Day 13: Another Dreary Day....

September 6, 2024: I slept well during the night, but woke up to gray, foggy skies. The forecast had called for sun. Argh!!! Well, maybe it will clear up later. The forecast suggested it might, but at this point, I didn't have high hopes. I looked at the weather forecasts, but I had a deep mistrust of them.

I got a relatively early start to the day and was on the trail and hiking by 7:30am. I didn't even manage to hike a full mile before I took my first break for the day, however.

Mainly because the trail passed by a Shell station on a super busy road and I wanted to take a look in the convenience store. Toilets! Benches! Tables! Outlets! The place even had showers--which was a genuine surprise because it was otherwise a pretty normal Shell station, not a truck stop!

This Shell station is a popular place for hikers to stop since it is located just a minute or two off the trail.

 

I wanted to fill up with water as well and when I asked if there was a faucet I could use, the girl working at the counter pointed me to where cars could fill up with air and water. That seemed weird to me, but okay.... Except when I approached it, I noticed a sticker on the machine that said that the water dispensed from it was not meant for human consumption. Really? Why would the woman send me here if we weren't suppose to drink this stuff? Sheesh. Did it need to be treated? I could do that. Or was it one of those things where the water was probably fine but they added the sticker as a "cover your butt" kind of thing? Or was there really some sort of contaminant in it--some special additive that was good for filling up one's radiator but not something one should be drinking?

I didn't know, so I chose not to use it. I could still fill up from creeks if I had to and just treat the water. But I was a little annoyed that the woman would have even sent me to get water from here in the first place. I couldn't have been the first hiker to ask about water.

I would have loved to sit at the counter for a couple of hours eating snacks and charging my devices, but it was way too early in the day for a full-sized break. According to my GPS, I had only walked about 0.7 miles for the whole day! Definitely a little too early for a two-hour break!

I did buy a replacement set of sunglasses because the "arm" on the one I had started falling off regularly. I also bought a sandwich for later as well as a fruity drink. And, of course, I definitely made use of the toilets. =)

But it was back to hiking! Crossing the road was a bit hair-raising with the fast traffic, but there was a center divider in the road which made it considerably easier to cross in one direction, then wait in the safety island before crossing the traffic in the other direction.

The traffic across the highway was heavy and fast, but this safety island between the two directions made it a lot easier and safer to cross.

The trail headed steadily uphill, eventually connecting with and overlapping the Cleveland Way route, another national trail in England.

The gray skies lingered, as did the wetness. It wasn't quite as wet as yesterday, but the side of my face facing the wind seemed to collect water which would periodically drip. The side of my face away from the wind was completely dry.  The wind, however, was merciless, trying to knock me over with every step.

A few hours later, I walked a short way off the trail to Lordstones for lunch. If the weather was nice, I would have preferred just taking a break on the trail and eating food out of my pack, but the given the dreary, cold and wet weather and the brutally punishing winds, I preferred going indoors.

I ordered the loaded fries, thinking it was more of a snacking kind of option than a full meal which I wasn't really in the mood for but was astonished when a massive bowl of it came out that I had no hope of finishing on my own. The menu didn't say anything about smaller portions, but that was a crazy order for just one person. Why didn't they warn me how large it was when I ordered?! A half order of the loaded fries would have been sufficient as a meal by itself.

I ate what I could, but didn't even try to eat it all. That would just make me miserable. I paid the bill then headed back to the trail to keep hiking.

The loaded fries was a meal meant for a party of 4!

At this point, the trail led up to a ridge which I knew would be highly exposed to the brutal winds and because of the fog, would provide nothing in terms of a view, so I decided to take the alternate route that my guidebook mentioned that followed more-or-less parallel to the main trail, but followed the contours of the slope rather than going to the top of ridge and over several peaks.

This was a bit of a challenge since my guidebook didn't provide detailed maps of the alternate route and the GPS coordinates that I downloaded didn't include the alternate at all, so I did take a wrong turn that I probably wasted the better part of 30 minutes on before I was able to retrace my steps back to the correct alternate route. I grumbled the whole time. Totally wasted effort for no good reason at all!

According to my guidebook, today was the first day I would be able to see the North Sea, but I never saw it. Not even a hint of it.

Nope, no views today! The whole day was foggy and miserable.

Eventually the alternate reconnected with the main route, and I continued onward. This section was especially easy because the trail was clearly an old railroad bed and therefore completely flat and nearly straight as an arrow for miles on end. I could walk fast, but there was no protection against the wind which was exhausting.

I had wanted to wild camp somewhere along this section, and I kept looking for somewhere that provided at least a little wind protection and found nothing, so I kept hiking and hiking....

Eventually, I reached the Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge, which allowed camping in a nearby field. I arrived late in the day, not long before sunset, after a punishing 23.0 miles according to my GPS. It was exhausting.

I entered the bar and restaurant to ask about camping. Normally they allow hikers to camp in a nearby field, but the woman helping me told me to go ahead and set up my tent in the beer garden. Because of the weather, nobody else was using it this evening and it was more protected from the wind and rain than the open field was. The lack of sheep poop was an added perk. =)

Awesome! The beer garden made a lovely place to camp. The stone wall completely encircling it did a great job in breaking the brutal wind, and the building on two sides of it helped as well. As patrons came and went, I wondered what they thought about seeing me setting up my tent there. =)

I would end up camping in the beer garden of the Lion Inn.

After getting the tent up and changing into my camp clothes, I went into the bar and ordered a Pepsi. I was still not hungry at all after eating the enormous pile of loaded fries earlier in the day, although I did have a small snack out of my bag. The main reason I went inside was just because it was more comfortable to sit in a chair at a table where I could write in my journal, get on the wi-fi, and plan out tomorrow's hike.

A couple of hours later, I returned to my tent and retired for the night. Thus ended another day on the trail.....

What's the deal with free range eggs out here? I'd rather the chickens be free range!

140 miles done, only another 50 or so to go!

Was I walking by a prison or something?!!!

Kind of weird, right?

It's a hedgehog!

The views sucked because of the fog, but some of the photos really turned out quite pleasant with the fog lingering in the trees and the light streaming through.

The top plaque asks that you not make your own plaques and attach them to a bench of your choice but to go through the proper channels. But I read that and thought, "That is brilliant!  It never even occurred to me that I could just add my own plaques to any random bench or table I felt like!" Now I have this weird urge to do precisely that.....

Miles and miles of following this former railroad.

The beer garden where I camped is just on the other side of that white lion on the right. =)

Hanging out inside the Lion Inn.

Day 12: The Mud Is Alive!

September 5, 2024: It rained during the night, and the rain continued through the morning. The weather forecast showed it would continue until about 10:00am. *sigh*

Even worse, I suffered from another slug infestation during the night. Dozens of slugs had slithered up my tent leaving slime trails everywhere like they had been burning doughnuts or otherwise just street racing across my tent.

I made sure I had camped before this sign on the trail. Seemed like a bad idea to try setting up camp in the woods after passing this sign! So, that left me a tiny space to camp between the sewage treatment plant and the military training area. =)

 

Looking ahead on the trail, I identified a place where I might be able to make a good wild camp, but it was a little over 20 miles away so I didn't have all morning to wait around for the rain to finish. Somewhat reluctantly, I packed up camp, flicking off all the slugs from the tent while in a light sprinkle. It was not my finest moment, but I was hiking by 8:00am.

The rain, I suppose, one might say had "technically" stopped at some point, but for all practical purposes, it never did. A fat, misty fog hung in the air, and a stiff wind often blew it horizontally across the farm fields. The whole day was wet, from sunrise to sunset. Stupid weather forecasters. Today would have been a great day for a zero (or at least a nero) had I known that in hindsight, but I kept hoping the weather would improve. The forecasts kept insisting it would, and I kicked myself for even looking at them. I should have known better by now.

Hahaha! Yeah, the risk of fire today was definitely ZERO. Not even low, but ZERO. You wouldn't have been able to start a fire even if you tried because it was so wet today.

On the plus side, I was out of the mountains and the trail largely followed rolling hills through farmlands--very easy hiking, but extraordinary muddy due to the rain and, as John from "Seattle" would say, the mud was alive! Often times, thick layers of it clung to my shoes like bricks and I had to stop to scrape off the mud.

The mud was alive!!!!

In the town of Danby Wiske, there was a church with a tuck shop, and I detoured off trail to it mostly as a place to get out of the rain. I really didn't need anything from the tuck shop, but I needed a rest and I wanted to rest somewhere out of the rain.

One section of trail was overgrown with blackberry bushes thick with thorns, and I crouched as low as I could walking through trying to avoid the thorns, but many of them still managed to scratch me. I also found a sock hanging from one, clearly yanked off the pack from a hiker ahead of me. I had a pair of socks hanging off my pack as well, and seeing that, I stopped to check to make sure neither of them had been snagged by a blackberry bush as well. I made it through without the loss of any socks, but I did grab the one that someone had lost. Maybe I'll catch up with them on the trail and can return it. It was a Darn Tough sock so I knew it wasn't the cheapest of socks and it was a good sock. I know I'd be heartbroken if I lost one of my Darn Toughs! 

Lots of rolling hills through farms today

 

As the day wore on, the pervasive wetness pulled my spirits down. It was an utterly miserable day of hiking from start to finish and with no end in sight to the wetness, I decided to stop earlier than planned. The first good place I found to stealth camp, I would stop.

There was a small group of relatively young trees between a couple of farms that wound up having enough space for a tent and turned out to be splendidly well-hidden while still managing to allow a surprisingly large amount of light in despite the darkness of the day. Looking at my maps, I would have never have guessed such a great place for a wild camp would have been located here, but I quickly set up the tent, trying to do it in record time so water didn't get inside the tent before I could get the rainfly up.

And, at about 5:00 in the afternoon, I was officially done for the day. Despite stopping so early, I had managed to knock out 19.9 miles according to my GPS, which was surprisingly good considering how bad the weather was. On the other had, maybe I did so well because the weather was so bad. When it's bad like that, I don't want to stop or linger in the cold, wet rain.

Any in any case, I was glad to finally be out of the rain, and quickly changed into my dry camp clothes and felt a semblance of humanity return. So glad to be out of that miserable weather....

I was absolutely exhausted and found myself falling asleep by around 8:00pm that evening.

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

This church is in an award-winning town....

It won the Best Kept Village award in 1981! Good job, citizens!

This treehouse looks to me like it used to be a building on the ground, then this tree grew up underneath it, picking it up and plowing through the middle of it!

Cornfields!

Welcome to Danby Wiske!

I came into this tuck shop largely just to get out of the wetness of the day and take a break.

Creepy! I was later told by others that there's audio that goes with it, but no audio played for me. Not sure what the audio was about. Yelling and screaming to stay out? Cursing anyone who may pass? No idea!

The wife is probably protecting this honesty frig! =)

Day 11: It's a Desolate Wasteland!

September 4, 2024: It rained during the night. Rain! Which had not been in the forecast at all. It didn't cause any problems for me--I was safe and dry in my tent--but it annoyed me to no end how bad the weather forecasts out here were. Why were they so bad?! Why did they change so radically from hour to hour? I swear there are monkeys throwing darts at a chart somewhere....

The hillsides are permanently scarred from all the old lead mines in the area.

In any case, by morning, the rain had stopped and since I planned to hike about 20 miles, I wanted a relatively early start. The midges were a bit of an issue in the morning, something that hadn't been a problem for weeks, so once I got out of the tent, I moved quickly to get it packed up and moving, managing to be ready and hiking by 7:00am.

The trail led by some more lead mining ruins before climbing to a plateau that truly looked like a desolate wasteland due to lead contamination during the mining era. Back in the day, they weren't so worried about environmental catastrophes. But at the same time, I still found it strangely hypnotic walking through the area, as if I were walking through a post-apocalyptic world taken right out of a movie.

It's a desolate wasteland! Not much can grow in this lead-contaminated region.

For the most part, the trail was relatively easy the whole day. A few ups and downs, but nothing particularly big or memorable.

I stopped for a half hour at Two Dales Bakery in one town for lunch, but I didn't linger long since I wanted to knock out about 20 miles.

I stopped for lunch at the Two Dales Bakery. =)

At one point, I missed a turn and wound up walking an alternative route on a road, but fortunately it merged back up with the trail about a mile later and didn't set me back timewise at all.

I made such good time, that I arrived in the bustling town of Richmond considerably earlier than I had expected. Richmond is the largest trail town on the Coast to Coast, and I would have liked to stay in town to explore Richmond Castle and other sites in the area, but there were no campgrounds or hostels in town and the hotels were all pretty expensive, so I decided to skip the tourist sites and push onward to wild camp somewhere out of town.

Given how early I had arrived in town, however, that gave me time to stop for dinner which I did for a couple of hours. That gave me a chance to get online and start arranging new transit options off this island now that I was committed to missing my original flight--which was originally scheduled to leave in just three more days. Plus, I got to use the toilets. =)

After two hours, I was ready to go and was shocked--stunned!--to see that it had rained while I was inside eating dinner. WTF/! That hadn't been in the forecast at all! At least I didn't have to hike in it, though.

Before leaving town for good, I stopped at the Co-op to pick up a few food items for the next few days. This would likely be the last decent grocery store of the trail, so I figured I may as well make use if it while I could.

When I left the Co-op, however, the rain started picking up again. Ugh!

Richmond skyline

I pulled out my new umbrella. At least I was going to get some use out of it. I wasn't sure if I'd need it before I left England when I bought it a couple of days ago, but all things considered, I still would have preferred not using it.

I followed the trail out of town, over a river and past a sewage treatment plant. A little way past that a sign warned not to go off trail because the area was used for military training purposes and you might get shot if you wander around off trail. Okay, maybe it didn't say that in so many words, but that was the gist of the message.

So I backtracked to the small piece of forest between the sewage treatment plant and the military training area to set up camp. (It's a desolate wasteland, I tell you!) I went into the trees off the trail so my tent wouldn't be quite so obvious to anyone that happened to pass by, and it was dark under the thick canopy and the ground was a bit muddy.

Overall, it was one of my least favorite campsites of the entire trail, but once I was inside the tent, at least I wouldn't have to see how dreary and ugly the campsite was. And I was fairly well hidden from anyone on the trail, so that was good.

Before going to sleep, I checked the weather forecast again--I couldn't help myself--and saw that it now showed rain in the forecast tomorrow morning. Argh! This time, I went to sleep hoping that the forecast would be incorrect. *fingers crossed*

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

Old tailings from the lead mines

I have absolutely no idea what these tires are about!

Lead mining ruins

I found this rock wall particularly fascinating because the rocks were red! That was very unusual!

This tank... is this even a tank? Anyhow, whatever this is was parked next to several vehicles that were for sale, which made me think that his vehicle was for sale too. Anyone need a police tank? Why does a dinky town with perhaps a hundred people in it need a police tank? Questions I may never get answers to....

Passing by more farms

This church kept an honesty "box" for hikers inside of the main church building!

Richmond Castle

Not this time... but glad to know that I'm overlapping the Camino Ingles for a bit! =)

Oh, NOW they tell me. *rolling eyes*

The Richmond sewage treatment plant!

I wound up camping deep among these trees.