Day 8: Bampton Grange to Orton

Expectations

Out of the Lake District! 12. 5 miles from The Crown and Mitre in Bampton Grange to The George Hotel in Orton. This will be a perfectly familiar walk, likely the first that follows in the footsteps of the 2014 jaunt. Though maybe we’ll try not to get lost around Shap Abbey so that we approach Shap itself on the intended route?

Realities

Updated at the next usable internet connection. The wi-fi at The George was about as frustrating slow as it was at The Crown and Mitre last night, so I pulled out the mi-fi device and am doing much better with cell data.

Third 12 miler in three days! So much easier than the last two though. Nowhere near the elevation gain–just 1063ft, instead of over 2K and over 3K the previous two days. Not very nice weather though.

We had a somewhat sub-par breakfast. It was self-serve and there wasn’t enough for the gaggle of hikers who all appeared at once. Overall the Crown and Mitre didn’t live up to our very fond memories. Last time, there were 11 of us hiking and two more joined us for dinner, and I think it was that social highlight that made the place stand out.

We suited up for what promised to be a wet, windy, grey day

Then headed out through the church graveyard and across the fields.

None of the stiles/gates/etc are exactly wheelchair accessible, but this particular one was barely bi-ped accessible:

Approaching Shap Abbey, we saw the first honesty box:

We could hear an incredible racket ahead. The sheep were flooding down the hillside, bleating madly. Some of them looked very newly shorn, so we could only think they were running from a shearing shed.

M needed a lie down…

This time we managed to find the correct trail leaving Shap Abbey and headed into Shap itself, where two miracles presented themselves. Firstly, a fabulous coffee shop

And more remarkably, a shoe store. Shap is a tiny place–about 1200 people in the entire parish, which includes some outlying settlements. Yet they had a New Balance factory outlet store!

This was such a stroke of luck. M’s shoes had such extensive leaks that you could see water coming out of his shoe when he pressed down. We thought we’d have to wait till Kirkby Stephen to get a replacement pair.

Amusing that this means this year’s trek has destroyed two pairs of shoes…so far!

Once we were done with all that, it was beginning to rain. We set off, across the train tracks we traveled to Carlisle via just a week ago and that the Ls should be traveling along today, and then across the noisy M6.

Further on to the windy, grey, misty moors

Sunshine at the end of the hike, though by the time we got there, it was gone!

I remember thinking how pretty this was last time, but it shows how much the sun adds sparkle to places.

Fantastically huge room at The George in Orton

And a really tasty dinner–Cumberland Sausage Curl in Yorkshire Pudding and Steak and Ale Pie. Oh, and pizza.

M and L nipped out into the misty evening for a post-prandial Pokemon hunt. (!!!!!)

And then one final note for the day. When we checked in, the landlady advised us that we’d probably want to eat on the early side because the primary school was having their end of year event in the pub. (Primary school = elementary school). Ha–imagine that in America!!