Trail notes

Thursday, July 4

The original plan for my last day of walking was to go from Chapel-le-Dale to Sedburgh, a 15-mile push including two hills. But my tour company couldn’t find me a room in Sebburgh, so they had reserved me a place in Dent. They had scheduled a taxi to pick me up at the end of the day in Seburgh and drive me to Dent. But Dent is actually on the trail between Chapel-le-Dale and Sedburgh. It’s at about the 10.5-mile point in the day. And the last 4.5 miles includes the second hill of the day. You can almost hear the gears in my brain turning. I’m not a strict walk completist. I don’t mind that there are sections of the Coast to Coast, the South Downs Way and the Southwest Coast Path that I didn’t walk because I took a day off for injury or exhaustion. And I’m technically not even doing the whole Dale High Way; the trip I booked is the Dales High Way Highlights, which takes the middle section of the trail in four or five days. So Sedburgh has no big symbolic power as an ending point, no “You’ve arrived” sign to celebrate at.

Yup, I called the taxi, cancelled the pickup, and made a shorter but still surprisingly tough walk to Dent. It was a good end to my journey.

IMG_5622 copy — The chapel in Chapel-le-Dale

The basic structure of the day was this: Get up along the side of Whernside, one of the Three Peaks, follow a trail skirting low around the side to the east, walk by a railway going northeast, climb up most of the way onto Whernside in a roughly northerly direction, and then descend into Dent. It was an uneventful day in most ways. I saw perhaps four people in the whole walk. And it was a good chance to reflect on some of the sensations I haven’t described enough in this blog. So I will leave you with some stray notes and a lot of photos of the day.

Things I haven’t mentioned, but that made this trip what it was, and photos, not necessarily related, from this day:

The smell of freshly mown hay.

IMG_5624 copy — That’s Whernside, like a big long breadloaf stretching out for miles.

The sound of birds whose calls I can’t identify.

IMG_5657 copy — She made a great racket and circled above me; I must have been passing near her nest.

The smell of cows, for better or worse.

IMG_5635 copy — You might recognize this rail bridge from the Harry Potter films.

The comical sheep, some bolting away terrified, others peering at me uncertainly, standing their ground and chewing grass until the last second, then moving off when I get to close.

IMG_5625 copy — Downward-facing sheep. (That joke is for Tracy)

The sight of so many different flowers along the path.

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The sound, in a dead quiet field, of flies buzzing as they rise from a cow patty, disturbed by my passing by.

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The dogs and their masters on paths and in pubs.

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The limestone cliffs of the first part of my Dales walk and the big rounded hills of the last few days.

IMG_5648 copy — The path rises from right to left up the side of Whernside. I won’t reach the top (off to the far left) but I’ll skirt a high line around the rim.

IMG_5652 copy — Going up the path to the higher ground on Whernside.

The feel of my leg muscles, tensed like steel cables, as I go on a steadily rising path.

IMG_5656 copy — The path down to Dent is surprisingly hard, because it is a chaos of rocks from fist size to the size of your head, packed into the ground to form an uneven, tricky surface to go down at a steady 20 to 30 degree incline.

IMG_5660 copy — It is both reassuring and oddly menacing, like a sign in a horror movie.

The hard calluses on my little toes.

IMG_5661 copy — Yeah, if you expect me to identify species of butterfly, you don’t know me.

The fascinating array of accents, and how the almost Scottish burr of Hadrian’s Wall Path communities slides into the different but related sounds of the Yorkshire accent.

IMG_5667 copy — The last mile is a cramped, overgrown riverside path, as if the trail didn’t want to let go.

And so I finished my walk, arriving in Dent to rest. And in the morning, I’d be off to London for a few plays, and then home. I walked 84 miles on Hadrian’s Wall Path and 44 miles of the Dales High Way. It’s been a good walk. What next? Well, I’ve heard about a few trails of interest from walkers along the way…