We knew we were supposed to turn onto some trail and go up a steep hill after about half an hour, but it is very confusing terrain here and we weren't sure which path to take. You would think with maps, a small, fairly detailed coast-to-coast book and a Hiking in Britain book we could figure things out, but we still picked the wrong path at first. We ended up going uphill a bit, and Richard got quite a bit in front of us. hen Shari and I saw other hikers and realized we were on the wrong path so we went back down and started up again, following the hikers. Richard chose not to come back down, so we didn't know where he was for about 2.5 hours.
It was a very steep, big climb and it was very tiring, especially with my big, heavy pack. Everything hurt today (my feet, my toes, my knees, my shoulders) on and off but at least when I was concentrating on climbing up I could forget about all the parts of my body that hurt. Once we reached the top we still had a long way to go and we still got briefly lost a few times, but at least we ran into Richard when we got down from the hills.
We had planned to go to a town, Rosthwaite, but we stopped a mile short of it to camp at the Chapel Farm Campsite in Longthwaite. It's a beautiful evening and I hope the weather stays nice for awhile.
We seem to be one of the few groups of hikers carrying heavy packs. Most people are staying at hostels or B&Bs, so they aren't carrying tents or as much food as we are. Also, some people are having their big packs shuttled from place to place so they hike with only small daypacks. I think we are gluttons for punishment. It's much cheaper though, to do it our way (i.e., carrying everything and camping as much as possible), so we will continue on as planned. I always remember a quote from a little book that Shari gave me, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
6/29: It was a great night for camping because it cooled down quite a bit and I could snuggle down in my sleeping bag. We packed up, ate cereal for breakfast and started hiking by 8AM. It was very hard today. We started hiking up after about a mile and the uphill was big. Both Richard and I had thoughts of either skipping some sections of the coast-to-coast, or ending the hike early. It was not fun at all, but at least we didn't have trouble following the path on the uphill. Of course, there were no signs or indications of a path at the top, but luckily a fellow came along to point us in the right direction just as we were heading off in the wrong direction.
We stopped for lunch about 12:30 at the start of the downhill to Grasmere and it was beautiful sitting out in the sun. I called the hostel in Grasmere and they reserved a triple room for us. It took about an hour and a half to get down the trail to the road and then we had about a mile walk to along the road to the Butterlip Youth Hostel.
We arrived at the hostel about 2:45 PM and what a great place it is. We were talking about food on the way up the driveway and I said I wanted steak (figuring I could at least get something besides pasta in the village store to cook at the hostel). Well, they serve dinner at the hostel. I took the choice of carrot soup, roast beef with gravy and Yorkshire pudding, potatoe, vegetables and sticky toffee pudding with cream for dessert. They also cook breakfast so I ordered a full English breakfast. The room is 13 pounds, the dinner is 5 pounds and the breakfast is 3.5 pounds. Great prices for all we are getting.
The 3 of us walked down to the village to pick up some stuff for lunch before we unpacked or cleaned up because the store closed at 4:00PM. Grasmere is a cute little village. It's a tourist spot because William Wordsworth (the unofficial poet laureate of the Lake Disrict) lived here in a place called Dove Cottage.
After I showered I sat writing notes and reading in the lounge, drinking a locally brewed ale that the fellow at reception recommended. Dinner was very good and the sticky toffee pudding was delicious. We were joined for dinner by a fellow, Andy, from Hastings, who is out doing 11 days of hiking in the Lake District. He did the coast-to-coast hike quite a few years ago and he told us he would walk the first few miles with us tomorrow morning.
6/30: The 4 of us had breakfast together and then hiked from 9 to about 11 together. It was a steep climb up after we left the village and as usual it was confusing as to where yo go near the top, so it was nice to have Andy around to help pick out the correct path. From the top of Grisedale Hause we started down past Grisedale Tarn into the valley of Grisedale and it was pretty easy hiking for the last 6 miles. The only problem was it started to rain so we were pretty wet by the time we got to the village of Patterdale. Camping was out so we walked to the youth hostel.
Shari and I are in a female 6 bed bunkroom and Richard is in a male 6 bed bunbkroom. There are about 30 kids here on a school outing but they are all grouped in rooms together.
I've been concerned about tomorrow's hike because we have another big uphill with 16 miles of total hiking. Richard decided he didn't want to be so uncomfortable again carrying a big pack so he booked with the Sherpa Van service. They will move his big pack from here in Patterdale on to Shap for a 5 pound fee. After some deliberation, I followed suit and called to have my pack also transported by van. I will just carry my small pack with lunch, water, rain gear, camera, etc. I will probably carry my big pack again after Shap because most of the big hills will be behind us, but it's nice to have the van service as an option if we need it.
About 8 PM I went up to the local pub, The White Lion, with two fellows from the hostel - Peter from York, and Paul from Australia. Another fellow, Mike, from London, joined us about 8:30. It was fun to sit in a pub drinking locally brewed ale and listen to people talking around us and to find out what the 3 guys did for a living and where they have hiked, etc. We went back to the hostel about 10PM and I had some Ramen noodles with tuna and mayonnaise and went to bed. A lovely evening.
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