Miles walked today: 8.8

Total trip miles: 73.8

Elevation gain today: 1,005 ft.

Trip total elevation gain: 9,520 ft.

As I was walking along today, I was thinking about what a sense of accomplishment I am getting from this trip. I take particular satisfaction when I record my accumulated statistics each evening. When I look at the numbers, I remember how difficult some days are and I know I am stronger than I think I am. On easy days like today, I recognize how fortunate I am to be able to easily move through this landscape under my own footpower. All in all, it strengthens my resolve to keep moving as long as I am able!

Since today was a short day, we took our time leaving Shap. Shap is such a tiny village we had no trouble finding our way back to the path. As we started up over the hills, the train tracks, and motorway, we were passed by other walkers that we recognized. This continued throughout the day. When we reached Orton there were more familiar faces. (I must confess, as we were walking out after dinner, a couple at a table in the pub smiled and waved at us. We returned their wave but neither Nancy nor I recognized them! I think Nancy and I must be more recognizable than most since we are two women with some of the grayest hair of any I have seen.)

The weather was great again, although the wind continued to blow steadily and it wasn’t always at our backs. As Nancy said, at times it was just “on the verge of being cold.” After getting warmed up I walked the rest of the day without a jacket, though.

The trail today took us up past a cement factory, a couple of quarries, replanted tree plantations, and over the moors. Sometimes the trail was obvious, other times we had to pick our way. We encountered muddy and boggy parts today, too. Navigating over the moor was very easy because they have installed a number of marker posts for Coast to Coast walkers. Where there were no markers, we really studied our maps and guide to figure it out. We only had to rely on Gary Garmin once today when we came to a point where several paths went off in three or four directions. We could see people on two different paths. We figured it all out, though, and Gary confirmed that we had chosen correctly. Once we were over the moor, we knew we were in the Yorkshire Dales as the landscape changed dramatically.

We stopped for lunch by a sweet little stream; we sat in the sun on the grass, leaning against a stone wall, and enjoyed listening to the stream and the birds, watching the butterflies (white with orange spots on the ends of their wings!), and eating the best ham sandwich! We were within a mile of Orton so we just sat there for the longest lunch break we have taken. We knew what awaited us in Orton, though, so we moved on. The first stop in town was the chocolate shop! I don’t know why I didn’t take a photo inside because the chocolates were so pretty in the display case. I guess I was too intent on choosing my chocolates. I bought a “tub” of chocolate ice cream (just a scoop in a cardboard dish) and some chocolates. My challenge will be to be disciplined and eat only one chocolate a day!

After we had our ice cream and popped in to the village shop, we went on to the George Hotel. We knew we were early for check-in but thought we’d give it a try. To our surprise, there was no one around. We sat down in the pub and waited a bit, then hooked up to their WiFi on our phones and waited some more. We were struck by the fact that it was all unlocked and we were just sitting there with all their liquor on display… After about an hour, Sarah, the young woman traveling alone, came down from upstairs, said she had checked in at 12:30 and had we called the number on the door? We had totally missed it because it was on the door that was pushed open. Anyway, it was almost four so we just waited and soon got checked in. Thankfully our bags were in our rooms because we are up on the third floor. I could just imagine us crawling and dragging our bags up all those stairs like we had in Grasmere!