Unfortunately, Ennerdale View’s hot-tub (its selling point, as far as we were concerned), was turned off, so we couldn’t use it. Their internet connectivity worked just great, however, so we made phone calls back home.
The next morning started with a gorgeous setting and an excellent English breakfast. Then Tony provided the packed lunches, and announced that since he had no driver today, he was unable to provide a lift back to Ennerdale Bridge. This added 1.5 miles of downhill to the walk, so I was unhappy, but there was nothing to do about that at this time.
The walk down to Ennerdale Bridge had to be interrupted a few times for Boot adjustments until I figured out that I should mole skin my heel vertically. We reached Ennerdale Bridge slowly, and then headed for the Lake. The walk there took more than the twenty minutes the book stated, so I knew we were going to be on a leisurely schedule today. The high route was out of the question, given our soreness and Lisa’s objection, since even the Ennerdale lakeside trail was giving us trouble on account of the previous day’s activities.
The lake was beautiful, with the ever changing light giving us new views from the same scene seconds apart, showing us the glorious English country side in all her beauty, homes, squared off fields with their fences, and lush greenery everywhere in sight.
Past the hike, we had a choice between the Bridle track or the “official route”, which was warned to be hot and dull. Given the general coolness we were experiencing, we had no fear of the heat, and after all that excitement yesterday, a little dullness would not be unwelcome. The reality, though, was that the official route was only dull compared to the high route --- the trees alongside the road were beautiful, and the views of the surrounding value in the areas that had been clear cut provided a backdrop that made the dullness fade. Still, our condition made the route slow going. A tailwind provided a little support, but the road was a gentle and relentless uphill, which slowed us down more than it should have.
By the by, we arrived at the Black Sails youth hostel, where we met a woman named Rafael and Richard. They were doing a long hike in the opposite direction, doing all the high ridges that are part of the coast to coast. Rafael was an experienced hiker (no, she did not have brothers named Michaelangelo or Donatello) and pulled out a topo map that showed the way. I would have been better off keeping my counsel and following the book, however, since her directions ultimately confused me. Lisa had tea and potato chips while I had an apple.
After we were done we headed up the hill, which after meandering for a bit, became a steep climb. We took the climb slowly, one step at a time, and soon were in sight of the cairns at the top, which arrived far rapidly than I anticipated. Over the sheep fence, I got confused and saw another cairn off in the distance. The detour to check and make sure it wasn’t the path Rafael described cost us half an hour. Fortunately, there was signal at the top, so I called our Inn to make sure they didn’t give away our beds. Ann, the owner of Knotts View informed us that it was a busy night at the town so we should have dinner before arriving at the Inn.
A dark cloud came in between us and the sun, lending the afternoon a brooding, dark mood. We were both tired and footsore, and our speed was a mile and a half an hour, if that. The trail was inlaid with rocks to prevent erosion, but that made our progress even slower. Surprisingly though, any pain in my ankle was gone --- it was as if 10 hours of walking in those boots finally melded them into my body. Two couples passed us as though we were standing still, and though the dark cloud eventually passed, we only made it down to the Hornister Youth Hostel at 6:00pm. At that point, hungry and worn out, I realized that we would make it to Knotts View only by 9:00pm. Fortunately, a couple had just pulled into the parking lot and finished shooting pictures, so we asked for a ride to Seatoller and they accepted.
Once in the car, they found out that we were staying in Stonethwaite, and made up an excuse that they were going there to eat anyway, and coincidentally happened to pass Knotts View and drop us off. We must have looked a sight when we arrived at Knotts View, since the owner immediately ushered us into our room, told us to take a shower, and then she’d drive us to Rosthwaite at the Scarfell Hotel where we could have a bar dinner.
She could not drive us back because she was expecting more guests (who never did show up), so after dinner we walked the 15 minute walk back in about 25 minutes, aching and with feet throbbing. There was no question that we would sleep well that night.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Quick Post from Kirby Stephen
We hiked in 14 miles today from Orton, the easiest 14 mile hike we've done so far. We used umbrellas for the second time on the trip --- this time as sunshades, as it's been very sunny, warm and hot. Not at all like the England we've been told to expect. It's pretty but shadeless around here, so it's a good thing we brought umbrellas instead of gore-tex jackets.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Quick post from Orton
Having left the Lakes district yesterday --- what a change in terrain! From killer views with killer climbs (yes, worse than the local Black Mountain), to gentle but desolate Moors, this walk definitely has provided me with views so splendid that I can barely believe that I'm walking across a completely developed first world country.
The weather has been nothing short of amazing. I hope our luck holds out. We even went sailing on Ullswater, hiring a dinghy sailboat for the lake for 2 hours and having a blast despite this being my first time in 5 years since I did any dinghy sailing.
One thing though --- this is definitely a challenging walk. When I set this up, my attitude was, this is England --- how high can the mountains be? They might not be super high, but the trails are strewn with rocks to prevent erosion and this makes the climbs super super tough, and the descent particularly tough on joints. Plus --- the Lakes district doesn't believe in having any signs anywhere, so the navigational challenge makes things super super tough.
But the people are nice (and they speak English!), and we've met more than our share of friendly friendly people who go out of their way to make visitors feel welcome. England is an expensive country, but so far has been well worth the visit. Now... back to our regular foot soaking...
(Still no wireless, so no picture posting for now...)
The weather has been nothing short of amazing. I hope our luck holds out. We even went sailing on Ullswater, hiring a dinghy sailboat for the lake for 2 hours and having a blast despite this being my first time in 5 years since I did any dinghy sailing.
One thing though --- this is definitely a challenging walk. When I set this up, my attitude was, this is England --- how high can the mountains be? They might not be super high, but the trails are strewn with rocks to prevent erosion and this makes the climbs super super tough, and the descent particularly tough on joints. Plus --- the Lakes district doesn't believe in having any signs anywhere, so the navigational challenge makes things super super tough.
But the people are nice (and they speak English!), and we've met more than our share of friendly friendly people who go out of their way to make visitors feel welcome. England is an expensive country, but so far has been well worth the visit. Now... back to our regular foot soaking...
(Still no wireless, so no picture posting for now...)
Monday, May 29, 2006
Scott Burns agrees with me on the new issue of I-bonds
My original analysis seems like it matches up with Burn's.
Day 1: Coast to Coast
Last evening was gorgeous, but we woke up to rainy weather. (Because of jet lag, we woke up at 5:30am, but had gotten about 8 hours of sleep, so it was good) We took off with a little bit of mist in the air, and then the rain started coming down, but our hiking umbrellas came through and were quite good.
Then the sun came out, and bathed the coast in all its glory. It was so beautiful that it took us nearly 4 hours to hike the first 5 miles, we were stopping to shoot so frequently!
Then we cut across pieces of the English country side that were quite beautiful, except a few boggy fields which slowed us down and dirtied our boots. Way finding was more than a little precarious, especially after I discovered that they'd been quite a bit of tree cutting on Dent Fell, and my coast to coast guidebook was just a couple of years out of date. But we did make it through by dead-reckoning and instinct (when in doubt, go up hill), and then were lucky enough to have locals around to ask directions of.
Dinner was at the Ennerdale View B&B, with its gorgeous views. We're quite footsore, however, and Lisa has already gone to bed. (A first for her, beating me to bed!)
Also, the Tomlin Guest House we stayed in the first night was also excellent --- a great value, and such friendly people! Everyone we've met so far has been very friendly, from the airport information person to the taxi driver who detoured out of an errand he was running for his family to take us to our guest house because otherwise we'd have to wait 20 minutes!
Aside from the footsoreness, the muddy spots and the occasional rain, I'm loving this trip so far.
Then the sun came out, and bathed the coast in all its glory. It was so beautiful that it took us nearly 4 hours to hike the first 5 miles, we were stopping to shoot so frequently!
Then we cut across pieces of the English country side that were quite beautiful, except a few boggy fields which slowed us down and dirtied our boots. Way finding was more than a little precarious, especially after I discovered that they'd been quite a bit of tree cutting on Dent Fell, and my coast to coast guidebook was just a couple of years out of date. But we did make it through by dead-reckoning and instinct (when in doubt, go up hill), and then were lucky enough to have locals around to ask directions of.
Dinner was at the Ennerdale View B&B, with its gorgeous views. We're quite footsore, however, and Lisa has already gone to bed. (A first for her, beating me to bed!)
Also, the Tomlin Guest House we stayed in the first night was also excellent --- a great value, and such friendly people! Everyone we've met so far has been very friendly, from the airport information person to the taxi driver who detoured out of an errand he was running for his family to take us to our guest house because otherwise we'd have to wait 20 minutes!
Aside from the footsoreness, the muddy spots and the occasional rain, I'm loving this trip so far.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Going on vacation...
We're finally embarking on our coast to coast walk! I might be on-line sporadically long enough to post pictures and reply to friends, but don't expect heavy posting.
Monday, May 22, 2006
More Mac Woes
My Mac Mini woes are not over. 3 days after receiving my replacement Mac Mini, Mac OS X has started hanging. It works for about 3 minutes after booting up, but after that hangs. Nothing works, so the only solution now is a reinstall of OS X.
This time, I know it's not hardware problem because when I boot into Windows XP, it's solid as a rock. (The Mac hardware test CD works too, and proclaims the hardware solid)
Ah well. If at any time there's a time to do a reinstall, it's 3 days after you get a new machine, before you've done too much to it. I have to say, at this point, I'm really thinking that all the hype about how solid Mac OS X is is simply hype. We'll see how this goes.
This time, I know it's not hardware problem because when I boot into Windows XP, it's solid as a rock. (The Mac hardware test CD works too, and proclaims the hardware solid)
Ah well. If at any time there's a time to do a reinstall, it's 3 days after you get a new machine, before you've done too much to it. I have to say, at this point, I'm really thinking that all the hype about how solid Mac OS X is is simply hype. We'll see how this goes.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Replacement Mac Mini
The replacement Mac Mini showed up, and it is just so slightly difference from the other machine:
- It's much quieter, it doesn't go into "full fan mode" as often as the one that died.
- For some reason, Mac OSX seems to be happy to use a little less memory on this guy.
- There's an annoying bug which refuses to turn off the Mac's internal speakers.
- Palm Desktop causes the whole thing to crash!
- It seems to hang intermittenly. (Don't blame this on Windows XP. Lisa's Acer works just fine, as does my office laptop) There's something wierd going on.
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