Day 10, Sunday Aug. 25 Keld Lodge, Keld

Hiked 12 miles, 96 miles down, 96 miles or go Halfway there!

Keld is the halfway point of the Coast 2 Coast trail. We crossed from the county of Cumbria into Yorkshire and into The Yorkshire Dales National Park.

We crossed the Pennines which is the Continental Divide for the North of the UK. Now all streams and rivers flow into the North Sea instead of to the Irish Sea. We've been passed on the trail daily by a British man named Stuart. Yesterday he told us that we seemed to know how to pace ourselves. We took that as a compliment. Today the guide book offered three routes. The easiest was the "low route" but all routes had lots of bogs to slosh though and try to find the trail. The low route was 14.5 miles. The low route only had 7 waypoints in 14.5 miles. The two high routes had more bogs and were 13.5 miles. I looked on Google maps and the road was only listed as 9.9 miles. After missing the trail for a bit yesterday and walking 2 extra miles and losing time we made a strategic decision to walk the road. It turned out to be 10.4 miles of walking. We left at 9 am and had the goal to arrive at 3 pm. that included stops for lunch,

fixing feet, taking pictures. We made it by 2:05 pm. Walking the road was a bit harder on our feet but sometimes we could walk on soft grass or on the pea gravel on the shoulder. We didn't see any trees for about 5 miles. Today was Sunday so there was more traffic than usual. There were quite a few motorcyclists. Lest you think it was an easy hike there were many ups and downs so it was not a leisurely stroll. From the road it's quite apparent to see how boggy the soil is in this area. This confirmed that we had made the correct decision. It seems that however we finish the day the last half mile is always hard going.

Because we didn't have to think about where to put our feet with each step I had some time for reflection. I was thinking: "What is it that motivates people to do the Coast 2 Coast walk?" What motivated me? I remember reading about the UK Wainwright Trail several years ago in the Smithsonian magazine. Here is a link the article: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/A-Walk-Across-England.html. When we went backpacking I always joked about the quote in The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, "warm beds and hot baths in Harfang tonight." If only I could have those two things at the end of a hiking day! Now I have that. In the book the children are welcomed in to be fattened up and eaten at the Autumn Feast. I don't think any of the proprietors of the B&Bs where we're staying are interested in eating older women.

When my friend Sara couldn't go on this trip Ron said, why don't you wait a year. It was really important to me to go this year. I guess I wanted to fight the idea of retirement and not feeling old. I had a great need to defy the aging process. In the scriptures it talks about keeping your eye on the prize. Until we reach Robin Hoods Bay my eye is on that destination and the prize of arriving there. I visualize throwing the small stone I picked up at St. Bees into the North Sea. We still have a long ways to go. As Ron would say I will "keep on keeping on." - Nancy (Note: Nancy says that the Lodge [pictured below] is literally "out in the middle of nowhere," 1/2 way between 2 towns on the route. The view is from the lodge. - rw)