Statistics and Mullings

I will add to this page in the days and weeks ahead as things pop into my head (hopefully before they pop straight back out again!)

First some numbers.

Our total distance over the 21 days was 230.74 miles, of which 212.33 was specifically making progress from one coast to the other, and the remaining 18.41 was mileage on “rest days” or heading to the pub in the evening or whatever.

Our total elevation gain was 25,791 feet, of which 24,848 was coast to coast and 943 was from rest days etc.

On the non-rest-days, daily mileage ranged from a low of 6.03 to a high of 17.56, with an average of 11.80 miles.

How do we know all that?

I used MapMyWalk on my Nexus 6P to track actual mileage and elevation gain each day. It’s the tool I used during training too. Highly recommend it.

Excel crunched the resulting numbers.

What about navigation?

We had Outdoor Map Navigator running on my Nexus 6P and D’s Samsung S7 Edge, pre-loaded with GPX files for each day and with purchased OS maps downloaded ahead of time. We used that almost exclusively for navigation. I had my phone in a waterproof pouch around my neck, so it was easily accessible at all times.

There was one day when a snafu with the GPX files meant that I had to navigate using Stedman’s Coast to Coast Walk, which was so much harder. On one other day, because of a change in chosen route, I walked some of it with the OS map in my hand. Wouldn’t dream of heading out without these kind of paper back ups to GPS.

I carried a 20mAh backup battery in my pack every day, so we could recharge phones if necessary. Never actually needed it while walking, but we sometimes used it in the evenings and would choose to bring it on any future walk.

Mullings

In no particular order…

• Packhorse were terrific. They booked our accommodation and transferred bags from stop to stop. We met Mark in Kirkby Stephen and caught a glimpse of the Packhorse van one other time, but remain convinced that magic elves moved the bags 🙂
• Most B&B owners were kind and welcoming.
• I wish all B&B owners would experience what it is like to walk 12 miles, arriving weary and footsore, and sometimes overheated and/or sopping wet. Some were simply fantastic, allowing us to drop everything and giving us a cup of tea and some cake right away. Others would immediately give us a tour of everything and tell us the rules and when breakfast is etc etc etc, while we were still carrying packs and dealing with poles.
• Wet boots suck.
• We met far fewer people on the trail than I expected. I’ve read complaints that it’s become too popular, but we walked in solitude most of the time.
• Laundry was a hassle. I had read ahead of time advice to bring minimal clothes and rely on the easy availability of laundry. We only found one launderette (in Kirkby Stephen–one load washed and dried cost us almost $20!). Doing handwashing of small items in the sink didn’t work well, because usually the heating systems were turned off and there was no way to dry them in time. And only a few B&Bs offered to do laundry. Next time, I’d bring more underwear and maybe one more short sleeve shirt.
• Wi-fi/cell data was challenging at times. Of course, there’s usually no connection while walking, but even in the B&Bs the internet was often unusably slow. To my surprise, it was more problematic in the second half of the walk.
• I would do it all again tomorrow.