Another Long Walk: Day 7: Leaving the Lake District

August 31, 2024: I had a splendid night, sleeping well. There was a bit of condensation inside of the tent by morning--a first for this tent, but it was mild and not problematic. The condensation on the outside was more of an annoyance, but also not particularly problematic.

At some point during the night, a fog rolled though the valley below which looked so pretty and serene from my lofty perch on the mountain ridge. I had to imagine that any hikers who had camped or stayed in the valley were waking up disappointed by the thick fog, wondering if the weather was going to be wet and miserable all day. Little did they know how beautiful and clear it was just a hundred feet above their heads. =)

The view from camp looking down in the valley was positively wonderful! My actual campsite was that flat area on the right side of the photo.

I packed up camp and headed out. A mile later, I reached Angle Tarn, where all the hikers who passed me the evening before were headed. And it was a gorgeous scene! But I also counted over a dozen tents set up around the lake. The lake was big enough that they could spread out quite a bit, but all the same, I was kind of glad to have my perch above the valley all to myself. I definitely would not have had this lake all to myself.

Angle Tarn was quite scenic and a very popular place for wild campers to camp!

From there, the trail continued to climb and climb, eventually reaching the high point of the day at Kidsty Pike. The weather was clear and warm and the views wonderful, and I was enjoying the hike immensely. At the same time, I was astonished at all the other hikers I was passing and seeing. This was definitely a popular area for hiking.

From the high point, the trail descended steeply toward Haweswater Reservoir, which was positively miserable. It was steep enough that I had to walk slowly, carefully placing each step, and being careful not to slip or fall. I was not enjoying the descent at all! The views, admittedly, were still nice, but the trail was less than pleasant.

View looking down toward Haweswater Reservoir, a water supply for the city of Manchester.

In the distance, the terrain clearly flattened out and turned into rolling hills of farmland. And, after Haweswater Reservoir, I would officially be out of the Lake District. It was clearly obvious just by looking at the horizon.

Further off on the horizon, far in the distance, I saw more mountains. Those, I knew, would be the Pennines, and the Pennine Way was over there. I'd finally be back on the Pennine Way again soon, albeit briefly.

I thought the difficulty of the descent would end once I reached Haweswater Reservoir, but the trail alongside of it was surprisingly rocky and overgrown as well. It might have gotten a little easier, but it definitely wasn't easy. It rose steeply in areas to clear cliffs along the reservoir, then descended again after getting around the cliffs.

I stopped to pick up water from a spring with another hiker caught up with me. He introduced himself as Greg, and he wore a patch with a Canadian flag on his pack, which I rightfully assumed meant that he was from Canada. "Wanted to make sure nobody mistook you for an American?" I joked.

He hiked faster than I did, however, so I soon fell behind and he went out of view.

Haweswater Reservoir

I thought I would get a good view of the dam that created the reservoir. It was a big reservoir--bigger than most I had seen in England--so I was disappointed when I could barely see the dam through the trees and from the trail, I could never get a good view of it. Why?! Why?!

Once I passed the reservoir, the trail finally became a lot easier, crossing over rolling hills filled with farm fields.

I also spent some time wondering how John was doing. I knew he was somewhere behind me and planning to hike roughly the same mileage that I was, but he had an extra couple of miles up a steep hill to reach the point where I had camped, and the trail down from Kidsty Pike and along the reservoir were very rugged. Not to mention the relentless climb just to get to Kidsty Pike. I hoped he'd manage okay, but there wasn't really anything I could do and pushed it out of my mind for now.

The rest of the afternoon I continued onward to the small town of Shap, an industrial town that every hiker I passed, when they asked where I was headed today, seemed to scoff at, seeming to think it was a horrible place to spend the night. More than once they told me that the only good thing in the town was a fish and chips shop called the Shap Chippy.

So I didn't have particularly high expectation going into town, but I have to admit, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. Don't get me wrong--it's also not the most scenic town in England! But it was a perfectly fine, reasonable town.

Looking at my maps, I didn't see much in the way of wild campsites nearby so I planned to camp in town. The first place I passed that allowed camping had a sign up saying that there was no more space for camping, so I skipped that and headed deeper into town.

I went ahead and stopped at the Shap Chippy for dinner. Not being a fan of fish, I skipped their "award winning" fish and chips and went for a burger instead--along with fries and a Pepsi. It was good, but I wouldn't have called it "award winning" either. Maybe it was the best burger in town, though, in which case the competition wasn't particularly fierce.

Dinner at Shap Chippy!

Afterwards, I stopped at the nearby Co-op to pick up some food for later. Then I headed to the far side of town to the Crown Inn which allows camping in the back for 10 pounds. I hadn't made a reservation, but fortunately, there was space for me. I was surprised at how small the camping area was, however, and thankful that others hadn't filled up the space. Greg was there, already set up and hanging out his dirty clothes to air out. I think he might have rinsed them in a sink and wanted them to dry out as well.

I set up my tent and changed into my camp clothes. They also would wash a bag of clothes for a reasonable fee and since the last time I had my clothes washed was on the Pennine Way a couple of weeks earlier, I felt now was a good time to get that done and handed over a bag of all the dirty clothes that needed to be washed.

The rest of the evening, I hung out in the bar with the other thru-hikers, just chatting. Greg ordered a burger there, which he said was okay. He asked if I was hungry since I hadn't ordered anything to eat (just a Coke to drink), but told him that I had already eaten dinner at Shap Chippy, and he seemed a little envious at the thought saying that he wished he had thought of stopping there when he walked by it.

My laundry was returned at around 10:30 in the evening, and that's when I headed back to my tent to go to sleep. Thus ended another day on the trail.....