June 30

Testing the kayak.

June 19

Fly home. Appropriately we walked from our hotel to Manchester Airport. Sitting in wait for a flight isn't the most exciting thing to do so I decided to summarize our trip to England.   

Coast to Coast trek - devised in 1972 by Alfred Wainwright, from St Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea, 198 miles. We walked it over 12 days using NorthWest Walks who organized the accommodations and transfer of luggage each day. For us this was one backpack but most people had the baggage transfer company moving one decent sized suitcase per person. A benefit of this was reducing the load on my ankle which had bone spurs removed on April 4.

Hadrian's Wall path trek. 84 miles from Wallsend to Bowne on Solway.  We organized this ourselves after getting to Newcastle by bus. Booking accommodation proved to be more difficult than expected. We considered doing part of the Pennine way but abandoned the idea because of difficulty getting B&Bs. I contacted NWW and they were not accepting any bookings for June because of a shortage of accommodation.

Keswick. We learned about Keswick from a hiker that we talked to on the trainto St Bees. When we were in Carlisle I couldn't find places to stay through booking.com. I found a nice place through AirBnB. That gave us 4 days.

Amberside arose out of a chance conversation with another couple in Greenhead. I got 7 nights at a B&B through AirBnB.

June 18

We had breakfast at the B&B and then walked around the corner to the bus station to catch the 555 bus to Lancaster. It's not far, 34.5 miles but took a while, over two hours, because it wound its way through the countryside. But it was really interesting seeing how the terrain changed as we left the Lake District;  the 3000 foot mountains became low hills. The houses also charged. In Ambleside and Keswick houses had stone walls that didn't show any mortar. This changed to stone walls that showed mortar and then some with brick or stucco. Today's bus ride was a bargain at  £8.30 each in comparison to the  £7.70 each that we paid for the six mile ride to the Helvellyn trailhead when were in Keswick. The main reason for taking the bus to Lancaster was the problems that they are having with the train service. No trains have been going to Windermere.  I had booked a train from Lancaster to Manchester Airport at 15:25 so we had time to look around Lancaster. We got to the train station early and asked a question of a station employee. When he saw our tickets he told us to get on the train that was about to leave because our train was unlikely to be running; he told us not to worry about the incorrect ticket. We were grateful because we got to Manchester Airport earlier than expected.

June 17

Our final hurrah. We decided to try a nice long hike for our last walk on the fells. The plan was to take the long way to Troutbeck then go up to the end of the valley to the col and over to Thornthwaite Crag and then walk the ridge toward Windermere. As we entered the valley we couldn't see the col or the crag but figured that the ceiling would rise later in the day. As we approached the end of the valley everything went as we had hoped and visibility improved a lot. Then just as we reached the col the weather turned and we were surrounded by clouds; suddenly the visibility disappeared and we started to get wet from being immersed in the clouds.  Also the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. We decided not to go back the way we had just come up but rather go to the summit and return by a much easier route that we used 2 days ago. By the time we reached the valley again Susie was really wet and cold so I gave her a dry sweater that I had brought and with her dry jacket she warmed up nicely. So we didn't get to do the ridge walk because of the weather and even if we had the visibility was there. We had to change our focus to drying out our clothes so that they can be packed for the flight home. Even with the wet weather of the last two days this has been a wonderful experience in northern England.

June 16

Umbrella day. Fortunately for the farmers and unfortunately for us, the weather forecast was accurate. It was raining after breakfast as we left the B&B and it continued to rain almost all of the time that we were out. It made us aware of how wet this part of England can be. We have been extremely lucky that it didn't rain like this during our Coast to Coast trek. Today we walked south-west to Hawkshead and when we were there I wasn't interested in going to the Beatrix Potter Museum; all I wanted to do was dry out and warm up. On our way back we were passed by guys on bikes and then as we approached Ambleside, we saw them running toward us. We were told that it was an Ironman race. About 15 minutes before returning to the B&B the sun came out and the rain stopped. That's when I took the only picture of the day.

Today marked the end of my "last legs" pairs of socks. Earlier I had gone through my socks at home and saved a bunch that were essentially worn out for this trip. As they got dirty I was happy to retire them to the garbage and didn't have to wash them. 

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June 15

Cobbled hike. We had run out of the obvious hiking routes that were accessible from Ambleside so I cobbled a hike together after looking at some suggested hikes and the maps.  We walked over Wansfell Pike to Troutbeck then up the stream to the head of the valley. This gave us access to Thornthwaite Crag at 784 m and Stony Cove Pike at  763 m from which we drop into Kirkstone Pass and back into Ambleside. The walk took us a little over 8 hours. It was a great hike with lots of good views and a bit of challenge. Of all we saw many sheep including an abundance of this spring's lambs. At breakfast we learned that the price of wool is so low that the farmers are not bothering to do the shearing. We also learned that much of the land on which we have hiked was donated to the National Trust by Beatrix Potter and her husband.

June 14

Walk to Grasmere. This was the first day that the weather affect our activities. It was raining lightly when we exited our B&B so Dec to stay in the valley rather than hike up a fell. The walk to Grasmere was made more interesting by the rise in water levels in the local streams. Although it rained modestly overnight, the streams we carrying well over twice as much water. We thought that this was due to the shallow soil on the fells and their lack of trees. On the way to Grasmere we stopped to look at some caves; the second one was large and deep.

June 13

Red Skrees. We made our walking plan for today over breakfast. The path to Red Skrees seemed to entail going up a chimney which was consistent with the contour lines. So we made our way out of town and found the appropriate footpath to Kirkstone Pass. The latter part required walking along a road with an interesting name,  The Struggles. The sharp incline to Red Skrees looked impossible from our first views. Nevertheless it was well pathed and not dangerous. It was windy and cool so we put on our jackets as soon as we got over the steepest part. The walk back into Ambleside was pleasant and quite easy.

June 12

Fairfield Horseshoe. This walk was highly rated by the local experts. The instructions were very helpful because they started from the centre of town. The path took us up Sweden Creek to the High Sweden bridge, which we crossed to the north side and proceeded up the ridge. This took us over High Pike and Hart Crag to Fairfield at 2863 feet. The return walk was as good as it gets. The path was largely on smooth grass with a slope toward Ambleside; think golf fairways. It's easy to appreciate how golf was invented by shepherds in this area. The weather conditions continued to be great; warm and dry. From Fairfield we could see Helvellyn which we hiked from Keswick. We also saw the Coast to Coast route from Gras to Patterdale. What great views.

June 11

Move to Ambleside. We left our Air BnB as clean as possible and packed everything into our backpacks. By the time we got that done we had missed the 8:30 am bus so we sauntered to the bus station and caught the 9:30 am bus to Ambleside. It turned out to be cheaper to buy a full day pass than a one-way ticket to Ambleside so we got the pass. After arriving in Ambleside and checking in at our B&B we decided to do a hike over the hills from Grasmere to Am. We used our bus pass to get to Grasmere. The hike was pretty easy but interesting and educational.  Educational because many of the paths we used weren't marked on our map or only showed as light grey dotted lines. This should help us find useful paths for the rest of the week. The most prominent  flowers were foxglove, which grew in great abundance among the ferns.

June 10

Blencathra. Susie saw Blencathra as soon as we arrived and said that she wanted to hike that fell. The first hike was up Skidaw 931 m and the second was up Helvellyn 950 m, and today's hike was up Blencathra which at 868m was lower than the other two. Nevertheless it's crest was the best of the lot. After we gained the ridge we had at least a half hour of walking over the bumps up top. Although it was sunny we couldn't make out all fells because of the haze. After we gained the ridge we saw many other hikers as there are several ways of getting to the top. We ended up walking down with  Margaret and Martin from Manchester. After talking to a few people in Keswick we thought it might be difficult to find our way to the trail head but it was actually quite easy. On the way back we took a different route which gave us lots of foxglove to look at.

June 9

Helvellyn. After breakfast we walked to the bus station and caught the 555 southward. We were a bit surprised at the  £14 that we were charged for the 7 mile trip. We got off at the Helvellyn trailhead at Wythburn at 8:52 am and hiked up the steeper route to the peak arriving there in 1h40m which was faster than we had anticipated. But then I recognized my third goof up of the day. The first was forgetting my camera, the second was leaving my hiking stick on the bus and the third was losing my glasses near the top of Helvellyn. I had taken off my hat because I was overheated and my glasses came off with the hat. Fortunately we were able to find them by walking back and asking other hikers. As we had lots of time, we walked back to Keswick on roads and walking paths.

By having the apartment, we've been able to do some normal things such as laundry and cook. Yesterday we picked up Scottish strawberries at the market; they were as good as you can get- flawless and tasty. 

Today started out sunny and warm; in the afternoon we received a bit of rain. This was only the third day that we have had any precipitation since arriving. 

June 8

Skadaw. Although these mountains are modest in height,  they are still interesting to hike and beautiful. After looking at the local maps and getting some help at the i centre, we picked Skadaw for today hike. There were a number of ways to do it and we picked a steep route up and gentle route down. That turned out to be a good decision because the steep route had lots of loose rocks which would have made for slow going downward. We felt pretty good about making it to the top in 3 hours until 3 runners joined us there in about 5 minutes. The day was glorious with sun and warm weather making for excellent views. We saw what might have been Carlisle and Bowness on Hadrian's Wall path. After getting into town we looked into the feasibility of hiking Helvelyn tomorrow. We missed it on the Coast to Coast path. It and Skidaw are 2 of the 3 highest fells in the area.

June 7

Mountains here we come. We left Carlisle on the 9:30 am bus to Keswick. The terrain was flat almost all the way and only when we got close to Keswick did we some mountains. The bus station was on the west side of town and our accommodation was on the east side. On the way through the center of town we encountered their market inthe pedestrian only square. Our unit was a 10-min walk away. It was really nice to get into something spacious and clean. We have a nice kitchen and even a clothes washer, which Susie used later for our dirty hiking wear. After a hot drink and a short rest we walked to the center of town to the information centre and got some tips about the hiking trails. With that information and maps from the unit, we were able to take a hike up to the stone circle and then down to the lake and end at supermarket by the bus station. The stone circle was a mini-Stone Henge. We loaded up a backpack with groceries for supper and the next day. It was so nice being able to make a home cooked meal and have some vegetables. Tomorrow we will take a full day hike.

June 6

The end of Hadrian's Wall path. After scouting out our options with regard to getting a bus either to or from Bowness on Solway we opted for riding out and walking back into Carlisle. The bus got us to Bowness around 10:30 am after a nice circuitous ride through the countryside. Even from the high seats we saw a lot of the hedges that grow beside the road. For someone in a car, it must seem like driving through a tunnel. Most of the walk today was an easy stroll along the estuary or through fields and woods. The boring part was a 3 mile straight stretch along a road. Along here we saw our first deer; a doe bounced away as we walked along the berm beside the road. When she was noticed by some cows, one them started chasing her and the doe sped up. Now we have completed our second English trek and managed to have pretty good weather throughout. Tomorrow we will go Keswick for some hiking in the mountainous Lake District.

June 5

Anticlimactic.  After the last few days, today was anticlimactic. The walk was mostly flat and was very pleasant but didn't give us the vistas of the previous two days. It was also somewhat shorter than we expected as we arrived in Carlisle at noon and the check in time at the B&B was 3 pm. There were no sections of the wall to see altho we could see where the wall had been and could see the Roman ditches. Carlisle was much nicer and larger than the guidebook suggested making it a pleasant surprise. There is one oddity that I can't understand and it is the early closing time restaurant; some closed as early as 4 pm. We have been to an ATM to top up our cash and have bus schedules for Bowness on Solway and Keswick.

June 4

An easy day and a history lesson.  We knew that the distance to be covered today was modest so we had breakfast later around 8 am. Then we mosied ourselves up to Hadrian's Wall path and headed west. All along the way the historical descriptions were the best that we have seen along the path; the content was good and the signs were in good repair. Overall the quantity of wall that was available to see was better than we had been led to believe. One of the highlights of the day was watching a farmer shear a sheep.  We also got some video of lambs nursing and wagging their tails a mile a minute.

June 3

Hadrian's wall at its best. Last night we stayed in a really nice B&B in Humshaugh- probable the nicest yet. Our room was nice and we also had a sitting room adjacent to ourselves. They served us a nice English breakfast with eggs from their chickens. The weather today was the wettest that we have had but still not bad. We had a mist coming down most of the day so we made good use of our umbrellas. The best part of today's walk was the amount of wall that was available to see. It wasn't continuous wall but there was much more than we expected. We also got to walk across the Penines today as the Pennine Way and Hadrian's Wall path overlap for about 8 miles. Because of our difficulty in getting accommodation, we had to go further than we wanted today.  I think that it was a bit over 20 miles. Although we were up and down a fair bit, it was not really tiring.  At dinner tonight we learned that we should try get a place in Ambleside and hike from there.

June 2

Today was a much more interesting day.  After a nice breakfast at the Ironsign, we walked almost all the way on grass or dirt foot paths. While views of the wall per se were infrequent we saw lots of the vallum which is the ditch dug north of the wall to discourage invaders. We also saw a small private castle and got our Wall passports stamped at the Robin Hood Inn and Chester's. Tonight we are staying just off the path in Humshaugh.

June 1

Today we carried all of our belongings because the transportation company cannot help us until tomorrow. We spent a good amount of time walking through Newcastle and its suburbs. A lot of Hadrian's path goes along the River Tyne and is tidal for a significant distance. Eventually we arrived at our B&B but well before the check in time so sat in the shade. I used the time to make an adjustment to my left orthotic by cutting about 2-3 mm from the left bottom part.

May 31

The first glimpse of the wall. Our morning began with a nice little walk to Wallsend about 2 hours east of the hotel right along the River Tyne. There are all sorts of evidence of bygone industry,  from old boat skeletons to signs saying that the water is contaminated and of course some working businesses. Since we left without eating we were very ready for breakfast in Wallsend.  Even at that we just had the small breakfast and coffee. The museum, Segedunam, was a good primer for what we are about to see. We have already seen many parts of the wall because much of it has been used for the construction of newer buildings such as churches, houses and barns. On the way back we crossed the newest bridge to the south side of the Tyne; this was the millenium bridge.  We came back to the north side on an old steel bridge that looked like it would last forever. So it was a surprise to see a sign on it saying that loads were restricted because the bridge was weakened. After reaching the hotel we made reservations for the rest of our walk to Bowness on Solway. We were tired of restaurant food so we went to a supermarket and assembly a "normal " meal. Tomorrow we walk with our packs again.

May 30

Rest Day. We took the bus from Robin Hood's Bay to Newcastle with a connection in Middlesbrough. After arriving at the Eldon Square station, we went looking for a solution to Susie's problem with her Garmin HR not transferring data to the server via our cell phone. As luck would have it, there was a store right in the mall that sold Garmin step counters. One of the ladies spent over half an hour helping us but to no avail. We shortly thereafter checked into the Jurys Inn and were checked into a nice room. After a few minutes of organizing ourselves we walked to the Great North Museum because the guidebook recommended it for wall walkers. Huh!  It was closed from May 21 to June 21. On returning to our hotel we worked on accommodations and luggage transfer for the walk. It was surprising to find many of the B&Bs already full.
Tomorrow we will walk to Wallsend.

May 29

This was a classic bitter sweet day. Bitter because a great walk ended and sweet because we reached our destination - Robin Hood's Bay. We had our doubts about the weather because some of the forecasts included some showers. Nevertheless we started in great style with a nice breakfast in the conservatory overlooking Beggars Bridge. We walked through a wide variety of scenery and conditions; we saw valleys, forests, neat little villages and moors. Included was a hermit's home carved out of a large rock. While we had mists and fog most of the day we didn't get rain. The end of the day 's walk took us along the North Sea like we started 12 days ago. Today we walked over 20 miles and took about 8 and a half hours. At the end we threw stones from the Irish Sea into the North Sea.

May 28

What a difference a day makes. Yes it was Sunday sunny and warm. This brought out locals in numbers in addition to the participants in the 160 mile race.  Today was Monday foggy and cooler.  We saw only a few people out on the paths today. After breakfast the hotel gave us a ride back to the trail. After a short climb we were on the moors again but today it was in the fog.  This gave it an eerie feeling and I felt that I was in scary movie wherein armed horsemen could attack us at any moment. About half way into our day's walk we stopped for a bite and a drink. While we were stopped we were entertained by a mother grouse and her brood of chicks. Also rabbits, sheep and other birds kept materializing out of the fog. Although the walk was long, it kept entertained. We are staying at the Beggars Bridge B&B which is named after the adjacent bridge that was built by a poor man who became rich and married a rich man's daughter. Before becoming rich he tried to visit his sweetheart but the river was in flood so wasn't able to see her before leaving to seek his fortune. He built the bridge so that other young men wouldn't have to go through his experience. 

May 27

Another great day on the Coast to Coast. I anticipated only a few good views but we got many. Even low down we had nice views of green well-groomed pastures with cows eating contentedly. After about half an hour in the forest we broke out on top of a hill overlooking the flat lands to the west. Then we had great views for the rest of the day. With a high temperature of 20C and sun, we couldn't ask for more. We walked with a couple of guys from the London area until around noon and found ourselves at Lord Stones. We had planned to walk to our hotel by cutting off the main path before Clay Bank Top but couldn't break away from the views offered by the high path so we walked to Clay Bank Top then called the Wainstones Hotel for a ride. It's a big hotel with nice spacious rooms. Since we arrived at 2:30pm we can relax a lot before dinner. For dinner I had roast pork and Yorkshire pudding and Susie had roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Mine was decent but Susie didn't like hers. Not like last night when we both had great Chicken Parmesan; that was exceptional with tasty chicken breasts with nice salad. The chicken was not only good but it was large - about 5.5 in diameter by 3/4 in thick.  The portions we have been eating have been very generous to say the least. 

May 26

This was our longest walk as they scheduled us for 23 miles. The weather was perfect - overcast, 15C and a light breeze. We found trees and shrubs covered with small white flowers and found that they were hawthorn. We met some other walkers who were doing part of the C to C from the east. In comparing notes we learned that there are more than one route. Our respective maps were different. While our walk took us through lots of wooded areas, we also passed through many, many fields. This entailed stiles and gates of every description- new, old, easy and awkward. 

May 25

This is a rest day because we have only 10.5 miles to walk with a small elevation gain of 100 m. The weather forecast was for showers in the afternoon so we carried our umbrellas. At around 9:30 am it started to sprinkle and did so periodically all the way into Richmond meaning that we went through many cycles of umbrellas up and jackets on. When we arrived in Richmond just before 1 pm, it was drizzling lightly. This has been pretty phenomenal for England. I finally got a new calendar battery for my camera at the market so the pictures can be dated from now on. We have seen only a bit the town because it's cool and damp. Since this is a larger town we have a greater selection of restaurants so we can forego pub grub tonight. We went  for Thai food tonight and got the vegetables that we have been craving. They were good but the meal uninspiring. Afterwards we went to the town centre and got a picture of the Richmond Castle.

May 24

We are half way through our trek now so I will summarize our distances to here.
St Bees to Ennerdale 23 km
to Rosthwaite 23+_ km
to Patterdale 29+ km
to Shap 26 km
to Kirkby Stephen 34 km
to Keld 21+ km
to Reeth 18+ km
The + means that we took a higher and usually longer route.
Today's walk was lengthened by missing a turn and walking from the high route down into the valley. Actually it turned out to be most interesting because the scenery and animals were more interesting down low. We saw lots of young lambs including one that could yet stand up. But most impressive were the rabbits. Sometimes we would disturb them as a group and would see dozens of them scampering for safety in their burrows. We also saw lots of ruins as left by the abandonment of lead mines.

May 23

Breakfast this morning was exceptional.  After the usual juice, fruit etc we had a great omelet and poached smoked haddock with poached eggs. This was really stick to the ribs food that held us all day with just a small snack around 1 pm. We had a really pleasant hike up to Nine Standards Rigg.  The Nine aren't just cairns but carefully constructed structures which look labour intensive. The  challenge  today was the headwind which kept pushing us off balance and had us putting on jackets. We are really fortunate that it has been dry in this area because this route has the potential to be very boggy. We ended up taking the higher red route because it is recommended for this time of year. The lower levels had sheep  grazing while there was essentially no animals on the upper third. As this was a short day, we arrived in Keld by 3 pm giving us ample time to do a bit of laundry. And they have a drying room where we could hang things without cluttering our room.

May 22

We have now left the Lakes district and do not have mountains to hike over. In fact today's route was quite flat but on the long side- 21 miles in fact or about 33 km. We walked through the moors as I'm told. They are rolling hills with no trees and covered with grasses and some heather. Interestingly we passed by Robin Hood's grave; it was marked with just a large cairn but nothing else. If it weren't for the writeup in our book we would have just passed it off as a larger cairn. Tonight we are sleeping in Kirby Stephen.

May 21

Another great day weather wise, making it 4 days in a row. This evening we are in Shap, which means that we are out of the Lakes district and the most challenging trails. The Brits think that someone arranged all this good weather for Harry ' s wedding but it is really intended for us Coast to Coast walkers. This morning we hiked up Kidsty Pike which is the highest point in the original C to C walk. Interestingly they were rebuilding parts of the trail that had eroded. To do this they hauled in boulders in large bags by helicopter. Each bag must have been 4 feet across. At the end of our holiday we will have some time to spend doing more hiking so we plan to return to the Lakes district because there are so many more trails to do.

May 20

Today is one of our longest days because two segments have been squeezed into one day. In the first segment we walked up to the col toward Grasmere then veered off onto the high route on north side of the valley toward Grasmere. It was gorgeous with lots of views of the mountains, streams and animals; the latter were mostly sheep with their lambs. When the lambs nurse they are hilarious with their tails wagging at least 100 times /min. When we arrived in Grasmere we walked into town in search of a button battery for the camera and SIM card for the phone. This made us a bit late for the second segment over to Patterdale. By the time we arrived at the tarn it was too late to take the high route.  So we walked directly to Patterdale by the shortest route which got us there shortly after 6 pm. Over 10 hours is long enough.
My ankle felt better today and I was able walk faster. Yesterday it was quite weak going up the hill to Red Pike on the alternative high route. Perhaps the dose of NSAID was responsible. By the time we got to our hotel we needed supper but I couldn't face another plate of chips so we got garden salads with chicken.  Perfect match for Coast to Coast beer.

May 19

Another day of great weather in England. Sunny all day and warm but not hot. After another good English breakfast we set out for the walk to Ennerdale Water then along the south Shore, which required us to pay attention to the path to avoid tripping. After reaching the end of the lake and branch point we opted for the high route which was spectacular. It took effort and time to gain the ridge but results were well worth it. As today was a Saturday, there were lots of people out hiking; occasionally we made others wait or we waited for them.  

May 18

What a great day. We started the day with a full English breakfast which is wonderful for hiking. It comprised orange juice, coffee, toast, a bowl of fruit, egg, sausages, bacon, mushrooms and toast. This was real stick to the ribs food that held us to supper time with a small snack at noon. You might think that we started walking eastward immediately but the path actually took us westward toward the Irish Sea then north along the ocean for a couple of hours. With clear skies and sun the views were fantastic; there were lots of flowers and birds. From the ocean we headed inland through farmland and then through some open topped hills toward Ennerdale Bridge. We walked with various people today - a couple from Australia, two girls from Australia and a couple from Ohio. They were all very nice. Just as we walked into Ennerdale Bridge we got some good views of the open mountains that we will walk over tomorrow. Our distance covered today was almost 25 km, in 7h20m and 42377 steps.

England 2018 May 17

Yeah, we're in St Bees and really enjoying it. We left home yesterday by backpacking to the bus station and taking the airport bus to Pearson. Our Air Transat flight left a bit later than the scheduled 22:40 takeoff but favourable winds put us on the ground in Manchester almost 30  minutes early- just so that we could hurry up and wait. Clearing British customs was smooth and the walk to the train station was quick. We bought tickets to St Bees and were on the way.  The route took us up to Carlisle where we caught the train back south to St Bees. Until the train cleared Manchester, it was a bit chaotic because a number of people were going into Manchester and three bicycles were brought on.
The train station in St Bees was only two minutes from our B & B so we were settled in very quickly. After that we took a walk around town until 6 pm when the Queen’s restaurant opened for dinner. Our first dinner in England far surpassed our admittedly low expectations. My fish and chips with a pint of bitter were excellent as was Susie's chicken burger with pulled pork. We are excited about starting our trek tomorrow morning.  Today's weather was sunny and warm but not hot.  We are hoping for the same tomorrow.