July 2012 – Page 2 – Grace Mattern

July 2, 2012July 2, 2012

Keld to Reeth

David just toasted “sweet and complicated people,” which we all agreed the eight of us are. So we clinked our pints as we do every night in whatever pub we find ourselves. We’re making this work, walking our way across England together.

Today was a walk along Swaledale, the valley of the River Swale. All the people we’ve met doing the C2C (and that’s part of the experience, the people you leap frog with along the path) did the low route today. Even in good weather it’s more scenic and a needed break, being mostly a level walk through hay pastures and old lead mining towns along the river, running brown with the peat of the Pennines. Still, the 12 miles felt like more, which the other walkers here at the Buck Hotel pub agreed was true.

We’re in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and it’s as beautiful as the Lake District but in a much broader, less nestled in and bleaker way.

The hay fields are full of wildflowers and sweep down to the river, buttercups, wild geranium, clover and thistle.

And the stone walls and buildings and bridges go on and on. As we will. Only 12.5 miles tomorrow, but then two very long days and two mid-teen days. We’ve done 112 miles and have 88 to do. I think we may make it.

July 1, 2012July 1, 2012

Half Way There

Sitting in the lounge of the Keld Lounge in Swaledale, drinking tea and ale and eating cake, we’re all glad to be here and to be halfway across Wainwright’s Coast to Coast path.

We’ve had to take the bad weather route every day that’s been an option so far, and today the weather called for that but we didn’t do it. Instead we headed up and over Nine Standards Rig, a peak in the Northern Pennines, named for the nine stone cairns built on the ridge.

The origin of the cairns is a mystery, but they’re beautifully built and particularly beautiful and mysterious in a blowing cloud mist.

There’s a reason there are bad weather routes. There are few trail markers here and an abundance of low clouds, making navigation tricky. But David has been practicing his compass and map skills and we needed them, following the trail bearing through the legendary mud of the peat bogs. I went up to my knees in mud twice. So did Anne and Peter. But we stayed on track and got to Keld in good time.

Now we’re on to the second map of the path, relaxing as our wet boots and gaitors dry in the drying room. And the scenery continues to be stunning, whether walking a wind whipped ridge or a village lane.

July 1, 2012

Walking, Walking, Walking, Walking . . .

My feet have been screaming at me all afternoon, saying “What are you doing, Woman?”

I’m listening to a cuckoo calling as I walk into Patterdale, the rain that chased us over the pass from Grasmere catching up with us again, this time with thunder and hurling sheets of water.

I’m going out after dinner when the sun breaks through racing clouds, crossing a bridge and walking up a lane, admiring the beautiful gardens. A friendly British woman says, “We feel like we live In Heaven.”

I’m traversing what seem like endless moors, dipping into deep valleys criss-crossed with tall stone walls and dotted with old stone houses.

I’m taking the low route, as we have every day, because the tough climb and descent over Kitsdy Pike is socked in with clouds and rain showers and blasting winds. We didn’t get to any high peaks in the Lake District but walking from Patterdale to Shap we don’t mind. We walk along Lake Ullswater as rainbows arch over the whitecaps and scitter down wind with us.

I’m following aged weather sign boards pointing through farmyards and village alleys to the muddy and grassy and soggy and boggy Coast to Coast track.

“Okay, Feet,” I say. “you need to get on board and stop complaining. You have seven more days of this to do, and I’m sorry you can’t see it, but it’s gorgeous.”