Molly on the West Highland Way

Adventures, reflections, and stories we brought home from the trails we’ve walked - from the Macs Adventure team 

Molly is the US Sales Director at Macs Adventure based in Colorado who enjoys creating colorful art, morning walks, and fashion.

Dear Trail Diary, 

From the very beginning, the West Highland Way gave Will and I something we didn’t realize we’d been missing: uninterrupted time together. 

It was our first trip alone together since having our daughter, Della, and somewhere between work, phones, parenting, schedules, and exhaustion, we hadn’t really had that in a long time. 

We went into Scotland excited for the hiking, the scenery, the pubs, and the chance to step away from normal life for a while. What I didn’t expect was how much the trip would reconnect us. 

The trail gave us something that feels rare as parents: long stretches of uninterrupted time together. Hours of walking side by side with nowhere else to be, nothing else competing for our attention, and no distractions beyond whatever weather Scotland decided to throw at us that day. 

And the weather really did throw everything at us, we got all four seasons over the 5 days. A huge portion of the trip was spent wholesomely laughing at each other in the weather, especially when Will was constantly attempting to change his socks every hour under the “cover” of a tree. We could barely stand we were laughing so hard.  

But some of my favorite moments came from those small in-between parts of the trip: sharing a pint after a long day, taking silly photos in the various weather, making jokes with waiters at little pubs along the trail, or slowly getting delirious together around mile fifteen. 

Somewhere along the way, our conversations started shifting too. At first it was mostly trail jokes and random nonsense, but eventually we started talking about bigger things... life, work, family, Della, the future, the kind of people and parents we want to be. 

At home, those conversations usually happen in pieces while multitasking or trying to get through the next thing on the schedule. On the trail, we finally had the time and space to really talk. 

It wasn’t earth-shattering, but it felt important. Like we were reconnecting not just as parents managing everyday life, but as partners again. 

By the end of the trip, finishing the trail felt emotional not because of the miles themselves, but because of everything that happened during them. 

We came home with incredible memories from Scotland, destroyed hiking socks, and just feeling a lot closer to each other again. 

-Molly