Nine Standards |
Butt House in Keld |
Nine Standards from Slightly Below the Crest |
We woke up to bright sunshine--a rarity in Northern England. And lovely temperatures in the 60s. After our last meal with our lovely hosts, Gillian and Stephen at Fletcher house, I headed to Eden Outdoors, the local outfitter to see if they had any boots I could wear. Due to having a slightly deformed right foot, I overran my right boot and indented the lateral edge of the nice Keen's I bought causing a pain in my right ankle. Although they didn't stock my exact size,. with some heel inserts and such, I was able to get a nice pair of German leather and Gortex boots that would do the trick. So we got a slightly late start out of Kirkby Stephen. Our journey started with a slow but steady uphill climb--1700 feet over 5 miles. This is MUCH milder than what we experienced in the Lake District. In fact, it reminded us of hiking at home. We passed an old quarry and then up to the halfway point on our journey from St. Bees to Robin Hood Bay. Paul posed for a photo of this momentous occasion. We continued our journey on to the Nine Standards. We could actually see these manmade rock formations coming over from Scar Side two days ago. There are nine big tall rock collections on the top of a mountain in the Pennines. No one knows exactly how they got there or what their purpose is although it is proposed that they are some sort of navigational device. I find it amazing that they are mysterious since the appear to have been installed in the late 1800s. Didn't someone brag about setting up nine huge stone pillars or write someone a letter about it? Apparently not. So even though these pillars stand tall and visible for many miles, they remain enigmatic. After hiking up and taking a close look, we then , of course, hiked DOWN the same mountain. I have to say the hiking was much easier than what we experienced to this points although we were plagued by bogs...and I mean PLAGUED. We were lucky to be in dry weather without recent rains, but the ground on top of the mountain is eroding. It is naturally an area of heather and peat and that equals bogs. Real deep ones. You only need about an ankle deep to have a miserable day and we were wading through them the whole afternoon. Remember the part of the Princess Bride where Wesley tells Buttercup that hazards of the fire swamp? And when he gets to the giant man-eating rodents he says, "I don't think they exist." Well, that is what Paul and I thought about the reputed man-eating bogs. They don't exist either, right? Wrong! Somewhere along the blue trail, I saw my husband disappear up to his hip. Fortunately, only on one side, so the other was out and he escaped relatively unscathed, if you consider icky muddy boots and wet pants something less than a tragedy. My husband doesn't like things that are messy. Sometimes if I drop a plate or a glass, he appears from nowhere with a broom and frantically cleans up my big mess ...or small one. But I always feel like it's big, because he is so distressed by disorderly things (Yeah, I know. I have no clue why he even likes me, much less why we're married !) But Mr. Dot-Your-I-Cross-Your-T took it with remarkable aplomb and continued down the valley. One interesting thing that happened on this hike is that we crossed the continental divide of sorts and the water in Whitsundale Beck (creek to you Americans) ran the opposite direction from the creeks we crossed to this point. It was beautiful, if boggy, hike down the valley and into Keld. We stopped for a local brewsky at the Keld Lodge and asked for direction to our night's lodging: Butt House (No, I am not kidding.) They poured us a pint and then said, "It' s across the street." And indeed it was. The proprietors, Linda and Tony, run a nice ship here with great rooms and amazing food which we enjoyed in the company of the owners, a couple from Australia and 3 siblings named Oldham(from a family of ten) hiking across the country. All in all, a much easier and very pleasurable day (if you forget the bogs and all the pain of getting around it.) And it seems fitting that in England a girl named Lou (loo?) would end up in the Butt House.
Paul's Ponderings:
This was a bit of a slog with bogs all around. However, the day was beautiful and we are now way over half way to the North Sea. We crossed over the continental divide (so to speak) for the UK, so now the rivers are flow in the direction of the North Sea. My boots were so muddy it took a good scrubbing to clean them up and they are in the drying room. Otherwise, this was much less strenous hiking than the Lake District.
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