Finally not lost.But killer wind/rain.

So we awoke, had the standard English bfast at 8:00, and headed out 9:00. We took a shortcut to get back on the track, but we really really paid attention to the directions. We had 18 miles to do today so we couldn't afford a screwup.

It was raining lightly, we had full rainsuits on, we got on the main track, and again we were feeling pretty good. Even though the day was going to be long we figured had this thing licked. Well once again we were proven wrong. Turns out we got our asses kicked by pretty little England.

It freaking poured on us all day, and the wind was incredible. 30 mph constantly, with gusts to ~50+ mph. Cold as hell, wet and muddy, deep ruts/bogs, it even hailed on us a few times. Plus the 18 miles!

The route was on the crest on the moors. Again the heather was amazing, but nothing to block the wind. The valleys are beautiful green, but it's like another world up on the moors. So much rain was failling that the deep ruts thru the moors filled up with water. Everything we had got soaked.

After about 6 miles we came across a closed hut, but it had a dry side. We took a break. the we turned the corner and headed out again and I swear it was like being in a battle. The wind was just tearing at us. Rain/sleet pelting our faces, and it was noisy as hell cause of thge wind. We could hardly hear each other as we yelled to each other.

Finally you get so god damn wet you just plow thru the mod/bogs and just keep moving everything forward like a robot. Sock were soaked. Hands were freezing even tho we had poly-pro gloves. The Gore-text raincoats leaked like a sieve. Pretty much all the gear fails to live up to expectation on a day like this.

Finally after 9 miles we hit the only inn on the high route. We stumbled in, stripped down, and changed into dry clothes. We had a dry sack in our bags where we had additional wool shirts/tights and socks. We sat right next to the heater. April had a lasagna and I had this terrible meat sandwich. And we drank cups and cups of hot tea with sugar. Talked to some interesting guys next to us.

They like seeing Americans on the trail, and they all get a kick out of the fact that we're heading east-west. the standard route is west-east so the wind is at your back. We figured how bad can the wind be. Well it turns out pretty bad. We figure it's slowing us down by about 1/2 mile/hour.

So all dry again we head out after lunch, and it's still pouring. Now we were on an old rail bed so the track was better. beautiful again, but the trail was even under more water. 3-4 inches deep across 6-8 feet. Water was flowing everywhere.

Finally it let up about 4:00, we only had about an hour left. Passed some cool carved stone markers from medieval times. These markers were used to guide travelers across the moors. We haven't hit much fog yet, but if it got foggy you could get seriously lost up there.

We called our B+B person we had to come pick us up where the trail crossed the road, her inn was 2-3 miles down a busy road. It felt so good to get into that car. She brought us in, made us tea, gave us chocolates/desserts. Heaven!

She has a big stove and she got us a warming rack to hang all our stuff.

I took the first shower (cause April wanted to saok for a long time in the tub). I shampooed up then the showere thingie broke. What a day. So I finished up in 1 inch of tub water. April then took a long tub.

We walked to the pub. And it turns out the pub food was great. We had beers. April had steak pie with a huge puff crust and a shitload of peas so she was happy. I had a mushroom pasta meal. Man were we happy sitting there.

A couple more notes.

The weather and trail work well for the full rainsuits. It's not too steep and it's cold and windy so you don't overheat, thus the rainsuits work well (except of course the jackets leak). But it was so windy today the water was blowing off the raincoats.

Also I have to say the food has been better than expected. The past 4 nights we've had great dinners. And the choice has been good too. Doesn't look like we'll be losing weight.

Actually we almost skipped dinner tonite also but then once we got there we ate like pigs. Even though we don't feel too hungry we can pound the food.

I read this inetersting book called "Born to Run". It's about long distance runners, the Tarahumara Indians (in Copper canyon Mexico (we backpacked thru there)), the evolution of humans, how you should run barefoot, how Nike screwed everything up with padded shoes that allow runners to run incorrectly. I highly recommned it even tho the author gets a little zealous at times. Anyway I've been trying to get April to hike barefoot to fix her plantar faciitis, but she's not listening to me. Hey it's her loss, what can I say.

I'm already planning my winter barefoot running regime on Mercer Island. :-)

-peter