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!

Day 5: The End of Hadrian's Wall....

August 24, 2024: It rained a bit during the night and the clouds were ugly in the morning, but I had about 16 miles to finish the trail and with only a few buses the whole day between the end of the trail and Carlisle, I was determined to finish in time to catch--at the very latest--the 5:00pm bus back. I was slackpacking so it was absolutely essential that I didn't get stuck at the end with no way back!

Consequently, despite the ugly clouds, I put on my daypack and hit the road at about 7:00am. I left my full pack with the clerks manning the front desk since I knew I wouldn't make it back before checkout time. I just had too many miles to do to make it back before checkout time, so I checked out and asked them to store my bag for me while I was gone.

Carlisle Castle

 

I took a slightly different route out of town than the one I followed into town to see other landmarks and artwork. It did sprinkle a bit, but only briefly and very lightly, but later in the afternoon it actually cleared up nicely. It was fortunate that the rain wasn't heavier since I still had not had a chance to replace the thrashed umbrella from the storm a few days ago. I had looked for one at a couple of stores in town but came up empty. Why are they hiding them from me?!

Anyhow, although the rain during the night was relatively light and all but non-existent in the morning, the trails were still severely wet and muddy from the biblical floods yesterday morning, and it was at the edge of town where I came to my biggest water obstacle so far. The trail headed through an underpass of a large highway, and it was completely and utterly flooded. The water was murky enough that I couldn't even tell how deep it was, so I started wading into it. First up to my ankles, then up to my knees. I soon found myself with my crown jewels in danger of being flooded and not knowing how much deeper the water would become, I veered off up a side road, climbed a hill to the highway surface, dashed across the highway (probably illegally), then down the other side around the flooded area.

This is the flooded section of trail that required me to scramble up the bank to the highway and back down the other side. The water was just too deep! By the time I reached that fingerpost behind the fence in the photo, I was nearly up to my waist in water. So I veered off trail to the left and up and over the highway bridge rather than continue straight and under the bridge.

 

Other than the water issues, the trail was relatively flat and easy the whole day, and I made good time along it. The trail passed by a couple of more honesty boxes, but I passed them by just to finish the trail quicker.

The last several miles were a road walk into Bowness-on-Solway with lovely views, but I was a little annoyed that it was on a road. Not an especially busy one, but still....

About a mile before the end of the trail, I passed a woman with her child. The child looked like it was just learning how to walk, and I just waved and kept walking.

At the end of the trail, I met a couple of people who were just starting the trail, and I joked that it was wet and muddy and horrible and they should quit while they still could! They knew I was joking, but they asked if I would take a photo of them at the start and they returned the favor by taking a photo of me at the end of the trail.

My photo at the structure that marks the official end of the trail. =)

The couple started their hike, and I sat down to figure out what I was going to do for the next three hours. The next bus to Carlisle didn't arrive for another three hours. It was 2:00pm now, so I had time. A lot of time! Perhaps head to a local pub for a drink and lunch? Read a book and relax?

I know you can't read that sign above my head in the previous photo, so here's a closeup of it. The official end of the Hadrian's Wall Path. =) (The other side of the structure had a similar sign but marking it as the official beginning of the trail.)

 

It wasn't a very satisfying thing for me to do, however, sitting around and waiting for three hours. I very much wanted to get into Carlisle in time to catch a train south to St. Bees where I could spend the night and immediately start hiking the Coast to Coast trail the next morning. But I still needed to buy some food for that, which I wanted to do in Carlisle where there were full-sized supermarkets. But the bus ride back would take an hour, so I wouldn't get back to Carlisle until about 6:00pm, and then if I missed the train that left at about then, I would have to wait a couple of hours for the next train to St. Bees and wouldn't end up arriving until 10:00 (or later!) in the evening. Ugh.

So I considered maybe trying to hitch a ride back to Carlisle. If I failed, I could still catch the bus in the three hours. Or maybe I should just try calling for a taxi. It would probably cost an arm and a leg, but certainly it would be a lot faster. None of my options seemed ideal, though, as I sat at the end of the trail wondering what to do.

The woman with her child that I passed early approached. I was a little surprised to see her. I thought she was a local just enjoying the afternoon with her child and definitely not hiking the trail. She asked if I had just finished the trail... Well, yes, I did, I said.

She asked if I needed a photo. No, I replied, the couple who just left had taken one for me already.

Then she asked if I needed a ride back to Carlisle. What?! Really?! I think my jaw dropped in shock. It never even occurred me to ask about that. She explained that her husband had just started hiking the trail that day and she had dropped him off, but now she needed to drive into Carlisle to meet up with him so she was heading that way already.

I was thrilled! My problems were solved! I felt like she was an angel dropped from heaven!

"I would love a ride back to Carlisle!" I replied, still stunned at the unexpected development. 

She asked if I needed some time or if I was ready to go now, and I told her I could leave right then and there. There was nothing in town I really needed, so we headed off in the direction of her car.

I couldn't believe my luck--I had managed to get a ride back to Carlisle less than 5 minutes after finishing the trail, and less than one minute after meeting this woman. Wow! And it just plopped into my lap, completely unexpected.

Plus, driving to Carlisle in a car would take just a half hour while the bus would have required about an hour, so I'd actually get back into town a full 3.5 hours earlier than I originally expected. Yes! Yes! Yes! Plenty of time to do some grocery shopping, grab something for lunch and catch the earlier train to St. Bees. 

The drive back to Carlisle retraced much of the route I walked--the same road I had walked down--and a half hour later, I was back in Carlisle.

I was ready for lunch, and stopped at the McDonalds mostly because it was fast. I had a few hours, but it was still going to take me some time to eat, shop for groceries, retrieve my pack from the hotel and get my ticket to St. Bees. I had chores to do, and not a minute to waste!

At the McDonalds, I pulled out my guidebook for the Coast to Coast trail and figured the next decent grocery store I'd likely come across was about four days down the trail, so planned to pick up four days worth of food. 

I got sidetracked during the walk to Lidl when I passed by an outfitters. The inserts in my shoes were starting to feel flat and I could definitely use something that felt better. So I headed in and found some new inserts for my shoes.

The rest of the walk to Lidl took a bit longer than expected, but I headed there and did the necessary shopping. I also grabbed a wrap and a Coke for dinner later. I didn't know what would be available once I arrived in St. Bees, if anything at all.

Then I headed back to the hotel where I picked up my full pack--and combined my daypack with my full pack, plus the addition of all the groceries I had just purchased. I also replaced the inserts of my shoes and threw away the old ones.

And finally I headed to the train station where I bought a ticket to St. Bees. The train was 15 minutes late, but that wasn't a big deal. More annoying, I discovered that the previous train to St. Bees had been canceled entirely so now this train was twice as full as it normally would have been, crammed with all the bodies from two trains. 

When the train did pull up, I noticed everyone seemingly piling into the cars at the front of the train, but almost nobody headed toward the cars in the back. Seeing no reason not to, I walked around the mass of people and boarded the train near the back which meant I was able to nab a seat to sit down.

This was my train to St. Bees. (I didn't have a chance to get a photo of it in Carlisle, however. I took this photo after exiting the trail in St. Bees.)

 

Now normally, I'd be perfectly happy to stand up and let a pregnant woman or someone with their kid to take a seat in a crowded train, but I had already walked nearly 20 miles for the day and I did NOT want to stand on the train. I wanted a seat! My feet were tired and sore and damn it, if I wasn't officially handicapped, I certainly felt it in spirit. But I was kind of grateful that everyone piled into the front of the train because there were still a couple of open seats in the back by the time the train started moving so I felt no guilt about taking a seat from someone in more need than myself. If they were standing in the front of the train--and I had little doubt that there were a lot of people standing in the front cars--that was their problem. =)

The train ride was nice, and it lasted about 1.5 hours before arriving in the small hamlet of St. Bees, at which point I walked another mile or so to the campground on the shore and set up my tent at around sunset, just before a light rain started.

All-in-all, I was thrilled with how well the end of the Hadrian's Wall worked out. I was camped just a five minute walk away from the start of the Coast to Coast trail, which I'd take my first steps on tomorrow....

I saw this rainbow looking back at St. Bees while walking to the campground outside of St. Bees.

The only evidence of the wall were a few boulders pulled out of the river where the wall crossed the River Eden on a bridge.

Rivers still looked especially high and muddy!

Very muddy trail today!

A whole bunch of cattle were being herded down this road.

Day 4: Biblical Floods

August 23, 2024: For most of the night, it rained lightly, but by morning the rain fell in torrents! It pounded the tent in sheets. To say it was raining cats and dogs would be an understatement. It was raining elephants and blue whales! The noise of the rain hitting my tent was deafening, but the tent did its job keeping me high and dry.

I decided that I definitely couldn't hike in this weather--it just wasn't practical. So I read my Kindle and watched Netflix shows on my phone to kill the time, but by around 8:00, the rain started to slow and eventually puttered to a stop allowing me to start hiking again at 9:10am. A bit of a late start, but well worth the delay to avoid that biblical storm. Exiting the tent, I imagined I must have felt a bit like Noah finally leaving his ark.

The trail was super wet and muddy today! So much water, so much mud....

 

The trail today was extraordinarily wet and muddy. I couldn't say that I was surprised given the heavy storm that passed through, but it was still an annoyance. At least I had the foresight to think that this would likely be an issue and put on my waterproof socks. As I've said many times before, they aren't really waterproof, but they still help keep my feet warmer than they otherwise would in the same way a wetsuit would.

The rivers were clearly high as well. Muddy and fast-moving, lapping around trees that were usually above the water level. None of the rivers I saw actually appeared to be flooding houses or other structures, but it would not have surprised me to learn that some structures in the area were suffering from flooding. I don't think I had seen a single muddy river before today--not even on the Pennine Way--but after the rain this morning, they all looked muddy and silty.

Today's section did not include many sections of Hadrian's Wall. It followed the historic route of the wall as best it could, but most of the wall had long since been dismantled and reused in other buildings and projects. There were a few smaller sections to enjoy, but nothing like the miles of walls that the trail followed the last couple of days.

This Roman ruin actually pre-dates Hadrian's Wall by about 30 years. It's the Pike Hill Signal Tower, used to keep watch and send signals. (Plus, note the flooding around it.)

 

What today lacked for in wall, however, was made up for in honesty boxes and sheds. I actually lost count of the number of honesty setups I passed. Maybe five or six of them? Three were full-fledged honesty sheds that felt like little stores. In addition to all these, there were also a couple of cafes and snack bars along the route. I stopped at one for lunch where I ordered a panini, and then I learned that was only the fourth day that particular cafe had been open.

A panini and Coke lunch. Yum! =)

 

One fellow early in the day caught up with me at one of the honesty sheds and late in the day caught up with me again at another one, after we had passed all these food and drink options, and we joked that they really needed to spread them out better. There were a lot of sections I would have killed for a cold drink but there was nothing to be found, and now we were tripping over them every half hour!

I wondered what all the people hiking in the opposite direction thought. If they passed all these today and thought they would have all these options on the rest of the trail, they would be sorely disappointed!

So many honesty boxes and sheds today! Nobody will ever starve to death on this section of trail!

 

I had originally set my sights to camp for the night at a campground just past the town of Carlisle, but when I zoomed into it on Google Maps, I noticed that it was marked as being "temporarily closed." Hmm.... Really? I couldn't imagine why they might have been closed, but it seemed prudent to think of a plan B. I would have preferred to camp right in the town of Carlisle, but there were no campgrounds in the town. Maybe I would have to stealth camp somewhere?

Then I got it in my head to actually do a search for lodging in Carlisle. I knew there was lodging, but everyone had kept talking about it being a bank holiday on Monday so it was a long weekend for everyone. I imagined it was something like a Labor Day in the United States, and figured a lot of people would be traveling and therefore lodging would be particularly expensive--assuming anything was even available at all. which is why I never bothered to check before. But without a campground to stay at, I finally broke down and searched lodging options in Carlisle and was surprised to find a couple of places that not only had availability, but were even reasonably priced! Well, heck, yeah! =) Maybe the biblical floods scared off the tourists?

Artwork in Carlisle

I immediately booked a room at Ibis, and this worked out particularly well for me. Tomorrow would be my last day on the trail, and now my plan was to slackpack to the end of the trail before returning to Carlisle--the major transportation hub in the area--to pick up my full pack and get out of here. Kind of the reverse of what I did at the beginning of the trail in Newcastle. 

There was an additional benefit because at this point, given my late start and the days getting shorter, I had doubts if I would have even made it to the campground I had originally planned by sunset. By stopping a few miles short in Carlisle, I could definitely end the day with plenty of light.

Plus, it allowed me to do a large loop through the town, which I could add to Walking 4 Fun.  Originally, I didn't think I would have time to walk through town in my rush to get to the campground before sunset, but now I had to walk through town just to get to the hotel!

All-in-all, it wound up working out really well to get a hotel in Carlisle, and I was happy about the upgrade. =)

Carlisle Citadel

 

I kept hiking, eventually veering off the official Hadrian's Wall Path route at the edge of Carlisle and through the central part of the city to my hotel and checked in. The couple checking in ahead of me were speaking Polish to each other, so I tried to eavesdrop on them. I got the impression that the wife didn't really know much English since the husband did all the speaking with the clerks, but after they paid for their room and got their key, I wished them a "Good afternoon" in Polish as they were leaving, and they replied with the same but seemingly didn't even notice that I had done it in Polish. I guess my Polish was that good. =)

And thus ended another day on the trail. After checking into the hotel, I was able to take a shower and clean up, and I didn't have any need to leave again until the morning.

There wasn't much of the wall to see today, but there were occasionally small pieces to be spotted, like this one: Turret 51a.

Or this bit on Hare Hill.

This honesty shed, instead of a traditional register, had a notepad and tacks to allow hikers to put notes on the wall.

I particularly liked the drawings of the Roman soldiers. =)

Such a wet trail.... And don't be fooled by that dry-looking area in the middle. It's a bog too! It's just not as deep as the water on each side of it!

The hill in this photo is actually a buried part of the wall. They had excavated and exposed it decades earlier, but then it started to erode very rapidly and they decided the best thing to do was to rebury it again. Which is likely how it'll stay until they can expose it without it decaying so rapidly again.

All the creeks and rivers today seemed unusually high and muddy!

One of many honesty boxes on the trail today! I'm not really sure why this guy even bothered given the much better honesty sheds and snack bars I passed so often today!

A fence made out of used tires... I don't think I've seen that before!

Another "honesty shed"

The River Eden through Carlisle also looked particularly high and muddy!

There seemed to be some sort of street fair going on in Carlisle when I passed through.

Carlisle train station--where I'd have to return to and catch the train out of here just as soon as I finished the trail.