Day 2: The Calm Before the Storm

August 26, 2024: When I woke, it was still raining, so I took my time getting ready for the trail. I delayed my departure until 9:30 at which point the rain had finally stopped.

The first obstacle for the day was Dent Hill, the first big climb of the trail. Unfortunately, there was fog at the top so no views to be seen, and the downhill side was stupidly steep. With the recent rain, it was also very slick, wet and slippery and thus very slow going.

Wet, wet trails this morning!

 

I stopped for a half hour or so at The Gather in Ennerdale Bridge where I ordered a ham and cheese panini for lunch, and then pushed onward to Ennerdale Water.

The official Coast to Coast route veered around the south side of it, but my guidebook and a few locals suggested that the route around the north side of it was a lot easier and nicer without all the rocks and water on the trail that was found on the south side. With no reason to make things any harder than they needed to be, I took the easy route around the north side.

Hiking along the lake was nice, but then the trail followed a gravel road away from it and mostly through trees until I reached the YHA Black Sail. By that point, I had already completed a full 15 miles and was happy to call it quits, so I hoped that perhaps I could get a bed at the hostel there.

Nobody who worked there seemed to be around, but others who already had reservations that were there said that this particular hostel is the most remote and popular of the entire system and the beds there tend to sell out months in advance and therefore it probably wouldn't have space. Not to mention that another thru-hiker without a reservation had hoped to stay there as well. (He was actually the same fellow I first met yesterday with the hat that blew into the creek.)

YHA Black Sail hostel

 

Figuring I wouldn't be able to stay, I ate a quick snack then pushed onward over a thousand foot pass. I wasn't overly disappointed about having to push onward since it meant that I wouldn't have to do it tomorrow when the weather was expected to be a lot worse.

Near the top of the pass, I caught up with a group of half a dozen hikers from California who I chatted with for a few minutes before passing them by. They were walking too slow for my taste. I was anxious to find somewhere indoors to spend the night to avoid the storm expected to blow in during the night, but I had no reservations and my phone had no signal to check for availability ahead.

A little further along, I passed the Honister Slate Mine which had sculptures made out of slate decorating the area and, as it turns out, they give tours. I was captivated! I'd never been in a slate mine before! I want to go! But it was far too late in the afternoon. They had already closed for the day and had probably been closed for hours already. I could only admire the slate artwork installed outside.

Bird made out of slate! How cool is that?!

The next hostel was right next door to the slate mine, however, so I hoped I could get a bed there and maybe take a mine tour the next day, but when I went into the hostel to inquire about it, I was told that it this hostel had to be rented in its entirety. Not just a bad, but the whole building! What kind of stupid hostel is that?! Apparently, they started doing this during COVID times and never went back to renting by the bed.

Anyhow, dejected, I pushed onward, annoyed at that unexpected problem. 

The trail became horribly wet and often went through ankle-deep water that could not be avoided. One tricky area even had chains alongside on riverbank just to spite us, I'm sure.

I finally reached the YHA Borrowdale, another hostel, and walked in to inquire if they had any beds available. I still could not get any sort of cell signal to check ahead of time, so I had no idea what to expect, but happily, they had one bed left in the men's dormitory, and I booked it in a heartbeat. Finally, I could stop for the day! And after 20.2 miles (according to my GPS), I was definitely ready to stop.

YHA Borrowdale would finally be my destination for the night!

 

This actually put me back on my original schedule I had set for myself when I started the trail after cutting the day short yesterday, but I'd fall behind schedule again tomorrow because I had reserved a spot at this very hostel for tomorrow night. I didn't really expect to reach it today, but since the weather forecast called for horrendous weather tomorrow, I wouldn't mind a zero day in the end. Even if it did put me behind schedule again....

I wound up chatting with other hostel residents in the common area, mostly chatting with Paula, a bicyclist who had just finished the Hadrian's Wall bike route, and Gopal, a fellow from India. Another person also happened to mention that there was actually a bus that went from a stop near the hostel to the slate mine.

"Really?!" I exclaimed. "That sounds like something I could do for tomorrow! Especially if it's going to be raining all day anyhow! Perfect!"

Everything was working out really well.....

Then, late in the night, I headed to my bed to get some sleep with dreams of visiting the slate mine tomorrow!

 

Cleator looked like one of the most depressing British towns I'd ever seen. (Sorry to anyone who lives there!)

This might look like a creek, but I think it's the trail!

 

Dent Hill was an annoying climb!

 

 

View from Dent Hill, a bit below the summit. (Since the summit itself was covered in fog and there were no views.)

 

Not sure about the name of this place, but I do like the drawing of the hiker! =)

You can tell we're getting into the heart of the Lake District with all these mountains!

Ennerdale Water

I hiked the north side of Ennerdale Water.

Stile on the trail

The Honister Slate Mine

More slate art pieces

I was so disappointed that the slate mine had already closed for the day... at least until I realized that I could come back on a bus and visit it tomorrow! =D

Day 1: Beginning the Coast to Coast Walk--an ominous start!

August 25, 2024: The weather in the morning was dark and moody. It wasn't raining, but it looked like it certainly could rain at any moment, and the wind whipped around strongly. I checked the weather forecast and fortunately, no rain was expected until after 2:00 in the afternoon, so I decided to start the day early, hike hard, and pull off 15 miles and make it to camp by 2:00 and beat the rain.

The official western terminus of the Coast to Coast Walk

 

I quickly ate breakfast, packed up camp and walked out to the official start of the Pennine Way a mere 5 minute walk away. A large monument marked the starting point, and I took photos of it but there was nobody around to ask about taking a photo of it with me, but that was always optional.

I walked down to the bay to swirl my feet in the shore's water. Just a very shallow area--enough to get the bottom of my shoes wet but not so deep that my feet would actually get wet. I had to hike, after all! Dry feet are better for walking. =)

Dipping my shoes in the Atlantic Ocean

Then I started hiking. The trail passed by the campground where I had spent the night, then climbed a steep slope to the top of a cliff towering over the shoreline.

The first couple of hours were a nice change of pace since the trail followed the scenic shoreline north along that towering cliff.

Then the trail veered inland to make its way across Northern England.

I checked the weather forecast again, and was alarmed to see it had changed dramatically--now it showed that rain was expected to start before noon! Seriously? What the heck? How could the forecast have changed so much in just the last two hours?! There's no way I could pull off 15 miles before noon at this point. I would have needed to start hiking a couple of hours earlier!

There wasn't much I could do about that, however, and I pushed onward.

The trail passed under a railroad bridge that I realized was the same bridge I would have traveled over when I rode the train into St. Bees.

I also ran into my first fellow thru-hiker of the trail just on the other side of the railroad. He was an older gentleman, a bit overweight, and he was taking a break. He seemed surprised when I showed up. Actually, I think he was more surprised that he hadn't seen anyone else until I showed up.

"Well, it is pretty early in the morning," I told him. "Not everyone is ready to leave the comfort of their lodgings for this rather cold and bleak weather!"

He had a relatively fancy hat that resembled a hat that I would imagine a Texan would wear to a party that required dressing up. Kind of a cowboy hat, but a fancy cowboy hat--although the guy didn't really give off cowboy vibes. It seemed like a strange choice for a thru-hike, though. It didn't appear to be collapsible or up for weathering the elements.

He explained that the hat had blown off his head in a gust of wind and fell into the nearby creek, so he was trying to dry it out.

Yes, the wind was an annoyance. It wasn't the worst wind I had experienced on the trail, but it was enough of a nuisance that I had to use the strap under my chin so the same fate wouldn't happen to my own hat.

We talked for a few minutes before I continued onward. I really want to get in my 15 miles before the rain started in the afternoon! I knew that was unlikely at this point, but at least I could get in as many miles as possible before the rain started in earnest.

It did not help my goal when I missed a turn in the town of Moor Row and wound up walking a quarter-mile in the wrong direction. The trail followed a road, and being such an obvious path, I stopped checking my GPS regularly and didn't realize that I needed to veer off it. Eventually I realized my error and backtracked, but by then, the first spits of rain had started. It wasn't heavy, but it was a warning. The rain was near.

I was nowhere near my destination for the day. I cursed the weather gods but pushed onward.

A bit later, the rain started picking up into a very aggressive drizzle and I finally pulled out my umbrella. The trail passed by a church with a sign saying that hikers were welcome to stop in, and a second sign that welcomed visitors for church services every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month at 11:00am. 

It was, I had noted, a Sunday and a little after 11:00am, but off the top of my head, I wasn't sure what Sunday of the month it was. There was, I figured, a more-or-less 50/50 chance that a church service was currently in progress.

Still, wanting to get out of the rain and consider my options, I walked through the cemetery to the church and as I approached the entrance, I heard organ music drifting out. It was, I thought, definitely the 4th Sunday of the month. 

I sat down on a bench outside of the church under the protective cover of the entrance, and pulled out my phone and guidebook trying to figure out what I wanted to do now.

The bench under the overhang was a nice place to stop and figure out what I wanted to do next. =)

I noticed that the Ennendale County House Hotel was located about a half-mile further up the trail, and they had space available for the night at a reasonable (albeit more than I prefer paying) price. But checking the most up-to-date weather forecast, it called for a steady rain the rest of the day. If I kept hiking, it was going to be utterly miserable. Not far ahead was also a steep hill that my guidebook seemed to suggest might be best going around if the weather was particularly bad. While I had no doubt the weather could be much worse, a steady rain with strong winds wasn't exactly ideal, and the hotel looked like the smart option.

With that decided, I headed off to the hotel, arriving at about noon. I was wet from the rain but hadn't been walking it in it long enough to be thoroughly soaked. Not yet, at least! Check-in time for the hotel was 3:00, but I figured if a room wasn't ready right away, I could probably just hang out in the attached bar/restaurant until it was. Either way, I was done hiking in the rain for the day!

There was a room available, however, so I went to it immediately. I had completed barely half the miles I had planned for the day, but for once, that least weather forecast was accurate and it had rained steadily--often times quite hard--the rest of the afternoon and it lifted my heart every time I looked out the window and was grateful to be indoors. Poor suckers that had to hike in that weather.... *shaking head* That could have been me!

Home, sweet, home for the night. My room was the one on the second floor on the far left. =)

The room, much to my surprise, included a bathtub and with nothing better to do all afternoon, I made myself a bath and soaked in it for an hour or two.

After cleaning up, I put on my camp clothes and headed down to the hotel restaurant where I ordered a burger, salad and fries for dinner. The burger was a bit plain, so I put some of my salad in it to give it a bit more texture and taste. =)

Then I just relaxed the rest of the evening reading my Kindle and watching Netflix and YouTube videos on my phone. Living the good life!

Looking back at St. Bees from the cliffs. It was low tide when I left!

Lighthouse near (but not ON) the trail.

The trail went by an active quarry, which is actually where red stone for some of the structures in Carlisle came from (such as the Carlisle Castle and Citadel).

Coast to Coast walker memorial!