The Coast to Coast Walk 2011 - Richmond to Robin Hood's Bay

After leaving Richmond, we crossed the flat Vale of Mowbray in beautiful sunshine to Ingleby Cross. This signalled the end of the good weather though as we walked the final three days in rain that was at times very heavy, particularly on the Cleveland Hills. We reached Robin Hood's Bay after thirteen days of walking.

The Coast to Coast Walk 2011 - Borrowdale to Patterdale

For Day 3 of our 2011 Coast to Coast hike, we had a short, easy day climbing over to Grasmere from Borrowdale. Here, we caught a bus to Ambleside as we could not find a BnB in Grasmere. The following day, we headed through the Grisedale Pass to Patterdale where we camped at the Side Farm campsite. The video quality in some scenes isn't the best as it was filmed on a fairly basic, pocket camcorder.

The Coast to Coast Walk 2011 - St.Bees to Borrowdale

In 1998, I solo walked my first ever long-distance trail, The Coast to Coast walk through northern England taking twelve days to complete it. This was for me the realisation of a long-held desire to walk a long distance trail and sparked a fascination with long distance hiking that I have to this day. In 2011, I decided that I would hike the trail again only this time, I would be hiking with a friend. Another difference to my 1998 hike was that a tent formed the majority of the 'accommodation´ along the way, camping being something that I had not even considered on that first hike. The 2011 hike was a great success, although we did suffer some pretty horrible weather over the last three days but overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the walk, which took us thirteen days. I have since hiked the trail for a third time with my wife and had a more leisurely trip this time taking sixteen days to complete it. Why am I writing about my 2011 hike it now? Well, after completing the hike, I made a Youtube video of clips and photos taken along the way and unfortunately included quite a lot of music that violated Youtube's  copyright policy, which caused them to mute the audio track. I have just begun re-editing the material from this trip into short videos, this is the first of these. 

Lands End to John O'Groats - My journey through Britain

When I first took up hiking as a pastime, I read a number of books written by long distance hikers about their experiences on the trail. My attention was particularly grabbed by those written by ultra-long distance walkers and I eagerly devoured stories of these seemingly unattainable adventures with one in particular firing my imagination. The book was 'Journey Through Britain' by John Hillaby and by the end of it, although I wasn't really aware of it at the time, the book had sowed the seeds of a life-long ambition. Over the years, I became a member and walk leader for my local ramblers group and also enjoyed some long challenges including Wainwright's Coast to Coast walk, a walk I have completed three times, the Southern Upland Way, Pennine Way, West Highland Way and most of the Cape Wrath Trail.

Our Coast to Coast Adventure

Ennerdale, gateway to the Lake District

Having abandoned my Cape Wrath Trail hike due to illness, I spent the best part of a week recovering in Ullapool before I headed south to the Cumbrian coast to meet-up with my wife in St.Bees for our impending trek along Wainwright's famous Coast to Coast trail. I still had a cough and a rough throat but it was beginning to subside and I felt much better than I had when I had arrived at Inchnadamph, almost a week earlier. Despite not feeling well, I spent these days exploring Ullapool, which I found very attractive and as I left for Cumbria on the bus, found myself regretting the fact that I had not been well enough to really enjoy my stay. After a long trip by bus and train, I arrived at St.Bees station to find my wife waiting and we headed into the village and enjoyed a drink and the afternoon sunshine in a nearby pub garden. We set off the following morning in fine weather and enjoyed the exhilarating clifftop path and the views across the Irish sea to the Isle of Man before heading inland towards the Lake District, which looked superb in the sunshine from the summit of Dent, the first serious hill of the walk.  Unfortunately, this was to be the last sustained, decent weather of the walk until we crossed into the Yorkshire Dales. The third day from Rosthwaite to Grasmere turned into one of the worst days walking I have ever experienced as the constant rain, flooded paths and rivers were compounded upon reaching the top of Greenup Edge by flooded peat bogs and gale force winds. We came to a swollen river as we headed for the path down into Easdale and as we stood in the howling wind and rain, I began to shake uncontrollably with cold as we wondered how to deal with the obstacle in front of us. I had started walking in my usual very light clothing, which had been fine in the valley, but at the top of the climb the gale force winds became an unexpected factor and although I had more layers in my rucksack, putting them on in the wind was almost impossible. Despite this, I managed to pull a windshirt on over my waterproof, which helped considerably and as I tried to ignore my predicament and focus on our options, we were joined by four other walkers. Together, we squelched through bogs to a point further up the river where it narrowed a little and helped each other jump across. As we reached the summit of the Easdale path, the wind became so strong that one of our party was blown off of her feet and knocked to the ground. Having re-grouped, we bolted for the descending path and fairly quickly things eased although the rain and wind continued until we arrived very wet, cold and bedraggled into Grasmere.

My Scottish National Trail - Return to the Highlands

In around two weeks, I am returning to Strathcarron to continue my walk that effectively began in 2015 in Edale with the start of the Pennine  Way. Having completed this epic trail, I decided to continue the hike last year by returning to Kirk Yetholm and continuing the walk for around 310 miles across Scotland via a section of the Scottish National Trail, the West Highland Way and finally  finishing at Strathcarron on the Cape Wrath Trail. It is this last trail that I am returning to complete on the 22nd May. I have already had a tough baptism on this trail through Morar and Knoydart and I am now itching to get back to complete what is considered the UK's toughest hike.

La Sportiva Ultra Raptors

In 2011, I hiked the UK's Coast to Coast trail, which is a 190 mile route that crosses three National Parks on it's way from the Cumbrian coast to the North Yorkshire coast. Towards the end of the hike, the weather turned and we walked for the last three days in rain, which was often torrential. On the first of these days across the Cleveland Hills, we stopped for a break in a cafe where there were numerous Coast to Coast hikers sheltering from the appalling conditions. As we sat in the steamy atmosphere of the cafe, drying off and enjoying hot drinks and food, I realised that all of us, without exception were soaked to the skin. This was despite the fact that we were all wearing waterproof clothing, mostly Goretex, from various reputable manufacturers, ranging from mid-range brands to the most expensive. It occurred to me then that for all the manufacturers claims that none of the so called 'waterproof' clothing was coping with the amount of water being thrown at it. Sure, some of it was undoubtedly sweat that was building up - this was July after all - and not escaping through the sodden garments but that wouldn't account for the totally saturated base layers and wet trousers under the waterproof over-trousers. It was during these three days that I realised that 'waterproof' is a nebulous term. Despite the manufacturers claims, no garments can keep out water for long if enough is thrown at it for sustained periods. There are many ways that water gets under waterproof gear, through sleeves, necks, over the tops of boots, zips, and also through the outer layer of a waterproof item that is wetting out. Of course, gear manufacturers are keen to talk about the need for proofing their clothing so the water beads up and rolls off allowing the fabric to perform at it's most 'breathable'. This is another term that is bandied about my the manufacturers but again this is a nebulous term. A breathable garment will still get wet inside if the conditions are 'right' and the amount of perspiration overloads the fabric. One of the biggest problems with multi-day hiking in bad weather is wet boots. Boots with a 'waterproof' membrane, once soaked, take an age to dry so you are likely to be putting on damp or wet boots each day unless you are fortunate enough to have access to drying facilities. After I returned from the Coast to Coast walk, I began questioning the accepted 'wisdom' of hiking in full waterproof gear and waterproof hiking boots. I began reading various blogs on the internet and was surprised to discover that many other hikers had come to similar conclusions to myself, particularly with regard to footwear. The days of long distance hikers clomping around in heavy leather, goretex lined boots, are being challenged by a new wave of lightweight hikers who appear to have come to the same conclusion that I had. When walking in the rain just accept that you are going to get wet! 

Based on my experiences on the Coast to Coast and what I had subsequently read, I recently put this theory to the test while hiking the Pennine Way. This 268 mile National Trail is the countries oldest trail and has something of a reputation as being an arduous slog through endless, featureless peat covered bogs where it virtually always rains. This coupled with the fact that fell walking legend, Alfred Wainwright, when writing his guide to the trail had a torrid time with the conditions, only added to this negative reputation, which in my opinion, having now walked it, is totally unwarranted. 

I had decided that for the hike, I would walk in non-waterproof, trail running shoes with fairly thin, quick drying socks. I would also walk in lightweight, quick drying shorts and take no waterproof trousers as I now really do not like walking in long trousers, having walked solely in shorts for a number of years. I had purchased some La Sportiva Ultra Raptors for the Pennine Way, which weigh in at around 340 grams per shoe, meaning I would be lifting far less weight with each footstep than if I had been wearing leather boots. During the walk, the weather was mostly fine to start with but we did have a morning of heavy rain on the fifth day when I got my first chance to try out my theory. My feet were very quickly wet but after the initial 'strangeness' of water filling the shoes I soon got used to it and could see the excess water draining through the top of my La Sportiva Ultra Raptors. The idea is that the rain, though it can easily get in, can also easily drain out and it appeared that this is exactly what was happening. Once the rain stopped, my feet very quickly began to dry out and during the afternoon, which turned dry and sunny, my trails shoes also dried out. This was a revelation as it meant that I was going to finish the day with dry feet and shoes. 

The ultimate test came on the last day of the Pennine Way, a marathon 25 mile yomp across the Cheviot Hills from Byrness to the end of the walk in Kirk Yetholm. Shortly after setting off at 5am, the rain started and continued for most of the 10.25 hours that it took me to finish the hike. It rained heavily virtually all day and my feet were wet almost from the start. I squelched my way through wet peat bogs most of the day and waded through puddles that swamped the paved sections and when I dropped down off of the hills into the valley, my feet and lightweight shorts dried as I hiked along the tarmac into Kirk Yetholm. The Ultra Raptors provided me with 268 miles of quick drying comfort and this method of dealing with walking in rain will now be my default setting. I much preferred simply getting wet and then quickly drying without having to put on wet boots each day or having wet trousers flapping around my legs . At the end of each day on the trail in the campsites, other walkers tended to their blisters while I suffered no such problems. 

Of course, this approach will not be suitable for walking in colder, winter conditions but this could easily be resolved by the addition of short, goretex socks or returning to leather, goretex boots. The Ultra Raptors were a delight to wear being extremely comfortable and lightweight with a sturdy, grippy sole and I liked them so much that when I returned back home, I returned to the outdoor shop where I had purchased them and bought a second pair that I found reduced by 30% in the sales. 

Coast to Coast - Friday 15th July - Day 10 - Richmond to Ingleby Cross 23 Miles

Richmond Castle from the River Swale

Today was the day that most Coast to Coasters dread, the long, largely scenery and contour free crossing of the Vale of Mowbray between the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. Strangely, when I did the walk in 1998, I had really enjoyed this day as I had probably the best weather of the whole trip and had treated the day as a challenge walk, trying to complete it in as short a time as possible. This time however, we had the extra impediment of a large rucksack to carry so it would almost certainly take longer than I had thirteen years earlier. After an excellent breakfast at the guesthouse we set off for the centre of Richmond and stopped for supplies in the market square and with the clock on the church tower chiming 8am, headed out of town over the River Swale with good views of the castle ruins to our left.

Leaving Richmond

The weather was fine although a little cloudy and we stopped occasionally to take photos of the castle as we headed out into woods just beyond the town. After one or two up and downs through the woods on muddy paths, the terrain settled down into largely featureless fields interspersed with the occasional village all of it unmemorable but not unpleasant and we made good progress before arriving in Bolton on Swale. The village is most notable as the resting place of Henry Jenkins who is reputed to have lived to the frankly unbelievable age of 169. There is a monument to mark his fantastically long life in the churchyard but as I had seen it on my previous visit, and partly because I find it hard to take seriously, we didn't linger and soon passed through the village.

The River Swale 

Although a lot of the road walking to the village of Danby Wiske has since been omitted by diverting the route across fields, we stuck to the road to enable us to clock up the miles as quickly as possible but by the time we reached the quaintly named village, we were ready for a drink in the White Swan. After being served by the most miserable barman it has ever been our misfortune to encounter, we sat out in the pleasant sunshine to enjoy our drink before setting off once again, partly because we didn't want to give anymore business to the grouch at the bar but mostly because there were still quite a number of miles to walk before reaching Ingleby Cross. One of the welcome features of this stretch of the walk was the refreshments left out for Coast to Coaster's at various farms we passed through.

A Welcome Sight

Often, there were cool boxes containing cold drinks, chocolate bars and flapjacks, so you could help yourself to what you wanted and make payment in an honesty box. Towards the end of the long walk, one of these was a very welcome sight as it also had a picnic table and chairs where we could rest our weary legs. After many more miles of largely forgettable countryside we reached the outskirts of Ingelby Arnecliffe from where we had to cross the extremely busy A19 road as we headed to Ingleby Cross, which we reached after nine hours of walking feeling fairly footsore. Arriving at the Blue Bell pub, we found that it was closed but there were other Coast to Coaster's camped in the camping field at the rear of the pub so we pitched our tents and showered and washed clothes before eventually heading into the bar for a meal and a few beers with a number of others doing the walk. In all there were seven Coast to Coaster's staying at the campsite for the night and we had a good night in the crowded bar before retiring to our tents. As I fell asleep I heard rain falling on the tent, which signalled the end of our good fortune with the weather.