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
Friday, September 4, 2009
Second Day. Lost Again.
Maybe it’s a Microsoft trait; never let any uncertainty stop you from charging ahead with tremendous confidence. And when all else fails just convince everyone that you’re right. So it was not surprising that we found ourselves lost for the second time in two days! Pwned.
But first some lead-in….
Had a nice dinner at this great B+B, the owners had three daughters and everything they owned still seemed to be in the house. The bathroom was filled with different creams, shampoos, deodorants, bath salts, etc. Ethan would have been in heaven.
Cold, rainy and extremely windy night. Big storm was coming down from Scotland. We awoke to a light rain. I had the big English breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans), April just had porridge and tomatoes and beans.
We head out in light rains. Crossed a few fields, one with a bull in it, then hooked up with the ‘official” trail. We had our umbrellas out and were feeling kind of smug cause they were working so nicely. Then we headed higher in the moors and the wind and rain started blowing like hell; 25-30 mph constantly with gusts to 40-50. So we had to stash the umbrellas and put on our rain suits. Had to walk a short distance on a busy road, cars/trucks blasting us with noise/spray. Yikes. Crossed into a heather field then dropped a few miles down to the delightful little town of Grosmont. They had an old train station and an old steam train. The ladies waiting room for their bathroom had a nice fire going in the fireplace. It’s the same train and area they used to film the first Harry Potter movie (when he heads off to school).
Then we followed a nice path along the Esk River to supposedly one of the prettiest towns on the walk, Egton. William the Conqueror gave this land/village to his blacksmith in year 1070. Another nice British anecdote for this area: Nicholas Postgate was hung, drawn and quartered in 1679 for secretly baptizing someone as a Catholic. That’s religion for you.
Anyway we stopped at a great inn for a cup of tea, but the menu was so good we decided to eat lunch. April couldn’t resist the split pea/ham soup, and likewise I had to have the baguette with pot roast steak in it and lots of gravy. It was awesome. Turns out we couldn’t cross the river over to the village because it’s been raining so hard the stepping stones were underwater (another bridge was too far away).
After lunch we were feeling great, we thought we only had an hour left (3 miles), feet were good, it wasn’t too rainy and away we charged up the hill with Pete confidently leading the way. I was really getting the hang of this hike and area. It was only supposed to be about a mile up the hill; because it was a road portion I hadn’t looked at the map much. But yes just like map indicated a road came in from the left after a little way in, then another road off to the left, so our trail should be to the right. And sure enough there was a sign, but it seemed a little long to get here. And by now it was pissing rain and windy as hell again. There was a woman with a good map right there waiting for some kids from the other direction, and she showed us a better route about ¼ mile ahead. Sure, why not.
We go walking in amongst the beautiful purple heather. The trail is good. But after awhile it seemed to be heading away from where we want to go. So I start questioning this woman’s map reading skills. April was sure the women had been on this trial. We decide to bushwhack over to the real trail. I’m reading the map and explaining how everything will play out. How we need to drop down to the confluence of two rivers. We climb over some rocks walls topped with barbed wire. Then we realize we’re walking towards some farm that shouldn’t be there. Finally we realize we’re fucked. We have no idea where we are. We scramble over another rock/barbed wire fence, I have to give April a fireman’s carry to get her over the last bit of barbed wire. We’re sort of laughing and mad all at the same time. So we decide to head back towards the road, we come across a trail, we finally hit the road again at the same exact spot we almost first went in at. What the hell?! Maybe we were on the trail after all? But we had just done about a 1-2 mile triangle in the heather fields. Then we look at the map more carefully and it finally hits us that we weren’t even on the right freaking road! So none of these trails into the heather were correct. We had to walk all the way back down the hill to our lunch spot. And you can be sure I heard about it every freaking step back to the inn. And of course it was still pissing rain and windy. Sigh, we lost about 2 hours and walked an extra 3-4 miles. Like I said, pwned.
The correct road was right there by the inn, as the book and map described, it followed the river, then thru some woods. Easy and nice hike as compared to our foolishness up on the hillside. By now April’s feet started really hurting. To top it all off, I lost my hat on this woods walk. It was stashed in my coat above my hip belt, but I undid my hip belt for a change of pace and it must have fallen out. Finally after an hour we hit our town but the B+B was way up a damn hill.
However a nice spot of tea, some hot showers and a little rest made everything better again. April wanted to skip dinner cause it was a 15 minute walk to the pub. But I convinced her to go, we had burgers/beer. So much for losing weight.
The beers are great here, hand-pulled, very little carbonation. We saw our first wooden house today, all the houses are made of stone, very solid in the face of all this wind/rain. It’s incredibly green for end of summer, again beautiful bucolic countryside, Sheep and cows everywhere.
Almost all the walkers are going west-east. We’re the only one’s going east-west. So we get to say hi to lots of people. We figured we would be able to ask them directions. Obviously that part of the plan isn’t working out too well.The first day we did 11 miles. Plus 1 mile lost. Today we did 8 miles plus about 4 being lost. Tomorrow we have an 18 mile day. And we have our eye on a nice shortcut to start the day!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Lost in the moors.
Happy to get out of London. Too much big city for a country boy from NH and mercer island.
Made nice train/bus connections to Robin's Hood Bay. Actually we rushed to thye tube stop so quickly that we ended up getting on the 9:30 train instead of the 10:30 train. We didn't really realize we were on th wrong train until it had left. And by that time we had kicked some people out of our resreved seats (even tho we didn't have them reserved for that departure time). ha-ha.
So we get to Robins Hood's bay, which is a tiny town perched in a tiny cove. used to do alot of smuggling out of here (tea and gin). Also part of the story is Robin Hood himseld used this place as his summer cottage/hideout when the heat was after him. Got a nice hand-pulled beer then walked to the beach for April to put her feet in the water and carry a pebble to the west coast (traditional start for the C-C hike).
Some info on this hike. It's a 192 miles hike from the North Sea to the irish sea that we're doing in 14 hiking days, longest day is 22 miles. We doing it self-guided, but a company moves our duffles from inn to inn. We just carry day-packs. It's awesome that we get to the end of a long day and have showers/beds and great beers and the same old crappy food each day, etc. Most hikes go west to east, but we're doing the opposite. We figured the hardest and most spectacular part is on the west side (Lakes region), so we'll be in shape by then. The route includes 3 national parks.
So we spent the night in RHB, then left this mroning for our hike. Breakfast was the standard: scrambled eggs, beans, bangers, toast, and that freakin grilled tomato they love so much. I can tell we're really going to get sick of this meal.
Now it turns out it's already autumn here. I was expecting hot summer weather but it's been nice and cold. Everything is still green, not brown/yellow, cause they've had so much rain.
We started hiking along these cliffs/fields along the ocean. then cut inland and climbed up thru these awesome moors covered with purple heather. Hundreds of acres of purple heather, all blooming now.
Then of course we got minorly lost. We crossed this sheep field, then stepped over a fence into a huge swath of heather that had 3 paths leading away. We took the middle one, then we saw a road we thought we were supposed to go to, so we headed directly for it. But then we realized we got to the road too fast, then we determined it was the wrong road. peter thought he had it figured out and was showing lots of cofidence as to where we were so we started walking on the busy road, which sucked, then April followed her instinct and headed back into the heather field. It turned out not only we were not supposed to be on a road, and we were even on the wrong road kind of headed in the wrong direction! So April got a little pissed at pete. pete had to remind her of cravings and aversions (his Buddhist learnings), we found the path again in the heather and met up with some people so we were sure it was correct. And we were frustrated enough that we forgot to take any pictures of the heather fields. No skillz.
Just to make it clear, this isn't really a marked trail. The route links together small trails, roads, crosses public/private spaces, goes thru towns, you name it. Everyone hikes with trheir maps and books out. It's really tricky but we're getting better at it just on one day.
So after the moors we dropped into a beautiful woods with a stream thru it. I was expecting to see Robin Hood himself jump out in green tights! thne we had lunch by the Falling Foss waterfall. Then made our way into the tiny village of Littlebeck. Hiked up a hill to our B+B and we were greeted with hot tea and choc cake! And they had wifi, hence this blog. Had hot showers, some Downward Dog and other misc stretches from my friends the Baron and Ellen Barnett.
Now April seems to have fallen asleep. have to wake her for the lamb stew! yea baby.
Scenery was so pretty today. It looks like Vermont out our window. Green rolling hills, interspersed with woodlands, sheep, cows everywhere. Some drizzles. Nice and cold. Life is good.
-peter
ps - They have "step-over" wooden stairs across all the barbed wire fences. In the US you could never cross so much private property easily. Everyone would worry about getting sued.
Made nice train/bus connections to Robin's Hood Bay. Actually we rushed to thye tube stop so quickly that we ended up getting on the 9:30 train instead of the 10:30 train. We didn't really realize we were on th wrong train until it had left. And by that time we had kicked some people out of our resreved seats (even tho we didn't have them reserved for that departure time). ha-ha.
So we get to Robins Hood's bay, which is a tiny town perched in a tiny cove. used to do alot of smuggling out of here (tea and gin). Also part of the story is Robin Hood himseld used this place as his summer cottage/hideout when the heat was after him. Got a nice hand-pulled beer then walked to the beach for April to put her feet in the water and carry a pebble to the west coast (traditional start for the C-C hike).
Some info on this hike. It's a 192 miles hike from the North Sea to the irish sea that we're doing in 14 hiking days, longest day is 22 miles. We doing it self-guided, but a company moves our duffles from inn to inn. We just carry day-packs. It's awesome that we get to the end of a long day and have showers/beds and great beers and the same old crappy food each day, etc. Most hikes go west to east, but we're doing the opposite. We figured the hardest and most spectacular part is on the west side (Lakes region), so we'll be in shape by then. The route includes 3 national parks.
So we spent the night in RHB, then left this mroning for our hike. Breakfast was the standard: scrambled eggs, beans, bangers, toast, and that freakin grilled tomato they love so much. I can tell we're really going to get sick of this meal.
Now it turns out it's already autumn here. I was expecting hot summer weather but it's been nice and cold. Everything is still green, not brown/yellow, cause they've had so much rain.
We started hiking along these cliffs/fields along the ocean. then cut inland and climbed up thru these awesome moors covered with purple heather. Hundreds of acres of purple heather, all blooming now.
Then of course we got minorly lost. We crossed this sheep field, then stepped over a fence into a huge swath of heather that had 3 paths leading away. We took the middle one, then we saw a road we thought we were supposed to go to, so we headed directly for it. But then we realized we got to the road too fast, then we determined it was the wrong road. peter thought he had it figured out and was showing lots of cofidence as to where we were so we started walking on the busy road, which sucked, then April followed her instinct and headed back into the heather field. It turned out not only we were not supposed to be on a road, and we were even on the wrong road kind of headed in the wrong direction! So April got a little pissed at pete. pete had to remind her of cravings and aversions (his Buddhist learnings), we found the path again in the heather and met up with some people so we were sure it was correct. And we were frustrated enough that we forgot to take any pictures of the heather fields. No skillz.
Just to make it clear, this isn't really a marked trail. The route links together small trails, roads, crosses public/private spaces, goes thru towns, you name it. Everyone hikes with trheir maps and books out. It's really tricky but we're getting better at it just on one day.
So after the moors we dropped into a beautiful woods with a stream thru it. I was expecting to see Robin Hood himself jump out in green tights! thne we had lunch by the Falling Foss waterfall. Then made our way into the tiny village of Littlebeck. Hiked up a hill to our B+B and we were greeted with hot tea and choc cake! And they had wifi, hence this blog. Had hot showers, some Downward Dog and other misc stretches from my friends the Baron and Ellen Barnett.
Now April seems to have fallen asleep. have to wake her for the lamb stew! yea baby.
Scenery was so pretty today. It looks like Vermont out our window. Green rolling hills, interspersed with woodlands, sheep, cows everywhere. Some drizzles. Nice and cold. Life is good.
-peter
ps - They have "step-over" wooden stairs across all the barbed wire fences. In the US you could never cross so much private property easily. Everyone would worry about getting sued.
Europe 2009 Trip.
Background:
First I canb't type well, so ignore typing mistakes. (peter).
We're taking 2 months off and doing a hiking/biking trip in Europe. The idea initially was to bike for 2 full months but April's knee started hurting so we switched it to a hike (80%) and bike (20%). And right before we left April got plantar faciatis (sore foot)! Man that women is falling apart! And it better her than me cause she's tougher than me and will gut it out; I would wimp out.
We're starting with April's dream hike, coast to coast 200 miles across England, shitty food and all.
Red eye flight to London was fine. We slept for about 1/2 the duration and arrived in London feeling pretty good. Arrived later in the afternoon, got to our small B+B near Victoria station, had dinner at an Italian place then read/went to sleep. It was a Sunday and a holilday weekend (bank day on monday) so most of the shops/restaurants were closed.
Ok, then here's our first day in London with the Tiger (that's the family nickname for April who has to get out of her cage and go do things). And remember we're jet-lagged. We eat bfast, then go buy our train tickets to Robin Hood's Bay (start of hike), then go to another subway stop to get a sim card for the phone we brought, then we go buy 1/2 price theatre tickets for Billy Elliot, then we decide to go to the yearly Notting Hill festival which had literally hundreds of thousanda of people pushing around, April starts by getting lost and then crushed getting back to me, and we watch the mardi-gras like parades, dancing nude girls and all, then we have to walk forever to get back on the tube cause they closed some stops cause of too many people, then peter overrules April for the tube route back to a lunch spot, but that causes big problems cause they stop picking up at that station again cause of the festival, so then we go out of our way but finally get to Sloan square for lunch at 3:30, then walk back to our hotel, peter showers again cause he's got total swamp ass, then we rush out to eat (can't find the place at first), and then go to the freaking Billy Elliot from 7:30-10:30, and finally getback to the room at 11:00.
There was a time when we would have crushed that Notting Hill street party, but now our feet hurt, there's too many people, the music was too loud, we don't trust the jerked chicken street food, we can't start drinking beers at noon, and I'm worried about swalls and jock rash! Ha-ha! Wangstas!
The Billy Elliot play was very good. The lead kid was awesme. Mimi go see it.
Big cities seem to have the best and worst of everthing. Amazing variety and choices of food, arts, people, culture, etc. But so many tourists in London. And so expensive. And so many different ethnic groups. Very cosmopolitan and diverse city.
When I visit places I like to think about their history and the linakge to their present state. At that crazy festival it was harfd to imagine that this was the country that conquered the world and won WWII. Ddn't seem like alot of "salt of the earth" types. Must have been the country folks who are simpler yet tougher and more resourceful that carried the day. We'll see as we go upcountry.
Ok, that abvout it. On the next day we took the train to the start of our hike. That'll be the next entry.
First I canb't type well, so ignore typing mistakes. (peter).
We're taking 2 months off and doing a hiking/biking trip in Europe. The idea initially was to bike for 2 full months but April's knee started hurting so we switched it to a hike (80%) and bike (20%). And right before we left April got plantar faciatis (sore foot)! Man that women is falling apart! And it better her than me cause she's tougher than me and will gut it out; I would wimp out.
We're starting with April's dream hike, coast to coast 200 miles across England, shitty food and all.
Red eye flight to London was fine. We slept for about 1/2 the duration and arrived in London feeling pretty good. Arrived later in the afternoon, got to our small B+B near Victoria station, had dinner at an Italian place then read/went to sleep. It was a Sunday and a holilday weekend (bank day on monday) so most of the shops/restaurants were closed.
Ok, then here's our first day in London with the Tiger (that's the family nickname for April who has to get out of her cage and go do things). And remember we're jet-lagged. We eat bfast, then go buy our train tickets to Robin Hood's Bay (start of hike), then go to another subway stop to get a sim card for the phone we brought, then we go buy 1/2 price theatre tickets for Billy Elliot, then we decide to go to the yearly Notting Hill festival which had literally hundreds of thousanda of people pushing around, April starts by getting lost and then crushed getting back to me, and we watch the mardi-gras like parades, dancing nude girls and all, then we have to walk forever to get back on the tube cause they closed some stops cause of too many people, then peter overrules April for the tube route back to a lunch spot, but that causes big problems cause they stop picking up at that station again cause of the festival, so then we go out of our way but finally get to Sloan square for lunch at 3:30, then walk back to our hotel, peter showers again cause he's got total swamp ass, then we rush out to eat (can't find the place at first), and then go to the freaking Billy Elliot from 7:30-10:30, and finally getback to the room at 11:00.
There was a time when we would have crushed that Notting Hill street party, but now our feet hurt, there's too many people, the music was too loud, we don't trust the jerked chicken street food, we can't start drinking beers at noon, and I'm worried about swalls and jock rash! Ha-ha! Wangstas!
The Billy Elliot play was very good. The lead kid was awesme. Mimi go see it.
Big cities seem to have the best and worst of everthing. Amazing variety and choices of food, arts, people, culture, etc. But so many tourists in London. And so expensive. And so many different ethnic groups. Very cosmopolitan and diverse city.
When I visit places I like to think about their history and the linakge to their present state. At that crazy festival it was harfd to imagine that this was the country that conquered the world and won WWII. Ddn't seem like alot of "salt of the earth" types. Must have been the country folks who are simpler yet tougher and more resourceful that carried the day. We'll see as we go upcountry.
Ok, that abvout it. On the next day we took the train to the start of our hike. That'll be the next entry.
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