FOOTPATHS

Part One

Ron and Charlene Friedman at St. Bees on the Irish Sea.

Hiking up to Loft Beck.

Local resident along the Swale route to Reeth.

Beggar’s Bridge Glaisdale.

Fleswick Bay on the Irish Sea.

England Coast to Coast 2005
A Walk from the Irish Sea to the North Sea

Link to part two

By Ron Friedman

Charlene and I love to walk — a statement you will not be surprised to see in a magazine devoted to walking. What we really like are walks lasting 10 to 15 days and that cover long distances — usually 100 to 200 miles — where we can walk at a good pace over mountain passes, across the moors or through the countryside, stopping at a country inn, mountain hut or bed and breakfast each night. So far, most of these trips have been in Europe and each time my wife and I do a new walk, it becomes our favorite. But walk across a country? You’ve got to be joking. The only country I had ever walked across is Vatican City and I did that one before breakfast. The England Coast to Coast walk(1) (C to C) really does go across England — Northern England to be exact.

In the United States, long distance walking generally means backpacking through fairly rugged country and carrying your food and a tent. Don’t get me wrong, backpacking is great. To my mind, however, it’s nice to have choices. Long distance walking in Britain offers the best of both worlds — at once remote and civilized. You can walk all day without seeing a soul knowing that a cup of tea and a moderately caloric treat awaits when you come in off the moors at the end of the day, followed (in order) by a hot shower, a pint and a hearty meal, and (yes!) clean sheets. For a surprisingly nominal sum, you can even arrange to have your luggage transported each day so that all you need to carry is a daypack. Sound intriguing? We certainly thought so.

When we began scratching the surface of long distance walking in the United Kingdom, we found dozens of established walks: the Pennine Way, the Cumbria Way, the Cleveland Way, the Dales Way, the West Highland Way, just to name a few. The ones listed above have actually achieved the status of National Paths and are clearly marked from beginning to end. For the most part, National Paths traverse public lands, clearly marked rights of way or public footpaths. The C to C is different; it is not a National Path. It is an agglomeration of many paths. Through its almost 200 miles across England, it crosses three national parks (Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors), the Pennine mountain range (England’s “continental” divide) and countless farms, fields, streams, towns, villages, country roads, and even a major highway or two.

Charlene and I recently completed the C to C. We did it in 15 walking days with a rest day in the middle. We loved it. Since finishing the walk and returning to our normal lives, we have been unable to stop thinking about this trip: the weather, each segment of the walk, the people we met and the extraordinary camaraderie, the places we stayed, even the meals we ate. We’ve been on lots of long distance hikes before, but qualitatively speaking, this one was different, so different that, for the first time, I felt somehow compelled to create a record of our experiences(2).

Who are we? My wife, Charlene, and I are 48 and 56 respectively. We live in Northern California. We are relatively fit and have no dependents save our Welsh terrier. Some of our walk /hikes have been guided. Some have been self-guided as was the C to C. Here is a sampling: Tour du Mont Blanc (France, Italy, and Switzerland), GR5 (France), Iceland, Pyrenees (France and Spain), Dolomites Alta Via (Italy), Inca Trail (Peru), West Highland Way and Ben Nevis (Scotland), Yosemite high camps loop and Half Dome (California), Berner Oberland (Switzerland). The last long distance hike we did was the Berner Oberland. This was an organized small group trip where all we had to do was show up and hike; we didn’t have to make any of the arrangements, we didn’t even have to pay attention to where we were going, the trip leader did. The hiking in the Berner Oberland is beautiful (not to mention strenuous) and we had a fantastic trip, but it is just not the same, all-encompassing feeling we expected we might have if we ourselves are responsible for planning the trip and for getting ourselves from point A to point B every day for two weeks or so.

We had heard of the C to C for many years but really didn’t know too much about it except that it crossed northern England. After we both researched on the Internet, it seemed that the C to C was the one for us, so we started planning.

We found the Walker’s Chat Room on the Sherpa website (www.coast2coast.co.uk) and that was helpful. We lurked on the website for weeks, reading postings about faraway places with strange-sounding names (Nannycatch Beck, Dollywagon Pike to name a few). After seeing some of the questions and responses from people all over the world who had completed this walk (some more than once), we were comfortable that we would not be getting in over our heads.

There are two major companies that support the C to C — Sherpa and Coast to Coast Packhorse(3). We selected Packhorse (www.cumbria.com/packhorse) to make our accommodation arrangements and to transport our luggage. In consultation with Packhorse, we decided on a trip of 15 walking days and a rest day in Richmond. We also decided that mid-May would be the best time to start as it provided the most likely chance of good weather, no crowds, lack of insects, and the like. Packhorse came through brilliantly. Our accommodations ranged from very good to excellent and the luggage arrangements were flawless. As promised, each day when we arrived at our B&B, our things were there.

As soon as we were committed to this trip, I began to acquire the necessary guide accoutrements — maps and guidebooks.

I decided to get the Harvey strip maps, the Wainwright and the Hannon books. Upon receiving the above directly from Packhorse,
I decided that the Harvey maps were just not detailed enough. I didn’t believe that these maps would show us where to go on the ground. So, I located and ordered the (out-of-date and difficult to find) Ordinance Survey Strip (OS) maps 33 and 34. The scale on these maps, is more comforting. You can see every field, footpath, and road no matter how small. In fact, skipping ahead a bit, these OS maps ended up being exactly what we needed. Together with the step-by-step directions in the Hannon book, we believed we had what we needed.