The Bog that ate April

We awoke to a beautiful sunny sky. All the hikers were amazed, we gathered outside before bfast and soaked up the sun. Pounded the big bfast then away we went.

As usual, we're the only folks going our way. Everyone else goes west-to-east. But the good thing is we get to ask everyone about the trail, what's tricky, durations, etc.

Today is considered the wettest, boggiest stage. It's a 12 miles day with about 1/2 being deep wet bogs. There are three routes over this stage depending on the weather/conditions/date. We decided to take the Blue route which is the standard for this time of year even tho we had been warned off of it by hikers we saw a few days back. This is the hardest yet truest route. We didn't fly all the way over to wimp out! Hoo-aah!

First part of the hike traversed a hillside, this wasn't even the bog bit even this was muddy and wet. Hmm what would the bog be like? We cut around a farm, a beautiful english sheep dog got out and followed us for awhile. Then we headed up the river valley and it started to get really wet. Sinking in 3-4 inches regularly. It was slow hiking because we were always trying to step around or on the side of the really wet muddy spots. And the grass is very tussocky (is that a word?) Dan is that a gerund? There were these super brilliant green mounds that were good for stepping on too. Kind of like a sponge. Stopped for a snack before heading up the hillside.

And then headed up the hillside to the nine standards (ancient rock mounds, like cairns). the slope wasn't too bad caused the water had somewhat drained, maybe we'd occasionally sink in 6" if we weren't careful.

But there were these muddy stream-like crossings. And these were killer! It wasn't actually running water, it was more like a mud stream. Remember where we used to rake golf balls out of the bogs at the golf course behind the Statires' house ? It was like that. I guess maybe not too many readers remember that stuff.

The problem was it looked like mud and grass and some green sedge like stuff, but you couldn't tell how deep you might sink. So we get to one and April steps to what she thinks is a good spot and gets sucked down to the top of her gaitors. And she's leaning forward but her poles don't help cause they don't hit anything solid. Then she starts to panic because she flashes back to the marshes at Drakes Island, where her mother told her to watch out for the quicksand! ha-ha. Anyway I was right behind her so I grabbed her pack and yanked her back. Saved!

Then a little while later I lean forward to plant my poles and they both sink in right to their handles, literally just 2-3 inches from their tops. And I'm leaning forward at this point and almost fell in face first. But the poles stopped sinking so I caught myself and then fell backward. They sunk in over 3 feet!

Then I got stuck in some mud again to the tops of my gaitors (which go right up to below our knees). And April got stuck in the mud trying to climb out of one. Took her a few minuets to work out of that one. Anyway we were slipping and sliding and sinking all over the place. Boots and socks got soaked. But finally we made it to the top. Now we were over the might Pennines, the spine of England. All water from here on flows west to the Irish Sea. This is the English version of the Rockies. Mostly just bare boggy hills tho.

had a quick lunch at the nine standards. Talked to a few locals who were out on a day hike. then headed down. The west side was mostly dry. I changed socks so as to avoid blisters. And we made it down to Kirkby Stephen, our town for the night. It was nice and sunny by now, April got an ice cream cone. Found the B+B, they served us tea and cakes/snackcs. So nice!

Our bathroom had a tub plus shower. best shower of the trip so far. April took a bath. They might do world-class mushy peas but the showers have usually been lame.

We chilled and semi-napped then went out to the pub for dinner, I had a lamb steak with boiled potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and cabbage. April had fish and chips and the ubiquitous mushy peas. So gross. I had a pint, she had a half. And then I had my first sticky toffee pudding. It was awesome. Kind of like the cake version of caramel popcorn. Yum.

Talked with Chels and POC on skype, now we need to get some sleep. I think the hardest portion of the trip will be the next two days. Tomorrow we have a 20 mile day. And then we follow it with a 16 mile day which everyone says is the hardest of the trip. Piece of cake!