West Highland Way: Day 1 Complete!!!

Amazing!! Extraordinary, spectacular, splendid, terrific, tremendous, magnificent, magical, fabulous, fantastic, phenomenal, brilliant....there are not enough words. And today's apparently the least exciting day. :) First footfall onto the WHW (West Highland Way) was at 10:30 am after exchanging picture opportunities with some other gentlemen starting the walk. And the first day came to a close at 5 pm. Overall, I was passed by 5 or 6 groups of people today, and I passed none :) with my slow pace of picture mania and small detours....including finding a castle!!! About 2 miles in, I see a sign for Mugdock Castle and only half a mile away....Really??!! I can't pass that up! So I go find this historic castle ruin from the 14th century, only half a mile from my planned route - incredible! On my way back to the WHW trail, I passed a group of students and the teacher invited me to listen if I wanted, so I did! :) I walked on at first, in my walking groove, but then thought about what a cool opportunity that was, so I returned and learned a bit about forest regeneration. Unexpected, but grand! Animals seen today included countless dogs (a very popular trail for dog owners in Milngavie, and I can see why), a cat, frog, crows, magpies, and countless sheep and cows. Animals I did not see today but hope to see before the end of the trail : osprey, golden eagle, and deer. Animals I'm ecstatic I didn't experience today : midges and mosquitos!! Other highlights of the trip include : NO RAIN!!!! (that's probably my #1 ecstatic factor) blue sky patches, some fall leaf colors, so many shades of green in the hillsides it was spectacular, and the truly perfect temperature for walking. I packed some baby food packs to be able to have some veggies on the trail and today I ate a zuchini-banana-amaranth combination and carrot-apple and they were incredibly delicious and satisfying!! I did end up meeting 2 fun guys towards the end of the trail, at just the right moment too. The last 2.5 miles are on paved road which would have felt like forever alone, but I ended up chatting with these two gentlemen who are also novice WHW-ers but they are camping. At one point I described s'mores and at the very end of my thorough explanation, one asks, "what's a Graham cracker? " Haha! Cultural difference I had not taken into account! I was very grateful for the company in the end, even though at first I was hesitant to join anybody else because I thoroughly enjoyed the bulk of the walk by myself. At my destination, one of the gentlemen who'd been part of the picture exchange at the beginning of the trail saw me and made sure I had a place to sleep. So nice!! Every single person I met today was profusely kind and multiple random strangers along the trail wished me a good walk. All the well wishes were very much appreciated and very much outdone....it was an absolutely incredible first day!