Hike Notes
Started the morning at Tim and Sue's. We had a nice breakfast together and Sue even started a bag of snacks for me to take on the hike. She let me make a sandwich from their food stock to add to it. After putting on Tim's spare boots (which we had to layer with newspaper because they were two sizes too big) we met up with the others for the day's hike.
It was a long steady ascent to begin the day. I was worried because my legs felt rather week and the humidity caused me to break a sweat almost immediately. But eventually my legs warmed up and the weather cooled down and I was feeling good.
At the top of the climb was Gisedale Tarn ('Tarn' is British for 'Lake' I guess. But like... An elevated Lake?)
The rest of the walk was a long slow descent along a brook with some small waterfalls into Patterdale. Having proper boots must have done me good because I was zooming down at the end and got to Patterdale well before everyone else.
We all must have been going pretty fast because we still had 2 hours before our scheduled bus pickup time. We had drinks from a nearby hotel/pub out on thir patio in the sunshine. Pretty great way to end the hike.
After getting back I moved my things out of Tim and Sue's and into my new residence, the Cranford House B&B, a quaint little 3 story house nearby. After settling in, I walked around town with my pack filled with my dirty clothes looking for a laundromat. There were 2, but like everything in Keswick, they had closed hours ago. Oh well.
Foot Status: 8 proper hiking boots out of 10
Lesson Learned
Good footware matters. I think I'd need two hands to count the number of people who told me this before I left. Did I listen? Not really, my New Balance Trail Running shoes would probably be fine (It's got trail in the name!). Were those people right? Absolutely.
Not only do proper shoes remove a lot of the pain (I can't tell you how nice it was not to be jabbed by rocks constantly), but there are other added benefits as well. I didn't have to worry about every step, trying to find the exact perfect footfall that would minimize the pain. There was no anticipation of how horrible contact with the ground was going to be. And I didn't have to avoid every puddle or muddy surface for fear of getting my feet wet. With these powers combined, I was able to go as fast as I wanted, which felt really great. Thanks, Tim.
Hikers Exposed: Tidbits
Alright, I've been specifically asked by many in our group not to write about them (for which Sam gave everyone a good razzing for being so private). So, I think I'll have to make this section just about Sam since she gave me the 'ok' days ago (and there certainly seems to be enough to write about with her). Might have to change the name of the segment though...
There are a couple more idiosynchrasies I think are worth mentioning about Sam. She's got maps but she never uses them. They are really nice maps too. Colored, laminated so they won't get wet, with a little dotted trail to signify the coast to coast walk. Our guide even said she'd never seen ones so nice. Sam said they were part of a going away gift she received from her kids and boyfriend. She has these great maps, but never really pulls them out of her neon orange pack, because, I imagine, it's not the 'Sam Way'.
Also, Sam loves petting animals, or at least trying to. Sheep, horses, cows, dogs, birds, frogs. If it has a pulse, she's got to pet it. Even after being warned by our guide that it's not particularly safe to approach random animals. Even after getting snapped at by a horse and startling a somewhat aggressive cow. Hopefully she'll tone it down in the future. Wouldn't want anything serious to happen to her.