Eighteen Chemeketans participated in this year’s international trek, covering about 120 miles of the Coast-to-Coast trail in northern England. The full trek is 200 miles with 29,000 feet of elevation gain, which would require a 20 day itinerary. We opted instead for a “best of” version that takes in the highlights and skips over some of the flatter, more agricultural sections. Because many of the towns on the route are small and remote, hotel rooms for eighteen hikers were not available, so we travelled as two groups, staggered by one day.
This classic trek passes through three national parks, encompassing a wide variety of landscapes including alpine lakes, pastureland, rolling hills, woodlands, meadows, moors, and rivers. The trek starts at St Bees on the coast of the Irish Sea, where we each stuck a foot in the surf and selected a stone to carry to the opposite side of England, as is the trekking tradition. From there we hiked into the heart of the Lake District, with its rugged, craggy landscape and grand sweeping views, spending each night in a different village. The first significant town was Grasmere, home to Wordsworth and other literary figures, and most importantly site of a renowned gingerbread shop. In Ullswater, we took a rest day and rode the ferry down the length of the lake and back, about 20 miles total.
After the Lakes District, we hiked into the Yorkshire Dales, best known as home to James Herriot, a fictional veterinarian featured in the series All Creatures Great and Small. The Dales were intensively mined for iron ore during the industrial revolution. The relics of that effort are still scattered across the landscape, offering mute testament to human vainglory. The area is now mostly managed as a game reserve for grouse hunting.
The last stretch of the trek passed through the Moors. The heather was in full bloom, providing a striking purple contrast to the bright green of fields. We saw far more sheep than people.
This part of England does not normally have a dry season. As a rule, at least a few days of rain would be expected even in midsummer. But we managed to do the whole route with no rain at all! While nice for us, England is currently under drought conditions, and the natives we met were rather perplexed. On our last day we had to divert from the main trail due to smoke from a peat fire that had been burning for weeks. Though now a familiar scenario to us here in the Pacific Northwest, the locals told us that this was a new experience for them.