Headed out with lots of optimism given the measly 16 k we had to do. We are now the heart of the Lakeland. Lovely start through the woods along a rushing river. Then the up began - our guide book said to expect to see lots of beautiful waterfalls but did not tell us that we were going to have to cross all 17 of them on random stones. Highlight was climbing up even further on stone stairs some of the time and through water all of the time as we were basically in, beside, and crossing and re-crossing a waterfall. We were trilled to get to the top until we realized we had a bog to cross. Then a very long rocky down, skirting more bogs, crossing more streams. At one point we were with all other hikers (12) on the hill trying to decide how to ford the same rushing river twice. Good thing some of the others were young men who helped us more or less leap to the other side. It took us 7 hours in all to reach Grasmere with lots of stops to look at the scenery. We are in the Grasmere YHA - a lovely Victorian stone manor house with a great cafe. Have washed our hiking pants for the forth day in a row and left our boots in the toasty basement drying room. Tomorrow is supposed to be an "easy" day! PS - We are re-writing the guide book as soon as we get home. The trails here are anything but easy!
Guide Book - Get there, turn around and fly home. It cannot be fun, thus it must be a challenge. So is the war in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteSo, how is that 74 year old lady from Australia faring? This sounds absolutely gruelling - on par with the West Coast Trail.....which I have never done.
ReplyDeleteGary is healing. Trip sounds great and we are jealous.
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