Day 23: To Scotland and Beyond!

August 18, 2024: It rained a bit during the night but, fortunately for me, it stopped by morning so I didn't have to hike it in. I did, however, put on my waterproof socks knowing that my feet would likely get very wet, and boy did that turn out to be a wise decision!

A couple of miles after leaving camp, I arrived at the edge of Byrness, the last trail town before the end of the Pennine Way. The town had some lodging, but otherwise nothing was really available for hikers so I simply passed through. Well, I did miss a turn which caused me to wander in town a little longer than necessary, but I didn't stop at any businesses or otherwise do anything in town. I only stopped long enough to filter a liter of water from a creek running through the town.

Out of town, the trail became ridiculously steep eventually breaking out into the moorlands and, I'm not exactly sure when, but I reached the English-Scottish border. Scotland, long time no see! It had been a decade since I was last in Scotland.

I believe this fence marked the English-Scottish border

 
Above the trees, the sun was shining, but the wind was fierce! A strong wind continually tried to blow me over during the entire day, an exhausting beast that seemed never to be tamed.

Along the way, my GPS tracks stopped. I couldn't figure out what had happened, but it's like I had reached the end of the trail and then there was no more tracks to follow--except that I hadn't reached the end of the trail. My GPS wasn't completely useless since I had also loaded waypoints along the route which gave a point on the trail every mile or so on average, but if I was between points and reached an intersection and wasn't sure which way was the correct route, I had to pull out my guidebook and sometimes take a guess since the trail wasn't always well-marked.

Once, I guessed incorrectly and wound up bushwhacking unnecessarily through some heather to get back to the actual trail. Definitely an annoyance--especially when I took a step thinking it was solid ground and I plunged up to my knee in mud. I scrambled out quickly, none-the-worse for wear, cursed the lack of GPS tracks and continued onward.

The trail passed by another unexcavated Roman fort--those Romans really got around! But except for some lumpy mounds near the trail, there wasn't really anything interesting to see.

A few hours into the hike, I reached the first of two refuges. I preferred to call them shelters since I think of a refuge as something a refugee would use, and while I might have looked like a refugee, I didn't consider myself one! It was a small one-room structure with four walls and a roof that allowed hikers to get out of the elements. A few hikers could even sleep in them if they wanted to.

The first of two shelters on this section of the trail

It was much too early in the day for me to stop, however--about 2:00pm by then--so I pushed onward. The next shelter was, I estimated, about a 5-hour walk away and I figured I'd probably wild camp somewhere between the two shelters.

The trail passed over the top of Windy Gyle--aptly named since the winds could easily have been hurricane force. I took refuge behind some stone windbreaks--and in this case, I really did feel like a refugee taking refuge against the onslaught of the wind. It was absolutely brutal!

It was not, however, enough space to set up camp, so after a few snacks, I pushed onward on the hunt for the next campsite. Everywhere was just so exposed, however, and the wind so utterly brutal. And if the wind wasn't bad enough, the ground everywhere was just a giant bog. There was very little dry, flat ground anywhere. 

Not great terrain for wild camping!

In the end, I wound up pushing on to the next shelter, arriving a little after 7:00pm completely and utterly exhausted and defeated. I had no intention of walking this far today, and in hindsight, wished I had stopped at the first shelter of the day. This was a scenic location, on a hill with amazing views, so there was that. I had also hiked 21.4 miles according to my GPS--several miles further than anything I'd done on the trail thus far and over much rougher, more difficult terrain. Yeah, that definitely had not been my plan for the day! But the shelter turned out to be the only decent place to escape from the bogs and wind.

I arrived just at the same time another hiker did. He was out for the weekend and we wound up sharing the shelter for the night. I was a little disappointed that he hadn't decided to camp in the grass outside using the shelter as a windbreak. I could have done it myself, but I was just too tired to set up my tent. He had only hiked a few hours to this location, though, and had a lot more energy than I did.

Shelter #2, which I'd share with the other hiker who was standing in the doorway.

In the register at the shelter, I saw that Aiden had signed into it a couple of hours earlier, leaving me a note thanking me for the iodine tablets and leaving the extras in the shelter in case I wanted them back. I didn't, but I added the tablets that would remove the iodine taste to the ones he left behind so maybe someone else could make use of them. There were quite a few pieces of gear that hikers had left behind for other hikers to use, a sort of of hiker box without the box.

Looking at the time Aiden had signed the entry, I wondered if he was even at the end of the trail yet. I suspected he wouldn't finish the trail until somewhere near sunset--maybe even a little after sunset--and wasn't sure there would be any public transit available for him to get out of town to reach his dentist appointment tomorrow. Maybe he'd wind up calling a taxi to get to the nearest train station, though? 

In any case, it wasn't my problem and there wasn't anything I could do about it even if it were. I liked the idea of donating the iodine tablets for another hiker passing through that might otherwise be lacking water.

Getting into camp so late, it wasn't long before the sun set and I soon hit the sack. I was exhausted, but I also knew.... this would be my last night on the Pennine Way. The end was near!

 

 

 

 

 

It's always something!

 

Just as well that digging is prohibited anyhow--you might find unexploded ordinance that could blow you up. =)

The view inside of the first shelter

I did NOT make the happy face in the mud. I have no idea who did--just some hiker ahead of me somewhere.

The end of the day really had this amazing and dramatic canyon. The photo can't do it justice, but it was tempting to go down into it and explore it a bit!