Coast-to-Coast-2023

[Exhausted me finished this post last night but neglected to post it correctly. We are alive and getting geared up for the return to home.] 9:30PM GMT To be perfectly honest, I am a bit at a loss for words.  I know words will come if I keep hitting the keys but I really have no plan for them when they show up.  We arrived at The Dock in Robin Hood’s Bay today at 4:28PM. […]

Mike and I achieved a couple of milestones today.  First, we both finished the longest single walks of our lives. MACS Adventures says we walked 17 and a half miles, but Steve Jobs, who personally programmed my smart watch, says it was a tad over 19 miles.  I’ll go with Steve’s estimate, but either number is a respectable one and either is a personal best for both Mike and me. Another momentous event today occurred […]

If elections were held today to determine the best segment of the Coast-to-Coast, this day would receive Dennis’ solid “Yes”. After some meticulous attention to Dennis’ ailing left heal with guidance from an anonymous YouTuber, we accepted a lift from our host Malcolm to the trail head located about a half mile from Ingleby Farm House. We insisted on a photo with Malcolm before we set off on the Cleveland Way. This is one of […]

The combination of today’s searing heat, the projected walking distance of 23 miles and the troubling persistence of Dennis’ left heel blister forced an elevation of prudence over bravado and a decision was reached over breakfast to forego today’s walk and to seek motor transportation (i.e. a taxi ride) from Richmond to Ingleby House Farm in the hamlet of Ingleby Arncliffe. We have no regrets at all about this “day off” because it was the […]

Today’s was a mostly delightful walk through the Yorkshire Dales where most of our walking time was spent in the company of farm animals who are largely oblivious to the presence of human passers-by. The fact that sheep and cows spend so much time in the company of humans is a tribute to Britain’s tradition of mandating that footpaths and bridleways should be available to all even if they pass through privately owned property. The […]

Today’s outing presented stunning scenery and one endless and unnecessary climb that brought the realization that Alfred Wainwright had a sadistic streak. The basic trajectory of today was to follow the course of the River Swale from the tiny village of Keld to the slightly larger town of Reeth. There are two routes mapped for this day: the high route which goes through a derelict lead mining operation and the low route which supposedly hews […]

What a way to spend the last day of my 74th year on planet Earth! Mike and I departed Kirkby Stephen at about 9 this morning. There was an unfortunate waste of 45 minutes caused by a wrong turn in town and a stop at the pharmacy to find  a remedy for Mike’s congestion. But the delay was fortuitous because, on the early part of the ascent out of the village, we were joined by […]

I inadvertently omitted references to the food we consumed this first day of walking. As always in these parts, the day started with a ridiculously fatty full English breakfast. This is a two-edged sword because it fills the gullet amply but metabolizing this kind and quantity of food  robs energy from the body as it sets out for the day. But no complaints. It is tasty. On the trail, we stopped in the shade of […]

Mike and I arrived in the bustling little town of Kirkby Stephen at about 5pm having left Orton shortly after 9 this morning. After a bit of freshening up at The Fletcher House, our digs for the night, we strolled down Market Street to find a libation and a meal. After a couple of hits and misses, we settled on The Pennine Hotel, Bar and Bistro where I now sit in the aforementioned “bar” area […]

When I was a kid, it took forevah! for special days to arrive.  No more. The passage of seven decades has the effect of compressing time and special days come and go like confetti in the wind. Consider the fact that my first-born grandchild who nestled in my arms as I rocked her to sleep to the ukulele strums of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” – wasn’t that yesterday? – on Friday moved into the next […]

During last year’s adventure, Mike and I prudently decided to take a rest day after we survived a mountain-top hurricane. With our B&B hostess’ guidance, we boarded a bus from Patterdale to Penrith where we would find a lift to Shap and from there resume our journey the next morning. Once in Penrith, and again with our landlady’s recommendation in mind, we found our way to the train station and a taxi queue. But we […]

Only one week remains to our departure. At our ages, the months slip by too too rapidly. It is hard to believe that nearly a year has elapsed since we stepped onto the beach at St. Bees to collect our Irish Sea pebbles for transport across England where we would make our small contribution to the land bridge to Europe that Arthur Wainwright imagined when he concocted his scheme to have unsuspecting hikers cart stony […]

The day is fast approaching when Mike and I depart Boston to wing our way to Manchester England and thence to the village of Orton in Cumbria to resume our Coast-to-Coast Walk across England. If you followed our exploits last September you will recall I had fixated on the task of undertaking Arthur Wainwright’s path across the waist of England from the Irish Sea in St. Bees to the North Sea at Robin Hood’s Bay […]

I promised to report updates and there is an update to report. The return to England is set. Rooms in B&Bs have been booked  and airfare secured and paid for. Mike and I will board a flight in Providence on September 3, 2023 to arrive in Orton, Cumbria, UK on the afternoon of September 4. The next morning we will set out for the slightly-less-sleepy town of Kirkby Stephen and, from there, set out across […]

A quick update here to let our followers and friends know that Mike and I have booked our return trip to England to complete the Coast-to-Coast walk.  The necessities of business and family require that we put this off until late summer next year but the wait will serve only to boost our enthusiasm. We will check into The George Hotel in Orton on September 4, 2023 and resume walking toward Kirkby Stephen the next […]

Our faithful followers will know already that Mike and I quit the trek just shy of the half-way mark in Orton, Cumbria. We are safely home now taking care of our loved ones and ourselves (Mike: bruised rib; Dennis: left foot tendonitis).  But plans are well under way for our return to England to complete our Coast-to-Coast walk – probably in September 2023. This time we are being sponsored in the effort by our sister […]

Yes that’s right.  Mike and I favored discretion over valor and decided to wend our way home.  We were just shy of the half-way point of our planned journey, so plotting a return to finish the walk will be easy.  And we will return. I just need to be with my kids and grandkids right now. I’m sure they would have urged me to press on but the discretion portion of the discretion/valor balance warned […]

This was billed as the easiest day of the entire journey and it probably was – at least in terms of footsteps and walking.  We left the Brookfield Guest House at 9:20 and wandered across rolling hills and dales into the Yorkshire Dales.  There were no cliffs or swamps to navigate though there was a quantity of mud and animal dung to avoid. Horned sheep and cows were our companions for most of the journey. […]

Those who have paid attention know that the walk we are on was first outlined in the 1970’s by Arthur Wainwright. He was a legendary fells walker who has attained a somewhat mythical, almost deific status. It now turns out that Mike and I are removed from the great Wainwright by a single degree of separation. He was entertained in this very guest house by our own host Margaret during a visit in the late […]

My Apple watch informs that Mike and I logged 9.49 miles walking today with elevation gains of 225 feet.  The beauty of these miles was that each of them happened on a paved surface.  So, while we cannot be called slackers, we do not object to being called sensible septuagenarians. After yesterday’s near death experience it seemed prudent, to say the least, to have a recovery day. Beverly, out chatty and be-speckled host at Green […]

Ummm…. WOW! After yesterday’s outing, Mike and I were tempted to claim today as a restorative day off to nurse sore shoulders (well – one sore shoulder that would be Dennis’) and overall fatigue.  But this morning presented a different idea. We would walk today and take tomorrow as our rest day. After all, today’s course was a mere 9 1/2 miles with a single climb at the beginning. The day’s weather forecast called for  […]

My description of today’s hike can be summed up thus: grueling; taxing; satisfying; awe-inspiring; aches; fatigue.  But WORTH EVERY BIT OF THAT! But the thing that I’ve fixated on today is the names of the places and geographical features of this landscape. After breakfast today we left the sleepy village of Rosthwaite that is nestled comfortably next to Longthwaite in the lush Borrowdale Valley.  Our path took us along the babbling cool waters of the […]

Olivia, Damian and Riley – I MISS YOU. But here’s a picture that you will like – especially Olivia.  I hope you’re getting up early and getting to school on time. This trip is great fun but I can’t wait to see you guys again! A real mushroom seen along the shores of Ennerdale Water (Someone look it up.)

This was a day of epic adventures by any standard! It started in a routine way when we sat down next to Haimish and Amanda for a full Cumbrian breakfast at the B&B. We departed at 8 :45 for what was billed as a 15 mile walk – the longest in the Lake District – with a single but rather short hard climb just after the halfway point. The ascent began as expected just beyond […]

Today was a day of challenges.  Perhaps the biggest challenge on a day like this one that occurs at the beginning of any new adventure and that is the challenge of the unknown. Mike and I have both read the books and watched the videos. We’ve completed practice walks with backpacks and trekking poles. A personal trainer was enlisted to show us how to rehabilitate 70-year-old muscles at the end of an arduous day.  But […]

I am sitting in my room at the Stonehouse Inn B&B in St. Bees, Cumbria, UK. For the past 20 hours or so I have forbidden myself to remark how smoothly this trip has gone so far. Every flight – three of them – was on time and without turbulence. Every connection went smoothly with sufficient time for trips to the loo or to grab a coffee or a bite to eat. The trains were […]

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So here it is – THE day. In a couple of hours Mike and I board the first flight which will take us on a paradoxically westerly direction – to Detroit. Then we board a KLM flight over the north friggin’ pole to Amsterdam. Finally, tomorrow morning, we’ll wing across the North Sea to Manchester UK where trains will cart us to the Cumbria coast at St. Bees. The preparations for this trip have been […]

Mike and I have done everything I can think of to prepare for our departure on Sunday. What remains is to log on tonight to finalize our planned train ride from Manchester to St. Bees. And I suppose we may also book a hotel for the return trip – we need to stay in Manchester for one night after we wend our way back from Robin Hood’s Bay. Clothing, medications, equipment are all assembled on […]

Mike and I will depart on our 200-mile walking adventure in one week. An interesting thing happens to me when I am on the cusp of such an outsized challenge. The obituaries, which I read through every day, are suddenly printed in boldface type and the ages of the dead appear in a large font – 57, 64, 70! It is not that I worry that the trip will do me in at the age […]