Hike Notes
Our group: 2 Canadians, 3 Americans, 1 Irish (not sure if Northern or Republic of), and the other 5 are British. 4 men, the rest women. It's fair to say I'm the youngest of the group by at least 10 or 15 years.
Weather was great all day. Hopefully we are that lucky for the rest of the trip, thought that is highly unlikely.
Started off at the shore in St. Bees. Didn't get to see much of the town, which is a shame since it seemed really nice. I don't think I'll be seeing a whole lot of the towns and villages on the way...
Walked along that ridge. It's fair to say I was breathing a bit heavy once I got to the top.
Walked 4 miles up the coast of the Irish Sea before turning inward, which was about as beautiful as you would expect walking atop shoreside cliffs to be.
Turned inland, went through many fields and small towns. Relatively flat for another 6 miles.
Stopped for lunch in a random field. Lunch today was a sandwich, can of pears, and water. Yum!
Preview of coming attractions at lunch time
The next few miles was a quick and steady incline up Dent hill. This was tough. I was incredibly winded once I got to the top but the view made it worth it.
Can't believe I walked this far in one day.
View on the other side ain't so bad either.
Had to come back down Dent, the steepest downhill part of the entire walk. This was even less fun than going up. Pretty slippery and my toes started to hurt being pressed up against the front of my shoes for so long. Knees also didn't feel too good afterward.
Got trapped in a bog and had to walk in a few streams. Water got all up in my shoes which was not too comfortable during the last couple miles. Might consider picking up some more waterproof ones.
Had the best Strongbow of my life (possibly the best drink of my life) at the Fox and Hounds pub at our final stop for the day: Errendale. Spirits were high but we didn't have the energy to really express it.
Foot Status: 6 soggy socks out of 10
Coast to Coast Traditions
There are two traditions to start off the coast to coast trek. One: dip your feet in the Irish Sea:
This is the before pic.
Check.
Two: pick up a pebble, carry it with you the whole way and throw it in the North Sea:
My "pebble". Also pictured: puffy hands
Check.
Let's do this.
I'm Mr. Trail-leader now!
So for the most part, we're not required to stick close together while we walk, as long as we don't get super far ahead (or behind). As such, we have a group of faster walkers and some slower ones. Our guide still has to make sure everyone is accounted for, so she generally stays towards the back. I'm not necessarily the fastest (though I am more towards the front) but, I have the correct path programmed into my watch (the same one that makes those neat maps). So I became the de facto trail leader for the faster walkers for big sections of the walk that were sparse on signposts. To the point where, when some wanted a longer break and some wanted to keep going, the guide said 'yea, just follow Alex'. It's nice to feel appreciated but I'm worried about leading people astray. I made the path manually by reading my guide book and translating what I read and saw in there to gaiagps. It worked really well today tough. There was one instance where it went off trail but only for about 100ft. Hopefully, it's that accurate throughout.
Hikers Exposed - Another Californian!
I thought I'd create an ongoing segment focused on some of my new friends and fellow hikers. Honestly, this is the part of the blog I'm most excited about. The people I met today seem super cool and interesting. I imagine this will be the best part of this site. Make sure to stay tuned!
Today's spotlight is going to be on Samantha (prefers 'Sam'). She's 50 years old, a fact I know because she yelled it about 5 times during the walk, a la Molly Shannon on SNL. She is a Nurse at the UCSF children's hospital in San Francisco ("Us Californians gotta stick together" she told me). I haven't gotten to know everyone yet, but she seems like the most vibrant and upbeat of the group. Not just because she quotes SNL randomly, she was also fun and easy to talk to one on one and was quick to offer a lot of kind words about hiking up Dent (which I kinda needed). When I told her I graduated recently she seemed genuinely happy for me. We didn't talk a whole lot today so I didn't get to find out any more about her. But she's definitely someone I'll watch out for in the coming days.