Good morning Y'all! I got off to a reasonable start, but I had to walk two miles to return to the trail.
I kept seeing these signs about the endangered grouse. It seems they are a delicacy, especially the black ones. There are hunting seasons here in Britain, but not now, thank goodness.
Surely they jest.
My first challenge of the day was safely traversing these rocks. Some of them were almost as tall as I am. My arms were exhausted from scrambling over them.
This is Grandpa, Dad, Son, and Border Collie out for a hike. Thank goodness, because the son caught up with me. I had accidentally dropped the case for my wireless earbuds. You have to have the case to charge them. There was a bit of humor later. Border Collies are my dream dog, and I was whispering sweet nothings into George, the dog’s, ears, calling him sweetie when I realized Grandpa was right behind me. He gave me a chuckle and called me “sweetie” right back. I am sure that I turned fifteen shades of red.
The Cauldron Snout Waterfall, at 200 yards long, is the longest in England.
Another view of this massive waterfall.
I walked by this military area, which had all kinds of warnings. I have seen military super-fast planes flying low through the canyons for several days. I don’t know my airplanes, but they were small, fast, and looked like something from a spy movie.
Finally, after several hours, I crossed a bridge over the river.
A herd of similar-looking horses was grazing high up in the mountains. The grass must be very rich because none of them were thin, despite spending the winter in the high mountains. This one still has his shaggy winter coat.
It is hard to imagine the vastness of the Upper Pennine Trail. If you look closely, about a third of the way from the left are two dots - hikers.
Getting closer to the great crevasse.
A view of the miles-long valley.
This might have been one of the scarier things I have ever done on a hike. I had to climb down a rock fall, the equivalent of the Empire State Building. It was straight down. It took me about an hour and a half to get down. Often, I had to sit on a rock, extend my leg, and reach out to the next rock. This was definitely an E-ticket ride. One slip and it would have been a much faster way down.
Looking back up from about half-way down.
Holy crapola. Another massive group of rocks requiring prayers for help. My phone map was acting weird all day. It wouldn’t connect to the satellite. I could still kinda follow it. I was on the trail the entire way down this long, rock-laden mountain, but when I got to the bottom, the little arrows showed that I was off the trail. I ended up having to climb over a massive, straight-up mountain. I didn’t have a choice. It is not like I can call Uber, or stick my thumb out for a ride. Trust me - I would have tried it. I turned a 12.5-mile mountain hike into a 19.4-mile grueling day.
My instructions for the day were to go to the Stag Inn and call for a ride to my hotel, which was quite a distance from the trail.
I had to wait about an hour, so I went across the street to the Post Box Pantry and got a Diet Pepsi and one of those Millionaire Shortbread Bars. Yum Yum Yum. I ate about a third of it and polished the rest off for dessert tonight.
My hotel for the night has beautiful rooms. Very British, complete with tea service.
For dinner, I walked down the street to a pub. I got a “Southern Fried Chicken Sandwich.” It was more like a Chicken Parmesan Sandwich, without the Parmesan. It was decent. I was hungry, so I devoured most of it.
So it is time for me to get my pack ready for tomorrow.
Good night and God Bless!
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