Miles walked today: 10.5

Total trip miles: 150.5

Elevation gain today: 325 ft.

Our accommodations: Park House

We left Danby Wiske fully prepared for the rain today. It was just slightly misting when we left, but we were glad to be protected against the water on all the foliage we were brushing through. Today was quite a contrast—open fields and long passages like green tunnels. Since it is early in the season, and perhaps because there weren’t as many walkers as usual the last two years, some of the paths are really overgrown.

Navigating today was quite simple as we made our way through the farms with no trouble. We were also quite proud of ourselves for walking calmly through a bunch of cows lying on the path by a gate. (We did scan to make sure there were no calves or bulls present.) And I must tell you that any time we passed by chickens, even some ducks, Naughty Nancy tried to sic them on me! I do like chickens, but not when they get that look in their eye and start chasing me.

As far as cows and chickens being intimidating, though, none of them are as heart pounding as trying to cross the A19–a major freeway here. We had to wait for an opening and then scamper to the middle across three lanes of traffic and then do the same to get to the other side. It’s a freeway, there was no slowing down!

The trail was much quieter today. The only people that passed us were two young women that went charging past us while we were taking a break. At our lunch spot, Chris and Diane came over to say hello as they passed by. Later in Ingleby Arncliffe as we were passing through, they were taking a break at a picnic table so we sat and talked a while. We were all so close to our B&Bs we had time to just sit around. Before we left, Bonnie and Adrian came by. Other than the four of them, we saw no other walkers today.

The weather today was really pleasant. We had just a bit of the mist in the morning and a strong wind did kick up for a while in late morning. Also in the afternoon, not a minute after I said, “We really haven’t had much rain today, ” the sky got darker, the wind started blowing, and a light rain started. That didn’t last long, though, and the rest of the afternoon was warm and beautiful.

After a steep climb once we left Ingleby, we reached Park House before four. No one was here but they have a comfortable outside sitting area and yard so it was no hardship to wait.