Day 4- Stonethwaite-Grasmere (12 miles)

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A full day of sunshine with more incredible scenery, a huge variety of hiking experiences ending with a wonderful evening in a pub in Grasmere. Grasmere is one of the better known places where we will be staying since it is where Wordsworth wrote much of his poetry and where he us buried.

Although the actual hike today was supposed to be only 9 miles we added some extra mileage at the beginning if the day when we followed "Melbourne Jeff" when he turned onto a wooded trail. A few of us felt that we should be continuing straight, but since "Melbourne Jeff" was doing the Coast to Coast for the 3rd time AND he was using a GPS, we all decided he must be right. After about 1/2 mile of climbing straight up a rocky path, he stopped and checked his GPS and said he had made a mistake and we would have to turn around and get back on the path we had left. So we have learned another lesson....trust out instincts and check our own maps and compasses!

After following a lovely stream for awhile, we began our steep ascent where we were rewarded at the top with 360 degree views of the Lake District fells and lakes. It was a strenuous climb but far less rock scrambling than yesterday. We had our first experience with real bogs at the top....I expect we will have a lot more significant bogs to contend with when we reach the Moors next week.

We descended into the valley along a steam with many beautiful waterfalls and mountain goats bleating at us from every direction. After checking into our guest house (a Quaker Retreat center), we walked into Grasmere. We had time to briefly explore the town before checking out two pubs!

We still have met very few Coast to Coasters. Besides Jeff from Melbourne, Australia we have gotten to know two sisters from Holland. One had a sore knee today, so the other spent the day walking with us. We haven't met anyone from the U.S.A so far.

Pictures are taking awhile to download from my iPhone so I may be posting pictures from the previous day.

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Photos

Haystacks
happy to have survived the steep ascent with rock scramble to get here!