The origin

(This is a re-post from June 20th 2015. )

A brief but freaky encounter with mortality raised the question “What would the regret be?” Sure, it could be “I should have spent more time with the kids” (but I think I did OK there?) or “I should have spent less time at the office” (what office?) but what actually struck me was “I should have walked the whole Coast to Coast.”

A little background: in 2014, I was part of a merry band of neighbors who walked “Coast to Not Quite the Middle” in a rather chaotic way. We skipped chunks, we had people driving cars from stop to stop. An absolutely memorable and fun time, but not Coast to Coast. We made vague promises to finish the walk in a few years. Turns out, for me, a few years = two years.

So far, it’s just me, D, and M. We’ll find an alternative adventure for K, rather than drag her unwillingly for 200 miles [We are dispatching her to New Zealand!]. R, F, and C would like to, but the timing isn’t great [But in the end, they couldn’t resist]. Not sure about the third family yet [They actually did resist–heading to France instead].

Our initial party of 3 has accommodation booked through Packhorse for a 22 day trek that includes three rest days (Grasmere, Kirkby Stephen, Richmond). Yes, we are taking it slow! Most people take 14 days non-stop. But we’d like to take our time and avoid too much sense of it being a slog, especially if we don’t have camaraderie to egg us along this time.

We stay overnight in St Bees on July 7th 2016, then head east the next day. Here’s the full itinerary:

07 July Overnight at St.Bees
08 July Walk to Moor Row / Cleator 8.5 Miles
09 July Walk to Ennerdale 5.5 Miles
10 July Walk to Stonethwaite 14.5 Miles
11 July Walk to Grasmere 9 Miles
12 July Overnight at Grasmere Rest Day
13 July Walk to Patterdale 8.5 Miles
14 July Walk to Bampton 12 Miles
15 July Walk to Orton 13.25 Miles
16 July Walk to Kirkby Stephen 12.75 Miles
17 July Overnight at Kirkby Stephen Rest Day [R,F,&C join us!]
18 July Walk to Keld 12 Miles
19 July Walk to Reeth 11 Miles
20 July Walk to Richmond 11 Miles
21 July Overnight at Richmond Rest Day
22 July Walk to Danby Wiske 14 Miles
23 July Walk to Ingleby Cross 10 Miles
24 July Walk to C.B.T – Gt. Broughton 11 Miles
25 July Walk to Rosedale Abbey 8.75 Miles
26 July Walk to Glaisdale 9.25 Miles
27 July Walk to Littlebeck 8 Miles
28 July Walk to Robin Hoods Bay 12 Miles

My commitment is to average 4 miles a day in initial training. Easy to do right now because the weather is spectacular! [I’m happy to report that I’ve kept up my 4-mile-a-day-training pledge, despite this being the wettest Seattle winter on record!]