Another Long Walk: Day 24: The End of a Trail

August 19, 2024: I took my time getting up in the morning since I figured that I only had 6 or 7 miles to the end of the trail. No reason to rush! The wind had died down a bit during the night, but picked up once again when the sun started to rise. The air was quite hazy, and I'm not sure why. It almost seemed like there must have been a forest fire burning nearby, but that seemed unlikely given the few forests there were out here.

It looked very hazy today!

In any case, I headed down the trail where, after a mile or two, it diverged into two options: The easier low route or a longer, more difficult high route. Even though the high route was harder and a half-mile longer, I decided to go that way. I had time! I wanted views! Hurrah!

And it was a rather pleasant walk except for the brutal wind. The trail followed near the English-Scottish border, and I think I spent most of the day on the Scottish side of the border, but I could be wrong about that. It wasn't well defined in real life with lots of signage.

The last section headed down to a trailhead where I passed a dozen or day hikers heading in the opposite direction. At first I thought that they were just out for a nice stroll, checking out the end of the Pennine Way, but one of them asked if I was hiking the trail. I said yes, of course, but it turned out that they weren't talking about the Pennine Way at all, but rather some sort of pilgrimage trail that happened to overlap the Pennine Way at this location.

Oh.... no, I didn't know anything about that trail. Never even heard of it before. I had no idea what they were talking about, but it seems that the people were part of a group that were slackpacking the pilgrimage trail.

The last 15 to 20 minutes of the trail was a road walk into the town of Kirk Yetholm along an ugly, paved road. The only good thing I could say about that was at least it wasn't busy, and I think only one vehicle passed me during the walk into town.

The road walk into town was horrible, but there were a few nice benches along the way. I never used them--too anxious to reach the end of the trail!--but they were available. =)

The end of the trail is marked by a sign on the Borders Inn and tavern, so I had my photo taken with it and inside the tavern they offered me a free half-pint of Tyneside Blonde beer--a tradition for finishing thru-hikers going back decades. Actually, they used to give a full pint of beer to finishers, but eventually that became too expensive, I guess, and they cut it back to a half-pint.

Of course, I absolutely loathe the taste of beer and didn't want it. Actually, I did want a photo of me with the beer, and I asked if they had something "smaller than a half-pint". Just a "taste" that I could get, and the bartender filled up a shot glass for me. Perfect!

He also filled out a completion form for me, a certificate to hang proudly on my wall that I, Brian Carpenter, successfully completed hiking the Pennine Way from end-to-end.

He had asked me my name, and I did tell him Ryan, but as often happens, he heard Brian and wrote that instead. I didn't have the heart to correct him, though, and honestly, the certificate didn't mean that much to me. I wasn't going to hang it up anywhere. After thru-hiking trails like the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail, the Pennine Way felt more like scratching an itch than a huge accomplishment for me--but I do understand that a lot of people who complete it can (and should be!) quite proud of the achievement.

My "half pint" of beer and completion certificate! (I had already drunk the beer before I took this photo.) The black book was the hiker register which I also signed.

While I was there, I also ordered lunch. Being in Scotland, I went for the Scottish beefburger... with haggis! A hamburger with haggis on it seemed like something everyone should try once in their life. =) It also included "hand-cut chips", a salad and I also ordered 2 pints of Coca-Cola. Yum!

Usually, I had to guess whether "chips" were french fries or potato chips, but since nobody "hand-cuts" potato chips, I knew it must be french fries this time, and I was right. =)

The meal was awesome. I don't know why people like to complain about how horrible haggis is. Tasted fine to me! But eventually the bus out of town was scheduled to arrive soon so I paid my bill and left. I only finished about half of the french fries, which I felt bad about, but the next bus out of town didn't leave for something like 4 hours so I definitely didn't want to miss this one. But I was pretty stuffed and was struggling to get more into my mouth anyhow, so in that sense, I didn't feel too bad about not finishing.

My Scottish beefburger with haggis, hand-cut chips and a salad. =)

Loaded down with a full belly, I waddled over to the bus stop where I caught the bus heading to Kelso, where I changed buses and caught another one maybe 10 minutes later heading to Berwick-upon-Tweed, where I changed to a train that took me into Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and from there, it was a seven-minute walk to the hotel according to Google Maps.

And thus ended my hike of the Pennine Way. But! Fear not, this blog is not yet over because that was not the last trail I'd be thru-hiking before quitting this country. As it so happens, Newcastle is also the eastern terminus of the Hadrian's Wall Path, and it was my plan to start hiking that first thing the next morning. I spent the evening pouring over my guidebook for the Hadrian's Wall Path, figuring out the next place I could resupply and where I might spend the next few nights. The Pennine Way might be over, but my adventures will continue!

And... for those of you who'd like to virtually walk in my footsteps, the Pennine Way virtual walk is now available on Walking 4 Fun! Virtual walkers will see vastly more photos, more detailed maps about the route and premium members will also see some of the videos taken along the trail. Lots of good stuff there. =)

But in the meantime, check back on the usual Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule for the more blog posts of my hiking through northern England.

The Border Hotel marks the end of the Pennine Way. (As well as the giant pile of used, discarded hiking boots under the sign.)

Looking back on the trail, I could barely see the shelter where I spent the night. It's that tiny little dot at the top of the hill near the center of the photo.