos blocking the paths. With a bit of team work we got through these obstacles, and hobbled our way through a long 19 miles to Bridge of Ochry.Day 4
Nerves were kicking in again, with severe weather warnings coming our way, and the weather getting worse each day it did start to unsettle us. Once I got over the first 40 mins of sheer stiffness and general sore muscles, toes, bones, everything..we got a great 13 mile straight run, over Rannoch Moors and down to the beautiful scenic Glen Coe. This lovely run was topped by spotting an amazing Rainbow set over Kings House to the right of Glen Coe. This gave me a massive lift (at this point we were on our own) and felt like the weather was on our side. Half way up Devils Staircase that soon changed, the staircase never and I mean never seemed to end. We waded ourselves through 3 streams, one rapid ice cold and knee deep, all the streams were burst and over poured to the paths, we had a 7 mile run in ankle deep water. Everything got more sore , cold and tender, so I decided not to risk a fall or an injury and walked the last 6 miles to Kinlochleven, or should I say hobble.
Day 5
All emotions were well and truly wiped, by this stage our team of 9 humans and 8 dogs had rapidly decreased to 4 humans , and 2 dogs. I knew that with no serious injuries, just blisters, bruised nails and strained muscles, that as the organiser of this challenge, I had to complete this. My morale was low , I was tired, very sore, lacking energy, feeling sick, freezing and sick of the rain. This time the weather was windy and rainy, just what you want, it got greyer and the rain came at us from every angle. I had previously been advised that day 5 is “all down hill”, well after a 5 mile climb, I cursed and named that man a liar!!!!! Again the terrain was very uneven, bouldery and very wet with all streams burst due to rain load. My hip and left knee were giving me pain I had never experienced, but with some encouraging texts and motivating music I walked and jogged small spurts to get me through the miles, albeit at a much slower pace than we were used to. Knowing I only had under 2 miles to go, I could not see the end, and was worried my GPS watch was failing me, to make matters worse, we were chased by two horned rams, a kind welcome into Fort William. With the Eagles singing “Take it Easy” into my ear phones (ironic or what) we found ourselves skipping our way into Fort William town centre and greeted the stone man at the end mark like Ive never greeted a stone man before, Suko joined me in the cheer and howled his head off, not knowing why, but I secretly think he knew he had finished and even he the forever running Alaskan Malamute was happy to be done !!
I am extremely proud of myself, suko and all my team mates for tackling what we did especially in the harsh weather conditions. To date it has been the hardest thing Ive ever tackled, but it has inspired me and gave me confidence to do more. The scenery is simply stunning, but please be aware that although it isnt mountain climbing the terrain is very rough for both human and dog, and a lot of physical challenges are set out in each section. With a good mindset, good training, and excellent footwear, the West Highland Way is your oyster.
A huge congratulations to all of the team. If you would like to learn more, get advice or join Lindsay on future adventures.
