So, we made it, including me and my jacked up calf. Yay! I wasn’t sure if my calf muscle would even hold up, but it did.

We set out from St. Bees after a lovely breakfast at Abbey Farmhouse. We woke up extra early because our sleep schedule is messed up and because the sun rose so early. We had coffee in our room first, which was delicious.

Next, we headed down and had breakfast I believe they called, “The Full English.” I had an egg sunny side up, toast, sausage, ham, mushrooms and a potato cake. It was so delicious! I also had pink grapefruit juice and French pressed coffee. The owners of Abbey Farmhouse did an excellent job making us comfortable.

It was time to set out. We geared up, left our luggage for Packhorse and moved along. My pack had an assortment of items – gaiters, a raincoat, rain pants, a rain hat, a thermal in case I froze (lol – not!), moleskin, spray bandage, my glasses, our packed lunch for the day – also packed by Abbey Farmhouse – 3 liters of water (ran out at 7 miles! I found a store to buy more), some muscle relaxers in case I ripped my calf in half and was suffering badly lying next to sheep poo, etc. We were ready. :D

We headed down to the starting line in St. Bees to take a photo and to collect our pebble to carry from the Irish to the North Sea. Rocks collected, we ventured on up the cliff side. It was pretty darn steep. I was still feeling pretty nervous about my calf, but forged ahead. A little over halfway up, it got so steep I was getting plenty worried. Thank goodness for my trekking poles. I’m more than happy to admit they were my life saver today. There’s no way I could have made it without them.

Up I went, and sure enough – my left (injured) leg slipped out from under me on the steep cliff and gravel. It zinged me – kind of like a violin string strung really tightly -- kind of a reverberating sensation. My heart sunk, thinking well “bad word!!!” that is probably it right here at the beginning. I kept inching my way up the cliff with my poles in an excruciatingly slow fashion. I made it to the top. My calf was feeling super tight at this point and I just started repeating a favorite verse in my head, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

My calf was balled up like a knot. Once I made it to the top, we carried on and I made sure to stretch it every mile or so. We traversed the side of the cliff and ooooh’d and ahhhhh’d over the scenery. It was absolutely gorgeous! As we went along, we noticed there was no discernable trail and a lot of brush. We forged on, along with several other Coast to Coasters. We saw this woman strolling along on the other side of the sheep fence and thought she was hiking much more easily than we were. Lol We decided we were probably supposed to be on the other side of that fence. By then, I had gone through all sorts of bramble and misteps thinking I may as well just check it in early. :D We climbed over a bob wire fence and voila - -there was a trail.

So on we marched. My leg was still tight and balled up as all get out from the zinging. I was certainly slow moving at that point, but we kept on going. The Brians were great about encouraging me to stretch and forge ahead.

Eventually, we reached the point to turn inland, which we did. One very cool thing we enjoyed today was turning back and seeing how far we had come! It was pretty impressive to see it. We saw many a sheep and cow today. I love Animal Kingdom, so I was in my happy place with that going on.

Animal fun – just along the way from beginning to end: I’m usually the dog whisperer, but I passed one dog who would not stop growling at me. His owner seemed none to willing to stop him either. Yikes. I asked her if he was scared of my sticks and she said, “He’s scared of just about everything.” :D

My next animal moment was when we passing by some sheep. I stopped to take a photo of a momma and her baby. Well, here comes a ram straight at me walking quickly. He glared at me and started pawing the ground with one of his hooves (?). Yikes. The the last thing I needed was a good ramming in the legs. Hahaha I just scurried along and tried not to make eye contact. :p

Our final animal adventure was a beautiful Border Collie running freely as we were on a path right next to a highway. He was very skittish and seemed to not want to get near any of us. He darted towards the road and Brian yelled, ‘Watch out!” Luckly the pretty doggie dashed back toward and around us and went along its way without getting hit. Yikes. That would have been awful.

Back to our walk……

Once we headed inland, we went miles and miles through small towns, on rocky paths, across little creeks and so on. We never got lost – at the most we wrong turned for maybe a hundred yards and then would realize the error of our ways.

Our last ascent was Dunn Hill (?) and it was quite the climb. Like a really big climb. My calf held out, but my lungs had a harder time. Brian, Jr. was pacing us and he was quite adept at climbing the hills. Brian, Sr. and Brian, Jr. could have probably finished an hour earlier if it wasn’t for me and my gimp leg, but they were great about waiting for me, encouraging me and warning me of hazards.

Anyway, we climbed the Hell out of that hill. I don’t know how to describe it. When I thought I was almost to the top I was probably not quite halfway there. Lol I had encouragement along the way, however, from fellow walkers. We met a group of man and the dad in the group was 65 and one year in the clear from cancer recovery. What an inspiration. I met another man going up the hill in very short steps and he was probably in his mid-seventies. When I say hill, by the way – think something higher. Lol This man was super nice and told me to take shorter steps and it would make it easier. We talked a bit and he also added he was not suffering from a leg injury and didn’t have a loaded pack on his back, so to forge ahead as I was doing great. Awwww.

I finally made it up to the top of that damn hill. Goodness. That was quite the climb.

When it was time to go down the other side, we went through some muck where we had to traverse slippery rocks, then some creeks and then this insanely steep back down the hill. It was seriously something I think many would want to scoot down on their butts – especially if it had been raining. Thank goodness, it had not. We made it scoot free. Oh – and we also passed through many a gate and climbed quite a few fences.

For some reason, I thought after we spent quite a bit of time going down the steep hill, Ennerdale Bridge (our destination town) would be at the bottom. I felt like stuff I read said Ennerdale Bridge was at the bottom right after the steep descent. Well, Hell. Apparently, right after isn’t the same definition for me as it is to anyone who said that. We trudged on for at least another hour after the steep cliff. The rest of the trudge was a rocky path with creeks, sheep and cows.

We finally turned towards Ennerdale, and went the last mile or so to get our hotel location, Shepherd’s Arms Hotel. Voila. Eight hours of tekking and we had arrived.

Oh – and I ran out of 3 liters of water at the seven mile mark. Yikes! I never drink that much water so shortly. I don’t know if it was the hill climbing and me worrying about my calf cramping up or what. We stopped at a store in Cleator Moor (I think) and bought bottled water.

That was it for yesterday! Fun. A couple of blisters and that was about it.

I've added the photos on my FB again if you'd like to check them out. Pardon the quality. My camera sucks and then the dang thing switched to fisheye mode about halfway through so we look pretty distorted. lol Oh well. :)

Will be back in a second to post the link to the FB photos again if it lets me. :)