Discovering the Nitty-Gritty

Hello, my name is Cody. I am a middle-aged woman that has been traveling around the world extensively for the past 12 years. To say I love to travel is an understatement. I travel as often as possible, researching and planning every stage along the way. During all of my travels I went to many museums, sightseeing tours, restaurants and bars before I went on a narrowboat trip that changed my life. I then decided seeing the world needed to be an active adventure.

I put on my hiking shoes and decided to start training for a walking holiday. After many hours of research, I decided the Great Glen Way would be our first long distance trail. I don’t mind telling you I am 25 pounds (now) overweight, but when I started training for the Great Glen Way I was 65 pounds overweight. This was a challenge of its own, but I was bound and determined to finish this 75 mile (120 km) hike in 6 days. While having an “I can do this” attitude and wanting to enjoying the scenery every step of the way hopefully without being in pain or killing myself. I know this sounds easy, but for me I was scared of the unknown, scared of failing, scared of letting my husband down or just plain having a miserable trip.

I started training one year before our start date. Walking just 3 miles at a time and working up to 8-10 miles. Working out the blisters; shoes, the weight in the backpack, the water bottles I would carry, and all the weather gear. But the one thing I wanted was to be prepared for was the exact terrain that would be underfoot. I wanted to know how steep of an elevation climb it would be at certain stages, and how many miles or feet in elevation it would be to the top. I could find on any booking site how many miles and elevation you will be hiking daily but, I was in search for more details on each stage of the hike. I wanted to to know if we would be walking through long grasses, rocky ground, swamp or boggy ground, over boulders or through sand. I wanted to know if there would be benches along the way, or if we could find fallen trees, or simply if we needed to walk/stand the whole stage.

I could not find much of this information, so I decide to start sharing what I have discovered about the nitty-gritty of each long distance hike. As well as the best hotels and restaurants to eat at along the way. I figured if I am looking for this information someone else must be as well. So far I have completed 7 long-distance Inn to Inn hikes and will be completing 2 more each year. I hope this information on this site will help you feel more comfortable along your journey.