Hiking Dude Blog

Kelly and I decided to fly to Europe and hike for a month or so during August and September, 2024. The Tour du Mont Blanc is very popular so that was the main route we wanted to do, but it takes less than 2 weeks to hike. So, I looked around for another trail - as long as we were paying to get to Europe, we figured we should stay as long as possible.

The Plan:

I found the Kungsleden (King's Trail) in Sweden which is ~400km long, but the northern 60km or so is the most popular. It's above the Arctic Circle and gives us the opportunity to hike up Sweden's tallest mountain, the Kebnekaise. So, that was one more week taken care of.

The West Highland Way in Scotland is another very popular trail and is about 100 miles long. Coincidentally, it passes Scotland's tallest mountain, Ben Nevis. That trail would fill our time window.

So, researching and planning commenced in earnest. Which trail should we hike first? Do we camp or stay in lodging? What food do we need? How about water?

I quickly learned that backpacking in Europe is a lot different than on the long, wild trails in America. It seems there is very little area in Europe that is more than a day from a village of some kind. So, most people just walk for the day and then get a meal and stay in lodging each night. All three trails had similar infrastructure that supported that style of hiking.

Both Sweden and Scotland allow 'wild camping' along the trail, so we decided to carry all our gear as if we were in the wilderness. Unfortunately, camping along the trail is not allowed in much of mainland Europe, including the TMB route through France, Italy, and Switzerland. We decided we would camp whenever possible, and use a hostel or other lodging when required. It also became clear that restaurants and stores are abundant along the West Highland Way and TMB, but not on the Kungsleden.

Looking at the popularity of the trails, crowd size, location, and time of year, it made the most sense to start with Sweden which was the farthest north and least crowded, then Scotland, then TMB. The TMB is very crowded and we expected much of the crowd to thin out in September. Historic weather data showed that mid-August to mid-September should be nice weather in all three locations. This would also allow us to start with dehydrated meals from home and use them up in the first week, limiting the amount we needed to carry.

The Start:

Things don't always go as planned. Actually, they rarely do. The more precise and detailed a plan is, the less likely it can be followed. That's why I enjoy estimating how far I'll walk each day, where I'll stop for the night, and how many days a trail will take. Then, as soon as I start hiking, I only use that at a reference to see how well I guessed rather than as a set-in-stone schedule to follow.

Once you start reserving transport, lodging, or services, you get locked into a schedule that is much more difficult to break out of. That happened big time on this trip, so I'm glad we made a plan that was as flexible as possible.

We bought air flights for August 13 to Sweden, then to Scotland 10 days later, then to Geneva 12 days later, finally back home from Geneva on September 19. I figured that many days was plenty to cover the distances, and if we finished sooner, we could explore towns in the area. I also reserved a hotel and a hostel in Sweden for our first nights before starting the trail, as well as bus tickets to get to the trailhead. Anything else would be planned and purchased a few days before it was needed as we progressed.

Before we left home, the weather in Scotland and on the TMB was nice and sunny - the forecast for Sweden was a week of rainy weather. That turned out to be correct and our week on the Kungsleden was quite damp.

As we finished the Kungsleden, the forecast for Scotland was a week of rain while the TMB continued to have nice weather. That turned out to be correct and we hiked through many wet days on the West Highland Way.

Finishing the West Highland Way, the forecast for the TMB turned to rain for at least the next week while Scotland was clearing off. So far, we had the worst weather timing possible. If I had planned the order to hike TMB, Kungsleden, West Highland Way then we would have had good weather on each trail. Hindsight is 20/20 vision, I guess.

The Big Switch:

We decided yet another 10 days of rain was not going to be much fun. So, we searched weather forecasts for all of Europe, hoping for some other place we might hike. All of Europe had rain forecast except for the very southern coast, including southwest Portugal.

On our rest day before our evening flight to Geneva, we found the Fishermen's Trail and it sounded like the right distance, but we had no time to do much research about it. We checked into airfares and how to reach the trailhead. It was doable, but expensive. We already had flights paid to Geneva and home from there, so we would have to buy tickets from Geneva to Lisbon and back - cancelling our current flights would have been very expensive and not saved much travel time.

We took the flight to Geneva, finally reaching our hotel at about 1am. A final check of weather just to be sure still showed Portugal=SUN and France=RAIN so we bought last-minute tickets to Lisbon for the next day. It was the best spur-of-the-moment decision I've ever made. Almost two weeks of sun and sand exploring a new country was fabulous! I did check the TMB weather from Portugal a few times, just to see if it had been a good decision - we would have had at least 7 days of rain, including 3 days with some snow!

The Review:

You can read about our 3 hikes over 30 days covering 300 miles at these: Kungsleden, West Highland Way, and Fishermen's Trail report pages. I'd be happy to answer whatever questions you might have about the trails as well.

Hike On!