Hiking Without Supervision

Note to my readers: I realize these posts are more than a month old but so much has been going on. Bear with me as I try to catch up now that I’m at home…

May 20: After a great breakfast and tons of good coffee, we were dropped off where we left the trail the day before. The sun was out which is pretty much a miracle in this country. The boulder fields looked like they had been put there on purpose just to test each and every hiker… I mean, WTF, who takes a hiking trail across fn boulder fields when you could just as easily go around them (I’m missing a Murray rant at this moment).

A very pleasant man stopped us and asked where we were headed. When we said Hebden Bridge, he said he had some tips. The next words out of his mouth was “the best beer can be found…”, well that was it, he had Eric at beer.

As usual, I needed to pee and we thought we had a good spot by a parking lot next to the trail. No one around until I squatted and the guys say someone is coming. I thought they were kidding me, but then two cyclists came by. O.M.G. I couldn’t stand up with my knickers around my ankles, and I couldn’t just squat there. So I did what anyone else would do and said ‘OMG OMG are you FN kidding me, don’t look, turn the other way, and all kinds of shit you can imagine. One of the cyclists said “why is the moon still out at this time of day”. Everyone is an fn joker and of course DB took a video of the whole thing. No! You are not getting to see that.

We finally found a tea truck and stopped for a drink and bacon rolls. The owner had a dog named Texas but none of us had the energy to really find out why. Out next planned stop was a pub in the middle of nowhere called the White House and we thought we would never get there. But after one (or more) fn boulder fields, we saw it in the distance. It was enough to make us all perk up and get some speed on (especially Eric). We ran into John at the White House and the guys had a wee chat.

The rest of the day was hiking a flat trail along and around a reservoir that helped knock out some miles. Across another boulder field with a climb up to a monument, where we had a second lunch.

We love pavers!! Coming down from the Monument was steep and long. It seemed never ending through the trees then on to the canal to get to our ‘Victorian’ apartment. After getting settled in to a three story house, and feeling human after a nice hot shower, we went to the Old Gate pub suggested by the gentleman we met this morning (seems so long ago).

We ran into John again at the pub and left him and Eric chatting (dangerous I know) while DB and I went to the CoOp to get food for breakfast and for lunch the next day.