Hike Notes
Today was pretty much the polar opposite of yesterday: incredibly flat terrain, rain and fog obscuring views, uninteresting flora... Didn't make for a very photogenic day. I took exactly 2 pictures.
We started off still on the ridge from the day before. There was one more climb in the morning then it was flat for the entire 10 miles. I was still feeling good from yesterday so I jumped out ahead early and moved fast the entire day. Really fast. I was trying hard to keep up with Craig who did the same. We separated from the group and walked without stopping for ~9 miles until we reached the Lion Inn, a pub in the middle of nowhere like an oasis in the desert. We sat down, caught our breath, got some drinks and food and waited for the others so we can do the last mile or so together to get to our pickup point. We were there for almost 2 hours. It was nice being inside resting, warming up with a hot chocolate.
It was a lot of fun once the others arrived too (after making a 2 mile wrong turn). They got drinks and snacks and we hung out chatting before getting up to walk another couple miles to Young Ralph, supposedly the oldest cross in England. People are supposed to leave money for needy travelers on top, but no one could get up there to check.
The walking today was really only made interesting by how I was pushing myself to finish it as fast as possible. I was pretty proud of myself for going so fast for so long, though I may have exacerbated some of my foot pains...
Foot Status: 6 'Meep Meep's out of 10
Demon Sheep
I walked by a couple sheep very close to the path. One of them "baaaah"d at me as I walked passed. I "baaaah"d back. To which the sheep responded "baaaah". This discourse repeated a few times as a walked along the road, my back now to the sheep. I guess I said something offensive because I started to hear the "baaaah"s (along with the sound of hooves trotting down the path) get closer and closer.
I turned around to see this horned sheep running straight toward me! I initially tried to stand my ground and scare it away with an intimidating "Ahhhh!" and a swing of my walking stick. But that did not deter this clearly possessed sheep. So, I did the only other brave thing I could think of: ran away saying "I'm Sorry! I didn't mean it!" ... to a sheep.
Eventually it stopped chasing me and just stood in the middle of the path "baaaah"ing, which I interpreted as "Yea, you better run!". I've never been so intimidated by something so fluffy.
Hikers Exposed: Trail Predators
I'm not entirely sure what to do with this section now. Sam is still missing, and we are obviously all still worried about her. We don't talk about it too much but there's an unspoken tension that has been hanging over the group.
I think we all have been keeping our eyes out for signs of her and Rockin' Roy has been checking in with different authorities constantly. So far the only things they've found are a couple discarded maps from previous sections of the walk. We're pretty sure they are Sam's. I've met a lot of hikers and seen their guidebooks and maps. A lot of us use the same ones. I've never seen anyone else using the ones Sam has.
Besides that, there isn't really any new Sam stuff to talk about here, so I'll mention the last semi-interesting thing that happened today: I came across a dead sheep a little ways off the path about half way to the Lion Inn. The fact that it was dead wasn't interesting in its own right, you see a decent number of dead animals along the trail. But this particular sheep was pretty mangled. Like it had been torn into. It wasn't a very pretty sight. I didn't look for very long.
When we got to the Inn, I asked Craig if he saw it. He did, of course. It kind of freaked him out too but he said it was probably some dog that got off a leash or something. Some other hikers at the Inn overheard us and said they saw a dead cow mangled like that too.
I tried to push the thought out of my head. It's not a great thing to think about when you are committed to walking in the middle of nowhere day after day. I'll probably feel better once I get down off this ridge and put some distance between m and these dead animals.