Another Long Walk: Day 11: Invasion of the Slugs!

August 6, 2024: I woke up to an invasion of slugs! So many slugs everywhere! Big ones, small ones and every size in between. Karolina made the mistake of leaving a few strawberries outside in the open, and several of them had crawled into the basket and were feasting like kings. "I don't think I'll finish those strawberries," she wisely commented.

I was never more glad to have been sleeping in a tent rather than under my tarp like I usually do. I've had these sorts of slug invasions while under a tarp, and it's horrible. They leave slime trails all over everything, and I've rolled over in the night squishing them and making a mess. At least inside of a tent, I had real protection against the onslaught--even if there were lots of slime trails over the exterior of the tent. It was still better than under a tarp!

It had rained hard during the night, which I assume played no small part in the slug invasion, but by morning, the weather was clear, sunny and really quite beautiful. The main problem was just all those slugs....

A couple of miles later, I detoured off trail due to a sign pointing to Kisdon Force. I had already learned that the local word for waterfall was actually "force," so the sign was pointing to a waterfall, and I wanted to check it out, and what a fine waterfall it was!

The trail descended down to a decent-sized river which is what created the waterfall, and a small trail followed alongside of it further downstream to a second waterfall, but after checking out the ground, I decided not to follow it. It was too wet and slippery and falling here could be seriously bad for my health. If the ground wasn't so slick with mud, however, I would have scrambled down for a better view. As it was, someone had installed a rope to help get up and down the slope so even on a good day, it could be something of a challenge. As wet as the ground was, however, I didn't want to risk it.

Kisdon Force

But I admired the first waterfall a bit before returning to the trail and continuing onward, this time reaching the outskirts of the small town of Keld. I decided not to go into Keld--the town center was actually off the trail and therefore out of the way--but it stuck in my mind because this was where the Coast-to-Coast Trail passed from west to east that I planned to hike in a few more weeks. I wanted to remember the area and check it out in case something I learned from it would later be useful when I trekked through the area again in a few weeks.

The two trails overlapped for maybe 5 minutes, just long enough to cross a river over a bridge before splitting up again. Karolina was hiking behind me at this point, and while waiting at the junction for her to catch up and make sure she didn't miss the turn, a group of three people approached trying to figure out which direction the Coast-to-Coast Trail was. It was a father with two of his grown daughters, and the daughters seemed a bit annoyed about their dad not knowing the way.

"He walked this trail from end-to-end just a few weeks ago!" they explained me. "He should know which way the trail goes!" The father looked a little sheepish about his not remembering this particular intersection. We chatted for a couple of minutes before they continued onward.

When Karolina finally arrived, we stopped by the creek to check out another waterfall, East Gill Force. It was a scenic area, and even included a relatively flat open space that I could potentially camp in. It was a little close to town, but if I set up camp late in the evening and left early in the morning, it might be doable. Not on this trip, mind you. It was still early in the morning and we'd only hiked a couple of miles so far today. No, not tonight, but maybe this would be a good place to camp in a few weeks when I passed through again while hiking the Coast-to-Coast Trail.

East Gill Force

Anyhow, after admiring the falls and taking photos, I returned to the trail and continued hiking, veering off to the left while the Coast-to-Coast Trail veered off to the right. I was a little envious of the trail leading to the right. It looked flatter and easier than the one I was currently doing.

The trail climbed steadily for miles, eventually reaching a high point where Tan Hill Inn was located, the self-proclaimed highest pub in the UK. It might very well be the highest pub in the UK, but at only 1,732 feet (528 m) above sea level, I wasn't particularly impressed. It's not exactly nose-bleed kind of elevations.

I was happy, however, to stop and rest my weary feet for a bit. Originally, I took a table outside since the weather was so nice, but the windchill turned out to be bitterly cold once I stopped hiking and almost immediately I decided to move to a table indoors.

Karolina ordered a local beer. I ordered a Pepsi and nachos.

Time to eat my nachos and drink my Pepsi at the Tan Hill Inn!

The nachos weren't particularly good. They looked like (and tasted like) something out of a meal kit that was thrown into a microwave. Maybe they were? In any case, I can't say that I would recommend the nachos to anyone unless you were truly starving! The place was hopping with business, though. The parking lot was filled with vehicles and nearly every table was full.

But it was otherwise a nice place to visit. We used the toilets, then continued on our way along the trail.

The trail descended through a particularly boggy area that left my feet drenched. The guidebook mentioned a shelter several miles beyond the pub, and I decided to shoot for that for the night. I had no idea what sort of condition the shelter was in, but it would be nice to have the extra space to stand up and walk around and not set up a tent. Plus, this was the first (and as far as I knew, the only) shelter of the trail. I ought to at least check it out!

Late in the day, I took a bad step which twisted my ankle and I collapsed into a ditch in the ground. I cussed loudly and angrily, my ankle throbbing with pain. The area where I fell was annoyingly flat and easy too. Why I fell there of all places baffled me. Even worse, it was the same ankle I had sprained on day 2, which probably enhanced the pain this time around. It hurt. Badly hurt.

There wasn't really anything I could do about the ankle, though, so I sucked it up and continued hobbling along--considerably slower than before, however.

Fortunately, I was only about 40 minutes away from the shelter by this time so I didn't have to hobble too far on it. Not today, at least.

The shelter was a small part of a much larger building. The door for the shelter had a sign saying it was the shelter and was unlocked, but the rest of the building had no signage and was locked up tight. I still have no idea what was in the rest of the building. A short fence surrounded the building and Karolina wasn't sure if we were allowed to go in it. There weren't any signs saying we couldn't, however, and since it was even labeled as a shelter, I stepped over the fence to check it out anyhow. I figured the fence was just to keep the sheep away from the building or something. The wire fence was maybe 3 feet tall and clearly not designed to keep people out as it was pretty easy to swing a leg over and step over it.

Me looking out the door of the shelter

I had imagined a shelter like an AT-style shelter, with three walls and a roof, but this was a fully-enclosed room complete with a door to protect against the elements. I opened one of the windows to let a little light in, and the room had a concrete floor, lots of chairs, and hiker graffiti littered the walls. It'll do, I thought.

I sat down in a chair to get off my badly-swollen ankle, and almost immediately we saw another person approaching the shelter. From a distance, it looked like he was carrying a cookset but nothing else. If it was a hiker, I would have expected him to carry a backpack or something. Where did he come from?

Karolina was sure we were breaking some sort of rules by being in the shelter and thought maybe he was going to kick us out or fine us or something. While I was pretty sure that wasn't the case, it did seem oddly suspicious that this guy showed up just as we arrived from the middle of nowhere carrying what appeared to be a cookset and some water. I told Karolina that if it was some sort of authority figure upset about us being in the shelter, we'd blame my ankle for spending the night here. "Sorry, officer! I wanted to go further, but my ankle! I couldn't do it!"

The shelter was just one end of this much larger building. (The white mark on the building is the sign reading "Shelter" with an arrow pointing around the side.) I never did figure out what the rest of the building was being used for. I opened the shutters on the left side of the building to let light into the shelter after this photo was taken. The other shutters weren't part of the shelter and I left those alone.

I didn't really expect it would come to that, but I think it made Karolina feel better about having a plan for the unexpected visitor. And as swollen as my ankle was, it was totally a credible story--even if the shelter had been our planned destination from the very beginning.

Anyhow, the lone figure eventually reached us, and he introduced himself as Bob, and he too was thru-hiking the Pennine Way. He told us that he had set up camp nearby and saw us hike by and enter the shelter, and he wanted to check out the shelter. He hadn't realized that there was a shelter and was mad at himself for setting up camp before reaching it and checking it out.

So that's where the rest of his gear was--back at his nearby campsite. The campsite must have been hidden well, however, because we hadn't noticed it and no idea he was around until he started walking toward the shelter--which he only did because he saw us go inside of it.

So he sat down and chatted with us for quite a bit. We learned that he had thru-hiked the long-distance trail through New Zealand (the Te Aurora) and had already made plans to hike the GR20 in the near future. When he found out that I had already done the GR20, he asked me all about that and how dangerous it really was. (It's strenuous, but not really that big of deal.)

While chatting, one of the brightest, most gorgeous rainbows I've ever seen appeared on the horizon. It was actually a triple rainbow in areas. The second rainbow was nowhere near as bright as the main one, as is usually the case, the third one was barely even visible, but definitely there. We ooed and awwed as the rainbow increased in brightness then eventually faded.

Rainbows never turn out well in photos, but this one was so bright, it actually showed up pretty well! Still not nearly as bright as it looked live with your own two eyes, but not bad for a photo!

Bob said he was tempted to break down camp and move to the shelter, and we encouraged him to do so since we were enjoying his company, but in the end, he decided to just camp where he was. It was easier for him than breaking down camp just to move it a few hundred feet to the shelter.

He also told us about the food he ordered at the Tan Hill Inn. "It was terrible," he told us.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Sounds like the nachos I ordered there!"

We all agreed that maybe we just shouldn't order food at all from there in the future.

Near sunset, he returned to his campsite. After he left, I turned to Karolina and told her, "You know who he reminds me of? At least in terms of looks?" I asked her.

The rainbow wasn't just bright, but it was also complete from end to end!

"Who?"

"Bob Ross. I think he looks like a young Bob Ross." =)

"Yeah, I guess I can see that."

I rolled out a groundsheet to sleep on. I didn't much care for the concrete floor (I would have much preferred a wooden one like the AT shelters had), but I'd survive and used my pack to help pad the hard, rough surface.

And thus ended another day on the trail.....