Coast to Coast Day 1 - St. Bees to Ennerdale Bridge

May 26, 2015

Miles: 16.4
Time: 8:48 - 4:14
Elevation gain: 2,931'

Year to date miles:  206.7

Hike description:

We got a reasonably good night's sleep and we were excited to start our adventure. Especially excited about not having to lug our luggage around. For the rest of our trip, Packhorse will be picking up our luggage every day and transporting it to our next night's stop. Packhorse was great!

We both had large breakfasts in the morning. The B&B was very accommodating to our vegan and vegetarian diets.

We walked 1 mile to the Irish Sea, the start of our trip. As per tradition, we dipped our boots into the sea. We also each chose a pebble to carry to Robin Hood's Bay (another tradition). We chose SMALL pebbles, because our packs are already heavy!

From the sea, we headed up the coastal cliffs. We passed through the towns of Sandwith, Moor Row, and Cleator. We stopped in the village shop in Cleator. I've never seen a shop so small! We bought something called Flapjacks, which taste like an oatmeal based energy bar. We ended up using these as our default energy bar, because they are available in many shops. We stopped shortly outside of Cleator and ate our lunch by a stream. We ended up carrying our thermoses in our packs. Every B&B has hot water heaters which we use to prepare our dehydrated meals. Many others carried thermoses to have tea during their hike - how British.

After our lunch, we headed up Dent Hill. We started talking to a Brit who was very good company. He's training to walk the Coast to Coast again - going both ways in July! Nice! We talked a lot and he navigated for us for a while, which is a huge timesaver. I was strong hiking up Dent Hill - the Brit was quite impressed with me! He told me I'd have no problem with the rest of the hike. I've been training hard, so this was a huge confidence booster.

Descending down Dent Hill was crazy steep. I heard people write about it and thought they were exaggerating. They weren't. That was the steepest descent I've done. Our B&B owner said that last year, 4 people broke an arm on that descent.

The rest of the route to Ennerdale Bridge was easy.

We are staying at The Shepherds Arms, where we also had dinner. They cooked us a vegan meal which was tasty and filling. Coconut broccoli soup and a beet lentil burger. And chips (fries) of course. I tried a local beer - Dent something. I really wanted to try sticky toffee pudding, which is something that I have never had before. I think this was the first night I tried it. I ended up sampling it at many restaurants :)

Excellent day - we are loving the hiking and the experience of being here. 

I also got good news about Moxie. Her tooth fell out by itself. She's been put on a round of antibiotics, and her missing tooth is not bothering her. Woohoo!

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Night: The Shepherds Arm Hotel