Author: Liz

By Liz

Day 3: Ennerdale to Stonethwaite

Expectations The long one! 15 miles from The Shepherds Arms in Ennerdale Bridge to The Langstrath in Borrowdale, including the first doozy of a climb, up Loft Beck, if we take the low route. This will be a pseudo-re-creation of 2014’s “Death Hike” when we recklessly took the high route despite a howling gale and…

View More
By Liz

Day 2: Cleator to Ennerdale Bridge

Expectations Short 5.6 mile jaunt from Ennerdale Country House in Cleator to The Shepherds Arms in Ennerdale Bridge, with first significant climb up Dent Hill and back down to Nannycatch. Felt sad during the Coast-to-not-quite-the-middle that we skipped Nannycatch, so looking forward to finally seeing it this time around. Dinner reservation for 6pm at the…

View More
By Liz

Day 1: St Bees to Cleator

Expectations Today’s route covers 10 miles from Stonehouse Farm in St Bees to Ennerdale Country House in Cleator. Should be a reasonably easy walk, 3-4 hours with stops for lunch/technology/views! We’ll start out by dipping our boots in the Irish Sea, drop a pebble from the Pacific Ocean (someone has to replenish the beach!) and…

View More
By Liz

Day 0: Getting to St Bees

Expectations Short walk from the Hotel Pullman to Euston station, where we catch the 10:30 London-Carlisle train, switching in Carlisle to the 14:35 train arriving at St Bees at 15:59. Even shorter walk from St Bees station to the familiar-from-last-time Stonehouse Farm in St Bees. Realities Updated at the next usable internet connection. Which turns out to be…

View More
By Liz

Harry Potter Day #1

(Harry Potter Day #2 will be the day we walk from Glaisdale to Littlebeck vis Grosmont, the setting for the Hogwarts station scenes from the movies. Though based on today’s tour, I’m beginning to wonder if I got that muddled up–it could be a different station on that steam train line. We’ll see!) Not the…

View More
By Liz

And we’re off…

Pre-flight dinner at Seatac Airport. Flight departed about on time. Beautiful initial view: For the next few hours the interior view was all I got to see and pretty quickly, the screen was a lot closer up after the person in front reclined their seat without warning, almost knocking my dinner into my lap. Ah, the…

View More
By Liz

Packing

Packing underway! Clothes first…. 2 Convertible Pants, Fleece, Sun hat, Gloves, Neck gaiter, Hiking Boots, Trail Runners, Sandals, Knee brace, 3 pairs thick socks, 4 pairs thin socks, Swimwear, Underwear, Rain hat, Rain jacket, Rain pants, Gaiters, 2 Shirts, 3 Wool shirts (long sleeve), 2 Wool shirts (short sleeve) And then all the other stuff… Poles, Paper tape, Knee brace, Kinesio Tape, First aid kit, Ziploc bags, Tyvek, Silver blanket, Handwarmers, Walking Book, Maps (OS+strip), Packhorse documents, protein bars USB cable (C &…

View More
By Liz

One week to go

Training is going OK. The header image on this post is from about a month ago, when I went on a 10 mile loop via my happy place and the pub (really, those are two different locations!) Haven’t done many hikes that long since then, because my knee is bothering me. Given that it’s several…

View More
By Liz

The itinerary!

Well that’s my productivity gone for the week! Eager to look up every place and add it to the GPS track. Here’s the list of Bed and Breakfasts/Pubs/Hotels: Stonehouse Farm, St Bees Ennerdale Country House, Cleator The Shepherds Arms, Ennerdale The Langstrath, Stonethwaite Dale Lodge Hotel, Grasmere (2 nights) Crookabeck Farm, Patterdale Crown and Mitre,…

View More
By Liz

Just under six weeks to go

Six weeks from yesterday, we’ll have set out from St Bees. Six weeks from today is a super short 5.5 mile walk from Cleator to Ennerdale. I’m obsessively checking email/mail for the promised packet from Packhorse containing exact lodgings for each night. Can’t wait to set up the exact route and import it into Outdoor…

View More