Lost Again

Pete here. I had a bit of a rough nite still. Not as bad as the previous night, just had to get up a couple of times, and then midway thru the nite I awoke and my stomach had stopped bubbling. I could sense that the worst was over. It still takes a few days to recover but the “shart” danger was past for the most part.

Our B+B last nite was run by an older couple, maybe in their early 80s. The guy, Henry, was the classic British guy, very droll sense of humor. They were extremely nice, bfast was very tasty, standard E bfast. We chatted about bike touring in France, and his visit to New England. There was also a snooty English woman as the other guest. She said she had a friend who lived in Boston and this person referred to the North Woods of NH, Maine, and the “green desert”.

So away we went at about 9:00. Got lunch made at the local store. Turkey sandwiches for the first time on the trip. Today would be 14 miles and we were thinking it’d be pretty easy after all we had been thru. Turns out we kind of got our asses kicked. Sigh.

This was like the reverse of the super-hard 16 mile day we had done a few days back. That is, today we had the hard uphill to start, then a long woods and lake walk. And we were right this pattern sucked. You’re beat from the hill and the flats seem to take forever and kill your feet.

So we start off, my stomach is bubbling again after the bfast. So I gotta go but there are two guys walking towards us. Damn! I do the tight-butt-cheeks hobble past them then sprint behind a stone wall. Whew! Now the problem was for some reason there were lots of people around this morning. Usually we see no one, hence the quick crap off the trail is easily done. But now that we’re in the Lakes district there are lots of day walkers. Then after we climbed our first hill and we on a long flat section in the Moors, I get my second attack. People in front and people behind. The hell with it, I throw off my pack and dash behind a small rock up cropping, this blocks the view for the people coming our way unless they turn around. But they saw me rush off the trail so they know the program. April who was waiting by the trail gave them a nice hello as they passed by. Ha-ha.

I’m feeling worn out so April is doing the navigating, and everything seems to line up, but then we see this tarn (small lake). That’s not on our map, What the hell?! So April asks this old guy and he whips out a map and starts explaining the tarn, and the next tarn, and all the peaks, and he says you’re climbing Haystack. At first I didn’t believe him, but he was certain. So we were really off the planned route. But then as we looked at his map and ours we realized we could turn this into a shortcut with just some slight bushwhacking.

We stop for a snack. Then drop down off the mountain. Mistake number two. We’re sliding down this unused shale trail. It was really bad; it turns out this was the wrong trail off the mtn. Then we could see the correct trail off to our right, so we cut over toward it. And we had to hop a wire fence, which was the first fence we’ve seen that wasn’t barbed wire. Not so bad we think. We drop down some and April scouts out a route thru a grassy knoll. We can see the track below us that we’re supposed to be on. So we decide we can get there from here and away we go. And I just want to remind you April is the lead navigator today, as I’m leaning over intermittently with stomach cramps. Mistake #3. This wasn’t really a trail. The ground was very uneven, lots of grass and wood (as this has been cut in the past), no sheep had cleared it. Then we hit a fence. And we’ve never seen such a fence here. It’s a 5 foot high fence of chicken wire. We couldn’t really climb over it. The road was wanted to be on was about 100 yards below us. So we’re walking along the fence boundary for about ¼ mile, no rocks or logs to help us get over it, the terrain ois terrible, we almost had a couple of ankle sprains. And finally we realize the fence turns left and goes down to the road. So all we had to do was walk to the end and then drop to the road. Nice. And we also realized that if we somehow had managed to climb over it, there was a lower fence about 50 yards further so we would have climbed into a squared off pen. Idiots.

Now we had about 3 hours of flats 1/2 on a dirt road and 1/2 on a beautiful lake side trail. The road sucked, we had been on our feet enough so the consistent road pounding really hurts. Then the lake trail was all wet roots and slippery angled rocks. I was really knackered by now. It turned into an 8 hour day. We didn’t get to our town, Ennerdale Bridge until 5:30.

Tiny little town, but nice large room in the hotel, large bathroom with a great shower and tub. Nice sheets, large towels. We limped down for dinner, and it turned out it was sort of gourmet pub food. I had risotto, April had pork roulade stuffed with blue cheese and spinach with figs/asparagus and the standard boiled veggies on the side. Then we crashed.

Minor notes: had our first view of Scotland today. Tomorrow is our last day. We’re looking forward to a few days off our feet before flying to Italy.

Shouldn't have eaten that prosciutto

We were in a celebratory mood last nite. We had just completed a gorgeous stage, easy (since when is 10 miles up and over a pass - easy?), rewarding, wonderful in all regards. We got to this beautiful town of Grasmere that had lots of nice restaurants. And as I noted we had our best meal of the trip.



We'll I paid for it later.



It seems I have a bit of a knack for making food choices that give me food poisoning. Last big trip to India I got food poisoning, in business class no less, from this cute little pork pate.



And last night I couldn't resist the prosciutto with melon and feta and some nice oil drizzled on it as an appetizer. Now here's the kicker, April said hey that prosciutto looks kind of green and it has a funny sheen to it. Well I ignored her and dove right in. Delicious. Real farmyard type of taste. I didn't realize April was just eating the melon and cheese served with it.



So right at the end of dinner my stomach was feeling kind of funny. Jayne O'C called and my stomach was bubbling and she was wondering if I'm taking lactaid pills when eating rich buttery desserts. No.



Anyway suffice to say it was a rough night. The funny thing is our room was really small with the bathroom attached, so our whole room ended up stinking like a barnyard. April claims to have been kept awake all night by the smell. Ha-ha.



Ok to the hike. We had bfast, I ate really light, and we had about a 10 mile day. Up a valley, over a pass, down another valley, up another pass and down a valley into the village. I was a hurting unit. In a nice turn of events from yesterday's race, April offered to take my pack a few times.



Note the local names, we passed Stonethwaite Beck (a stream), passed Greenup Gill (another tributary), we climbed up Lining Crag (rocky promontory), and we skirted around Greenup Edge (high meadow).



Mountains were beautiful. Again waterfalls and streams all around. We think we caught our first glimpse of the ocean.



Physically we now seem to be past our aches and pains. Even April's foot seems better. The walking see......"peter just ran to the bathroom - april here to finish the blog!" looks like he was going to say "seems like it cured her plantar faciatis - which it did! Now with only 2 days left - I feel great! Peter wants everyone to know he is in a real dilemma - if he eats he'll spend his time running behind rocks and bushes along the trail tomorrow and if he doesn't eat he won't have the energy to hike at all. I say "Please sign in everyone with you're vote on what he should do" haha.....what fun this blog is!

“I’m gonna kick your ass”

Ok dear readers, so you know how I said we like going the opposite way because there’s no one in front of or behind us. And how we don’t have to compete with them. Now let’s add on the fact that we completed what is generally considered the hardest 2-day stretch of the 192 mile journey.

And furthermore let me add that it seems like we’re finally in shape, and April’s feet seems to be significantly better.

So how do you think this will all play out for a really competitive person, who’s feeling kind of cocky and frisky?

As we’re hiking along on a beautiful Fall morning, up a gorgeous valley, spectacular mountains all around us, April turns to me and says “I’m gonna kick your ass!”

Ah-ha, the gauntlet is thrown down! She’s slapped my cheek. She’s challenging my manhood.

Should be an interesting day.

Ok, back to the beginning…

Finally a much more relaxed morning, we had an easy day in front of us, about 10 miles. Maybe 4 hours. We ate late, strolled thru town, stopped at the grocery store and post office and got a nice tuna sandwich on a baguette, some candy bars. Found the path out of town, and start out on a fantastic wide track up this beautiful valley. The valley was maybe ½ mile wide, rising up to a col (pass) in front of us. Huge peaks/ridges on either said. Babbling brook down the middle. Waterfalls cascading down both side. Mixed fields with sheep, and small forested tracks. And we knew it was going to be easy and pleasant.

Husband and wife strolling lovingly thru the valley. The conversation turns over to how we’re feeling, are we finally in shape, what hurts? And then April comes out with her killer quote, “I’m going kick your ass”.

Ha!

So we didn’t just go charging up the trail, we really did enjoy the hike up. We stopped and chatted with two older gentlemen. We stopped for a break on a bridge over the little stream. It was kind of like the lull before the storm. No need to rush anything, we could both see the steep part at the end and we knew that’s where the battle would be fought!

As we near the steeps, April takes off in the lead and she’s breathing kind of hard. And she’s really sweating. It was hot but not that hot. And she’s thinking she’s the hunter and going to grind me up.

But little does she know, the hunter will become the prey!

So I’m following her, and it’s pretty clear to me this game is mine. I’m only breathing thru my nose while she’s really pushing and breathing hard. In fact I’m so confident I’m trying to figure out how to win, not IF I’m going to win. Should I just pull away and try to create as much distance between us? Should I wait until the end and really blow past her and tell her she’s running a good race? I’m even thinking about how I should explain this all on the blog? Obviously the thoughts of a confident man.

Ok finally we’re nearing the end. Now a gentleman wouldn’t really go into all the detail about the end so…

I’ll tell you exactly what happened. Ha!

We’re near the end, and I finally come up with the best solution. With maybe 100 yards to go, I ask her if she wants me to carry her pack. How elegant, how beautiful. How satisfying. How sweet it is!

Of course I got the LOOK.

Ok, with that silliness over we get to the col and sit on a hill by a gorgeous tarn (small lake). We had a great lunch, tuna, chips, some locally made date bar kind of thing. Fantastic. It’s early. We beat the books suggested time to the top. The sun is out, I have my shirt off. The downhill is supposed to be fairly easy. This is a highlite of the trip.

April decides to get moving so she can take a picture of me behind her. No skillz.

Then we have a nice leisurely downhill. We step over maybe 15 little steams n the way down. A lot of water flowing to the Irish Sea. We stop and talk with an illustrator/photographer who is doing a book on the Coast-Coast due out in 2011.

We hit the town of Grasmere, it’s got more action than most of the towns we’ve seen. Nice outdoor cafés. April gets a locally famous gingerbread cookie from a tiny shop that used to be the school and Wordsworth taught here. In fact, this is where Wordsworth lived when he had some of his most prolific writing years hiking thru these hills. I wonder if he raced his wife thru the hills?

We stopped for beer. Then found our B+B. had our best meal of the trip at a nice café; April had baked halibut and I had Pork Marsala.

Then headed back to the B+B for some catch up on the blog.

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.

Peter starts acting like the C-to-C expert

Got up and had our best bfast of the trip, April had porridge plus scrambled eggs on toast and beans and bacon. Also fresh fruit. I had the standard full English. It turned out this was our favorite B+B. Owners were great, our room was their regular bedroom (they had moved out), so nice bed and shower, food was great, it was quiet and cold at night. Huge winner.

We talked to the other couple at the B+B, who were heading west-east (opposite us), and our upcoming stage wasn’t supposed to be too wet/boggy so I changed into my low hiking shoes. The nice thing about going the opposite way from almost everyone else is we get good intel about the coming route. It turns out we really like going the opposite way because the mornings and evenings are very quiet. That is, we meet all the other hikers about noon as we pass each other on the trail, but before and after that we have the trails to ourselves. And they have these hoards of people because they are all going the same way. Plus if we were going their way April and I would always be trying to pass everyone. Whenever they ask why we’re going the wrong way, we correct them and tell them we’re going the hard way. Aren’t we smug!

So off we went at 8:30. It was cold enough that we could see our breath. Yet it was a clear blue sunny sky. This was to be a 20 plus mile day. Second longest of the trip. And the following day was going to be 16 miles yet really hard. So in fact this was to be the crux of the trip. We could crash and burn or we could kick ass.

Found the path out of town and headed up thru a bunch of different pastures. Of course the fields were very wet with dew so my shoes were getting sort of wet. Irritating. Then April was leading and I was following her, and she took a left around this boggy section, and sure enough I slipped in deeply and my feet got totally soaked and muddy. I was pissed. Especially since she was leading. April laughed and as you might imagine that didn’t help my mood. But then as Chelsea commented, I need to put some of that Vipassana meditation training into action; so I chilled.

Then we passed thru a field and the bull was mounting all the cows. We took a long way around that action! Didn’t want to get that bull mad!

We were heading south along these stone walls and it seemed like we were lost. We thought we should have hit a turnoff before this. The map seemed to indicate the turnoff sooner. Nothing worse than feeling you’re off track. The fear is not really that you’re lost but that you have to backtrack, hence lost time and more miles on the feet. And it really easy to get lost in these fields cause they all have access gates/stiles/ladders. So you could go for a long time sort of mapping the written directions to your current fields. In fact, during this semi-unsure phase April wanted to head in the exact opposite direction, and it wasn’t really as insane as it sounds. Kind of like the time at the doctor’s office when I convinced Ethan he was 19 when he was really 18 (but that’s another story we don’t quite have time for). Anyway I almost bought her arguments; but we carried on for about 20 minutes more and finally saw the house/bridge we were supposed to cross.

We proceeded for about another hour thru fields then came to a road. One route went north then south on the tarmac for 3 miles, but the maps indicated a route directly across on the moors. Shorter, better on your feet; we were feeling frisky (maybe it was that bull we saw earlier!) so we went for it. It turned out to be a big savings, great route. Right after that we stopped for lunch and started encountering all the people going in the opposite direction. Being the Know-it-all that I become on very rare occasions, I began doling out the short-cut info to worthy people. Some people charged pass us and they didn’t get the tip, others we might have a nice “hello” exchange, and then they got the scoop. What power! April had to tell me to leave the hikers alone, they could figure out what they wanted to do.

So we continued on staying to the timing plan, and got to the last couple of hours (25%), and then we kind of conked. We had to go way around these walled in fields in the middle of some bleak moors (not much heather). We could see this gravel plant way in the distance. It took forever. There were ancient stone circles and other archeological attractions just a few minutes off our path, but we said the hell with it. Too tired to look at any more rocks. We crossed a major highway via a pedestrian bridge then limped into town.

Got to the forgotten town of Shap at about 5:30. We calculated that we walked 8 hours at 2.5 mph., then we had stops for food and map-reading.

We were booked at the local pub/hotel. Large room, great shower but it was too noisy. Usually we would have moved rooms but we were too tired. The menu at our pub didn’t look great so we tried to walk thru the town to find another restaurant/pub. Walked about 50 feet to the next building. Their sign advertised Mexican, Italian, Caribbean, and Turkish food. That didn’t sound quite right, and we were too tired to explore anymore so we turned around and went back to our pub for standard English pub fare. Yet surprisingly they also had some Indian food on the menu. April couldn’t resist the peas/gravy thing so she had a mince-meat pie and I ordered chicken tikka masala with rice and nan. Wasn’t bad. Had a pint of cold Fosters too. Score.

Anyway went right to bed after dinner because tomorrow was supposedly the hardest day of the trip. We would be leaving the Dales and entering the Lakes District, mountain trails.

But don’t worry we have a plan. Plan the hike, hike the plan.

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!

Another delightful day in the Dales

Had a great sleep nice bed/sheets, had a nice bfast, cooked to order, April got the porridge (oatmeal) and I had the standard english bfast. We chatted with the other folks at the B+B, they were from Vashon island in Washington. We've biked there a few times. Had a discussion with one of the women about Tunisia, she had lived there and we had visited while we were in the peace corps. Anyway enough with the chitchat and away we went at 9:00.

Remember yesterday I got the smirky look from April so we decided she was in charge today. Let's see how she handles the pressure of team leadership!

Here's where the "delightful" in the blog title comes from (at least for me). Right away April takes the wrong turn from the B+B. We headed up the street for about 50 yards before I suggested we should be down in the village. At that point I couldn't have been happier! I tried to mimic her look from yesterday, but clearly I wasn't as practised as she was.

Our route followed the river thru a beautiful dale. We had 14 miles to do today, and it was pretty easy walking except for the freaking gates and stiles. I'll bet we passed thru at least 60-80 gates/stiles. We started out really admiring all the beautiful stones walls but by gate 50 we were rather tired of the whole thing.

On these gates....

They built narrow passages into the stone walls (you had to turn sideways to get thru), and they have a little wooden door usually on a spring that you have to open to get thru the narrow passage.Then there are the "step-overs", two boards/steps straddling the fence, supported on both ends (like the letter n), one higher than the other, so step up, up again, then down twice. And there are gates small and large. Overall it gets tiring and slows you down.

So the route connected with the road for a short bit, and we're walking along, and boom April twists her foot in a tiny depression and falls right down in the road. It looked like she really twisted her ankle, I immediately thought it was going to be sprained but it turns out she was no worse for the wear. Probably another big bruise on her ass. Readers you needn't feel too sorry for her as she has a habit of falling on flat stretches on many of our previous hikes. Once we realized she was ok I broached the topic of her cracking under the pressure of the leadership mantle. You can imagine she wasn't too happy with that.

Anyway we're walking along in a nice grassy section and boom she falls again. What the hell! Cracking under pressure! Again we had a good laugh.

Then as we walked thru the next village and she tried to go down a wrong road. Sigh, I gently steered her back on track. Like I said, it was a delighful day. And btw - I expect we'll have a comment from April towards the end of the day.

So we crossed a bridge and had to backtrack to a quant litte town called Muker for lunch. Supposedly this is one of James Herriots favorite towns. This is the English veterinarian who authored a bunch of cute little books about the english and animals.

Had a nice one hour lunch, April had the steak pie and I had venison stew, chips with both, awesome in the gravy. I also had a beer. Then as you might expect we both wanted to sleep. But we had about 3 miles left. So we slogged our way up over a hill and down to Keld by 3:30.

There's nothing in these little towns but again we got a great B+B, with a bar and a dining room. Showered, then we tried to nap to let our bodies recover. Got woken up by the oil delivery guy outside our window. Just got back from dinner, April had banana curry soup, and I had poached haddock with vegies. Both quite nice. Chatted up some hikers about the route tomorrow, which goes up on some moors.

We have a choice of three routes, they're so boggy they try to rotate the hikers during different seasons. Earlier folks had told us to take the winter route (less bogs). But today's batch of hikers seem to have come over the blue route, which is the standard for Aug-Nov. One women said her hiking pole sunk up to the handle at one point. Now that's a wet bog.

No matter what we're going to get wet boots. And we'll pass a set of rocks called the "nine standard". These mark the divide betwene the North Sea and the Irish sea. After the nine standards all the water flows west to the Irish sea. We also will overlap with the Pennine way for a short bit.

I gotta go. I think I'll massage April's feet, as well as ego!

April says she too sore to comment.