West Highland Way Day 1 (Sun 3rd May 2015)

Milngavie to Balmaha - 19 miles

So not a great start as we wake up to the rain dripping through the window at the premier inn
onto our open suitcase!  Later follower by some disgruntled guests setting off the fire alarm twice at 5 in the morning, so much for a great nights sleep to set us up for the day!
We have our breakfast in the adjoining pub which is actually pretty good and after sorting out our stuff and leaving our bag for the baggage carrying company (AMS-Scotland, who were great throughout our walk) we set off into a drizzly morning at 9am.
It's about a mile to get to the official start of the walk at the obelisk in the centre of the shopping precinct in Milngavie and we stop for the obligatory photos before heading onto a country path running alongside the river. The path runs through Mugdock wood and alongside Craigallian Loch.  The rain gets steadily worse and I suspect it'll be a good test for our waterproofs! but it's easy walking, mostly flat along woodland paths and we can see the Glengoyne distillery in the distance; unfortunately it's a bit early for a wee dram so we press on and take a little detour to Drymen so we can pop into the Winnock Hotel for a bite to eat (chris' first taste of Cullen Skink which he pronounces delicious!)...much better than soggy sandwiches in the rain!  We pass a few people along the way and chat to a few but none of us want to hang around in the rain and we carry on through tracks to the first climb of the walk - Conic Hill.  We opted for the high level route over Conic Hill, much nicer than walking along the lower level route alongside the busy main road.
Luckily the rain eased up a bit so we got something of a view down into Balmaha and across loch lomond and the walk up Conic Hill wasn't actually too bad although we were both getting pretty tired by this point and ready for a pint and a feed at the Oak tree Inn. 
We finally arrived in Balmaha at about 5pm, and had actually dried off so no need to worry about getting everything dried off for tomorrow.
The Oak tree Inn didn't disappoint, with a lovely room and a hearty meal...all in all a good days walk despite the rubbish weather but it did feel like a bit of a warm up for tomorrows walk following the shore of Loch Lomond.