C2C2

 DAY 14 - FINAL DAY - ENNERDALE BRIDGE TO ST. BEES Everyone was feeling fit and energized for our final push this morning.  The weather was perfect for hiking, +/- 60 degrees F and a mix of clouds and sun.  We left the village of Ennerdale Bridge and headed off towards our final hills to climb for the hike.  A few easy streams to navigate then a steep up and up and up to the top of Ravens Crag, then another shorter climb up to the top of Dent.  From there we had a beautiful panorama of the coastline and Irish Sea in front of us and cool wind from the Sea in our faces.  The coast looked so close from up there that you could almost touch it.  In fact, we still had another 10 miles to hike to reach St. Bees.  So, we walked through a few small villages, across some farmers fields, stopped for a brief lunch, then pushed up to the high cliffs on the Irish Sea for our final walk along the coast into St. Bees.  When we arrived into St. Bees, the beac...

DAY 13 - STONETHWAITE TO ENNERDALE BRIDGE Another rainy morning to begin our hike!  Not surprised to read that the Lake District is the rainiest spot in an already very rainy England.  So, full rain gear again to start the day and off for our final climb out of the Lake District.  The first climb was up to Honister Mine, one of the last working Slate mines in England.  From there, we hiked up the old mining tramway and eventually picked up a trail to get us up and over the mountain.  The views back to the Lake District were stunning, despite the rain, as we said good-bye to the Lake District and headed down the other side of the mountain towards Ennerdale Bridge.  Previous reports from other hikers hiking in the opposite direction, warned of many paths underwater, but today along our route we were pleasantly surprised.  Although wet, most trails were easily passable so we were able to keep our feet relatively dry today.  We continued through a lar...

  DAY 12 - GRASMERE TO STONETHWAITE It poured rain last night while we slept and a light but steady rain greeted us in the morning for our hike to Stonethwaite.  Before leaving Grasmere we paid a quick visit to the famous Gingerbread shop in town and noticed that in the local cemetery next door, William Wordsworth and his family were buried.  We retraced our steps from yesterday back to the trail, then took the Easdale Gill up the first mountain of the day.  After taking a few wrong turns towards the high routes we found our trail up along a mountain stream which was now raging with last night’s rainwater.  We originally thought today would be a relatively easy day as it was only a 9 mile hike.  In fact, mother nature made it our most technical day yet.  We were in full rain gear as the rain and wind pelted us on our way up the mountain stream towards our first peak.  We had to make multiple crossings over the fast moving stream on rain soaked roc...

 Day 11 - Patterdale to Grasmere Hard to believe we are already 11 days into our walk .  We have passed the 150 mile mark with less than 50 miles to go.  Walking today from Patterdale  to Grasmere via the Grisedale Valley route, we are in the heart of the Lake District.  We made our way to the Grisedale Beck (stream), then slowly climbed, traversing the north side of the mountains, always beside the Grisedale Beck.  By noon, we had reached Grisedale Tarn (small mountain lake), the source of the Grisedale Beck.  We were fighting strong headwinds the entire way up and found a small hill next to the Tarn to shelter from the wind and have lunch.  After lunch we made our way around the Tarn and headed down the other side towards Grasmere.  The weather was pretty good apart from the wind and before our descent, we caught the first glimpse of the Irish Sea far off to the west.  Today was a short day, only 10 miles but still over 1600 feet total...