St Bee's to Ennerdale Bridge

We had a delicious breakfast at Fleatham House, and then the 6 of us started our hike.  First up was about 2 miles to the starting point where Earl and Lois spent quite a long time trying to pick their rocks to carry to the North Sea.  The beach is nothing but millions of rocks, but I guess none of them were calling to Earl and Lois.

The hike begins with several miles along the cliffs before turning inland. Most pictures taken today show the overcast sky.  Great hiking weather. Not so great picture weather. Arnie and Margaret headed back after about 6 miles when they remembered they are going to Austria in a few days.

At one of the entrys into a pasture, Keith was chased away by a calf.

Mean scary calf that chased Keith

Keith was not afraid of the flowers

The first challenging climb was Dent Fell.  I had a more difficult time getting up that than I had climbing from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the rim.  I wonder if the fact that I was in shape 6 years ago had something to do with it.

Coming down Dent was a real challenge.  The guidebook says this is the steepest part of the trail, and if it is not, I don't want to see steeper.  It took at least 20 minutes to get down, all walking at angles with our feet sideways to keep from slipping.  All except Keith that is.  He just strolled down to the bottom and waited for us.  A local with a dog passed us at the top and ran down in about 2 minutes.

Going down the steep hill

I went into a store in the town of Cleator to buy a soda.  I was about to buy a coke when I saw a soda called Friends.  I held it up to the clerk and asked what it was.  She, Earl, and Keith all looked at me like I was nuts because the side I showed her said in big letters Diet Coke.

Hey what is this friends soda?

Oh!

We are in the Lake District of England.  Looking ahead at tomorrow's hike, I am convinced that "lake" is actually a British word meaning Mountain.

We arrived in Ennerdale Bridge after 7 hours walking and stopped at the Fox and Hound for drinks and dinner.  Early in the day, we passed the Dog and Partridge pub.  I think that British pub owners spin a wheel of animal names 2 times to name their pubs.  I'm waiting to have dinner at the Chicken and Muskrat or the Snail and Snail.

Roger from the Ghyll Farm B&B picked us up at the Cow and Cat and brought us back to his very nice B&B.  He was even nice enough to go back to the Monkey and Ant to pick up the cell phone Keith left there.  Note that I an NOT the first person to leave a major item behind on this trip.

Tomorrow is a 15 mile walk to Roshtwaite and a stay at the Scafelli Hotel.  We have several options for the walk and ill decide at breakfast, but what probably would have been the number 1 option won't happen because part of the trail is closed for forestry work