Hardest day of the trip

So today we had a 16 mile day and everyone says it’s the hardest hike of the whole trip. And we’re leaving the Dales and entering the Lakes District National Park. Last nite we went thru all our books/maps and created the plan.

The idea was we’d divide the day into 4 stages each being two hours. First section would be thru fields as we exited the Dales, then we had a long trek beside a lake, then a killer uphill, and then a worse downhill. And we wanted to get thru the first three before lunch, ie, get the steep uphill out of the way before eating.

We both had the big English breakfast, we figured we’d need the energy for the uphill. These big breakfasts carry us until about 1-2:00. We had a nice chat with some locals at bfast, they were farmers and trained sheepdogs, and they were in Shap for a big sheepdog competition. And they had to cut their hay soon, so they were really watching the weather and assured us it was going to be good for 4-5 more days. Good sign.

We headed out about 8:15, and right away April wanted to take a slightly different route at the beginning. What happened to hike the plan? The books said it might be muddy but it was an ancient beautiful old path. I scowled yet followed along. What a nice husband. Turns out it was good and shorter and not too boggy.

We passed an old Abbey, which was also torn down by Henry VIII, but we didn’t have time to explore. Almost got slightly misdirected there, but April found the right path there. Hmm. Hmm, maybe she was getting over cracking under the leadership pressure from a few days ago. Ha-ha.

So we’re moving along at good clip, over hill/dale, thru a few pastures, past a field that has a “beware of bull” sign. Then follow a beautiful stream down to the beginning of the lake. And as usual, we’re slightly behind on time. The guy who wrote our book is very fast. We’re always slightly off his time. Talked to a couple who were heading to Stowe Vermont in a few weeks. I told them it looked just like this.

Then we had the lake stretch, and we really pounded out the miles here. It was mostly flat, a pretty nice track, so we could keep up the magical 3/mph. Then we rested and snacked a little before the uphill. It looked very steep. About 2000 feet straight up. And they don’t do switchbacks here. Just straight up the grass and rocks. We passed some dayhikers going up. This is new to us too. Now that we’re in the Lakes we’re seeing more dayhikers. At the top it got really steep. We were bending our knees and raising them almost as much as possible to take each step. The poles come in really handy here.

Finally we climbed over the steepest portion and then had a more normal uphill. And I have to say April was moving along pretty good here. When it’s super steep and I have to lift all of my ~200 pounds it’s really tiring. So I can tell she’s feeling good and getting kind of cocky, and we’ll see how that plays out tonite and tomorrow.

Anyway both of us are breathing at one breath per step. I have three different breathing patterns that I track when I’m hiking: one breath per 3 steps, then breath per two, then for the most difficult is one breath per step. Kind of like gears on a bike. We did most of the uphill on first gear, one breath per step. Now we’re seeing lots of people coming down, remember that’s when we know it’s about halfway. In keeping with my new role as trail steward, I suggested a few turns for the fortunate ones.

We have to rest every 100 yards or so near the top but finally we make it. It was a huge barrier. We now knew we were going to nail this thing. We had conquered it! Sure we had the long downhill but you can always do those even tho it kills your feet by the end of the day. And not only that but we had made pretty good time. We were even ahead of our plan. For both the lake portion and the uphill we beat our estimates. Skillz!

Had a nice lunch at the top. Talked to a few folks, gave some advice, as we were wise veterans now. These other folks are only about 4-5 days going west to east, whereas we’re 10 days in going the opposite way. They kind of look at us in awe. We handle it well.

The mountains here are all bare, just grass, ferns, some low shrubs, no trees. So you can see all the trails around you. There aren’t many signs, instead you need to use your map to make sure you’re on the right trail. But there are still stone walls and sheep. WTF? And there was an old Roman road along the top section. As one Brit said, those Romans were even more daft than we are!

So we finished our lunch and headed down. Sure enough it was a very long slog. It must have been killer for the folks who were going the opposite way as they would have had to slog up first thing. We decided the reason this day was considered so hard is everyone must be beat after their first slog. So we think we had it better going our direction.

Towards the end of the we met a guy camping and he said I looked like an AT hiker. At first I didn’t know what he meant but sure enough he meant the Appalachian Trial. Ha-ha.

We arrived in town and had to walk one more kilometer south to an old farmhouse that was our B+B for the nite. What a pain. And they had a million dogs there and tons of flies. I was standing out front calling Em/chels on the phone and there were nine dogs standing around me.

Had a nice dinner there, chatted with an older Brit couple about health care in the USA and other various topics. I ate ½ of April’s meal too. I’m eating like a horse. Then off to bed.

Now here’s the funny part. We laying in bed, lights out and April says: “I’m faster than you on the uphills.”

We’ll see about that tomorrow.