After yesterdays hike, today's 13+ miles almost seemed like a rest day. There was very little elevation after a short climb at the beginning and best of all, there was no rain all day. We were told by someone at the inn last night that the winds yesterdaY were actually up to 50 miles/hour where we were hiking! Anyway, today we had an easy amble along the river Swale in the Yorkshire Dales. This area was a center of silver mining in the 19th century and we saw lots of evidence of the early history of the area. The landscape was dotted with structures built for the workers and there were dry stone fences everywhere that separated the small plots that the workers were given to farm enough to feed there families. The land is now ... read more

Another day of new adventures on the C2C. In the first hour of our walk today we probably all changed our outerwear three times. It was surprisingly warm when we started out, though the skies were threatening. We were walking fast since it was easy terrain and we quickly shed our outer layer. it then went from drizzly to rain but still warm, to cool and cloudy, to a brief period of heavier rain to windy, and cloudy. We ended the day with bright sunshine and a lovely cool breeze. We are getting used to constantly changing weather. New experiences today included walking across a "manure meadow", seeing ruins from 700 a.d., walking through endless moors and pastures with views of hillsides and mountains in every direction while constantly surrounded by sheep, goats and cows. We ... read more

We began our last day of hiking in the Lake District dressed for cool, damp weather. Our group had been split into two different B&Bs so we had made plans to meet at the place where we were picking up our trail. The three of us staying at Old Country View (Where Wainwright stayed many times) got advice from the the owners regarding the difficult climb of the highest peak in the Lake District. One told us to stay on the ridge, following a rocky path but avoiding the very steep descent on the traditional route. The other owner said we should take the traditional route because it was going to be very cloudy and possibly raining so we would want to get off the mountain as quickly as possible. Armed with this conflicting advice, we ... read more

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 ... read more

Today we wore rain pants and gaiters and we're all much drier at the end of the day. We did actually see the sun for about 5 minutes in the early afternoon! Despite the clouds and occasional rain, it was a much better weather day today than yesterday....no heavy, steady rain and there was less mist and fog and we were able to enjoy some great views from the top of our first fell (hill) in the Lake District. We had our last view of the Irish Sea from the top Dent Hill, which was a steady, fairly steep climb but over easy terrain. Our descent down the other side was very steep....a challenging black diamond ski slope! Again, the terrain wasn't too difficult but we were all glad that it wasn't raining because it would ... read more