Another Long Walk: Day 12: Walking With Bob

August 7, 2024: It rained during the night, but that didn't bother me at all being safe and dry in the shelter. There's always the risk that a shelter isn't as waterproof as you might expect, but the roof was solid and did its job well. Bob, I knew, was tenting it and was going to have to pack a wet tent in the morning--but hopefully he was staying dry as well.

In the morning, my ankle still hurt like crazy. I had hoped the rest during the night would have dulled the pain, but my ankle was as big and painful as ever. Ugh. It was going to be a difficult day for me. I had about nine miles into town. Fortunately, the day was expected to be relatively flat and easy otherwise, and even with only 9 miles, the distance wasn't particularly long. I'd just have to see how it goes....

I packed up my backpack and headed out. A mile or two later, I passed a guy who was working on rebuilding a fallen section of a stone wall. Finally! I had been passing stone walls the whole time--seemingly hundreds of miles of them, but had never seen even a single person building or maintaining them. I had to imagine they took a lot of time and effort to create and maintain, so it seemed weird that there was never anyone working on them. I figured it was like a paved road--if you drive around long enough, eventually you'll find sections that are being worked on a daily basis. As soon as one section is fixed, it's on to another section that needs fixing. But where were all the rock wall builders?!

I finally found him. As far as I could tell, he was the only person in all of England working on the rock walls. At least the only person I ever saw. I knew they had to exist, however, and it was nice to finally get that confirmation.

Around the bend from where he was working, the trail entered through a gate into a farm that passed by a building with a sign pointing hikers inside. I took a look and screamed at the bizarre figure that greeted me. Okay, maybe I didn't actually scream, but it was oddly disturbing. He looked like Freddie Mercury wearing a jumpsuit.

What do you think? Freddie Mercury in a jumpsuit? =)

But, more importantly, there was a huge selection of foods and drinks for passing hikers that apparently was free for hikers. There was a donation box for anyone who wanted to donate to the cause, but there were no price lists anywhere about a "suggested" donation for each item, so it really did feel like a "help yourself to whatever you want" kind of thing, and if anyone felt like donating, they could--but it wasn't required. (I decided to leave all of the change I carried to lighten my load as well, which was maybe about 5 pounds worth but I didn't count it out.)

There were also fridges and freezers so you could get cold drinks and ice cream. There was a kettle to boil hot water for tea or coffee. There were chairs to sit down and relax, and a register to write messages in. Flipping through the register, most of the entries were just people thanking the hosts for the surprise smorgasbord of food and drink options.

While I was inside, it started to sprinkle. That wasn't a huge surprise--the weather looked terrible and occasional bursts of sprinkles were expected in the forecast. But it was nice to be inside and out of the rain for the time being--but I'd be in it again soon enough. Then I heard thunder.

Moments later, Bob appeared around the corner and joined the party. "Bob!" I exclaimed. "How are you?!"

He sat down, and we continued our conversation from yesterday evening and wound up chatting for about an hour because we were having such a good time. He was from England, so I asked him which of the candies and foods were "classic English" options that everyone locally would be widely familiar with but that I likely wouldn't be, and he pointed out a few of the options. I don't remember the names of any of them, but I remembered the packaging and how they looked, and later, I did notice them in grocery stores all up and down the trail after that. In any case, I took one of each item he suggested that I should try.

Karolina and Bob, chatting in the farm building

A black cat wandered into the building, and he jumped up onto my lap. I started petting him, but then he clawed me and I pushed him off. No cat is allowed to sit on my lap if they're going to claw me! He rubbed against my leg trying to get my attention again, but no, I told him, you tried to claw me!

The three of us eventually realized that we needed to continue onward, and we reluctantly left the comforts of civilization behind. Bob decided to walk with us to extend the conversation. I was the one in the back of the pack, slowing everyone down due to my injured ankle. The rain--and thunder!--had stopped by the time we resumed, but we fully expected it to pick up again before reaching town. At least we had a small reprieve from it for the time being.

Bob was amazed at how much backpacking I had done. Not just being a Triple Crowner, but all the other trails I had also done and he said somewhat jokingly said that I also carried the biggest, heaviest pack he had ever seen which seemed incongruous to him.

"Yeah, I know," I replied, "I definitely don't recommend it."

My pack was ridiculously heavy, I admit it. For one, I carried a laptop--I needed to do some work online while I was out here, and I didn't know how to ship it ahead to myself on the trail like I usually did while hiking trails in the United States. I also carried three heavy guidebooks--three of them! One for each of the three trails I was planning to hike. Usually I just have one guidebook, if I carry a guidebook at all. Now I had a brick of them that amounted to nearly 900 pages of text and maps. Plus battery packs and cords. I had four different cameras as part of my job taking photos and videos for Walking 4 Fun. Plus all of the batteries and power needed to run them.

Plus, I also carried a full-sized Rubik's Cube, because everyone deserved a little something for fun and to keep their spirits up. =)

So, yes, my pack was crazy heavy. Bob was curious to feel just how heavy it was and suggested that we switch packs for a little while.

"You sure about that?" I asked him. "You really don't know what kind of torture you're asking for!"

He was game, though, so we switched packs and he carried mine for perhaps 5 minutes.

"Good God!" he exclaimed, trying to pick it up.

"Be sure to use the waist belt," I advised him, and he soon adjusted the strap and snapped it in place.

After he got it on, I picked up his pack that probably weighed maybe 15 pounds--positively light. I joked that I was afraid it had fallen off my back because I couldn't feel it anymore.

Bob carried my pack for about 5 minutes--perhaps his worst and biggest challenge of the entire Pennine Way! ;o)

After about five minutes, he was ready to switch packs again. I encouraged him to keep going with my pack. "You're strong! You can do it! Don't give up so easily! Girls might think you're a wuss!"

He could tell what I was doing, though, and assured me that he was not going to carry my pack any further. Oh, well... it was fun while it lasted. For me, at least. =)

But the whole experience just made him think I was even crazier than he thought before, I'm sure.

We really enjoyed Bob's company, and he seemed to enjoy ours, but he said that he needed to go faster. He had a schedule to keep to, and he needed to get into town long enough to charge his devices. If he kept walking as slow as he was, he wouldn't have enough time to charge them. For him, the town was just a brief stop before pushing onward.

An idea popped into my head. I had planned to take a zero day tomorrow. Once we reached town, we'd be there the rest of the day and night--plus the entire day tomorrow.

"Would you like to charge your devices from my battery packs?" He could suck them all completely dry for all it mattered to me. Once we got into town, I would have two days to recharge them.

An added perk, for me, at least, is that Bob would carry one of my battery packs into town for me. =) It barely made a dent in my overall pack weight, but I was perfectly happy offloading whatever I could!

He liked this idea, so I pulled out my battery packs and he started charging his devices. He even started charging his own battery pack. "You're sure this isn't a problem?" he asked, a bit concerned that I would need some of the electricity. "Nope, all of my devices were already freshly charged this morning. I shouldn't need anything from the battery packs the rest of the way into town. Suck them dry!"

So we all walked the rest of the way into Middleton-in-Teesdale together. The rain, I'm happy to report, actually managed to hold off. At least nothing that really required an umbrella.

I couldn't check into my room at the Forrester's Bar and Restaurant until 3:00pm, so I had some time to kill. The three of us decided to grab some lunch at a cafe. I ordered a ham and cheese panini with a Pepsi and a square of carrot cake. "I only got the carrot cake because there was an actual carrot made of frosting on the top," I explained. "That's what makes it a real carrot cake."

It was delicious. The panini just melted in my mouth. Yum, yum......

After finishing, we offered to watch Bob's stuff while he went grocery shopping next door at the Co-op. We still had time to kill before check-in time at the hotel anyhow.

After he returned and repacked his backpack, it was time for him to go. It was also nearing 3:00pm, so he walked us to the hotel where we finally said our goodbyes and split up.

Middleton-in-Teesdale would be our destination for the day

I checked into my room, which was quite nice. For dinner, I walked out and picked up a pizza at a nearby pizza joint. Karolina went into the Co-op to buy something alcoholic, but came out empty-handed because they wouldn't let her buy it without ID, which--unfortunately for her--she had left back at her hotel room. "Nobody ever cards me anymore!" she exclaimed, surprised, but seemingly happy that he thought she might be too young to buy alcohol.

So she sent me into the market to buy the alcohol for her, which seemed like a seedy thing to be doing, but I knew darned well she was old enough to drink alcohol. She described precisely which cider she wanted, and I headed inside to purchase it.

Then I headed back to the hotel to feast on the pizza and relax the rest of the evening. I got on my laptop to catch up with work stuff.

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