Another Long Walk: Day 16: Disobeying Orders and Flirting with Disaster!

August 11, 2024: I woke up to beautiful clear skies!

Now that there was daylight, I could take some photos of Greg's Hut.

Most of the day consisted of walking along Corpse Road, which I know sounds bad, but it really wasn't. The road was gravel, but it wasn't especially busy or difficult. A couple of vehicles passed by, but that was it and the road was almost entirely level.

Corpse Road was generally flat and easy, but also a little boring.

The trail then dropped into the town of Garrigill, which I was excited to get to since the guidebook promised a bar in town and--if I was lucky--might even serve food. Even without food, however, I was excited at the prospect of a cold drink. But, as it turned out, the bar did not exist! There was a post office with convenience store items in it, but being a Sunday, it was closed. I was badly disappointed.

I hobbled around town to see if there was anything of use at all in the town. Somewhere to get a cold drink or a snack or something, but I came up empty. There was really nothing for hikers here. Well, okay, that wasn't entirely true. I did manage to find a faucet where we could refill our water bottles and public restrooms, so at least we got that much out of the town. Better than nothing, I suppose, but much less than I had expected.

I wound up taking an hour long break in the small park in the center of town before picking up my pack and pushing onward. Almost immediately outside of the town, there was a sign posted saying that hikers should follow an alternate route because of a bridge that was closed further up the trail. The alternate appeared to more-or-less parallel to the main trail, except it was on the right side of the river that the trail followed along instead of the left side, and being a good hiker like I am, I followed the alternate.

The town of Garrigill turned out to be a big disappointment for me.

The alternate started well, passing near a nice waterfall that I otherwise wouldn't have seen but almost looping back into town from another direction. Within an half hour, however, the alternate route either became very badly overgrown or I lost it completely because I eventually found myself bushwhacking--which I had definitely not signed up for!

I knew the main trail was just on the other side of the river, and the river looked low enough that I figured I could just ford it if I had to and finally I decided to do that. Actually, I was even able to rock-hop across the creek without even getting my feet wet and soon found myself back on a solid, well-maintained trail. After that, my progress improved.

Then I reached the bridge closure. I knew this was the closed bridge because a giant sign had been posted on it saying it was closed. Looking at the bridge, however, I couldn't see anything wrong with it. It looked fine as far as I could tell. Maybe there was some sort of structural defect that I couldn't see, but I decided to cross on the supposedly closed bridge anyhow. I still have no idea why that bridge was officially closed, but it worked fine for me.

I had no idea why the bridge was closed, but I recklessly disregarded the notice and crossed it anyhow.

The alternate route joined the main trail just past the bridge, and the rest of the day's hike was uneventful.

At the end of the day, I arrived at the Alston youth hostel, where I had booked a bed for the night. Strictly speaking, I had nothing against camping tonight, but I had expected to finish the day's hike near Alston and I figured that I may as well use the hostel since it was on the trail and right there.

After checking in, I headed to the Spar supermarket--maybe a 5-10 minute walk away--to check it out and get some snacks. Then I headed another 5 minutes into town to the Cumberland Inn for dinner on the recommendation of the receptionist from the hostel.

I didn't make any notes about what I ate in my journal, so I can't report what it was. Sorry!

Later in the evening, I started making some tentative plans for the next few days on the trail, checking weather forecasts and figuring out an exit strategy for Karolina. She had to fly back and return to work in less than a week. Her original plan was to hike the entire Pennine Way and then take a bus and train to the airport and fly home, but at this point, it seemed unlikely that we'd reach the end of the trail before she had to leave. Which meant she had to figure out where she could get off the trail in time to catch her flight. She had some logistics to work out!

My home for the night was this youth hostel in Alston.

The main room in Greg's Hut

For nearly 24 hours (starting since about lunch time yesterday), I could see this radar station. Yesterday, I passed right by it, but I could still see it in the distance for much of the morning today.