54 Miles Down - 138 Left To Go

Patterdale to Shap

We had a rough night camping last night. The campground was like one big, loud party. Normally we’d join in, but we were exhausted!

The campground was a huge sloped field and we positioned ourselves in what we thought was the flattest spot. At 1 am, we had had enough of our bodies sliding to bottom of the tent, so we did some late night tent realignment and finally got some sleep.

Our morning at Patterdale was a little mixed up too. We intended to grab breakfast and lunch-to-go at a local cafe/shop that our guidebook recommended, but the shop was closed for remodeling and the only open restaurant wouldn’t serve walk-in campers. We were without meals for the day. We had an abundance of nut butter and a couple of granola bars to tide us over the day’s 14 mile trek.

We enjoyed our last day in the Lake District. The wind blew like NM in the spring (minus the sand), but at least it wasn’t rainy. The views throughout the day were spectacular.

We met up with a group of similarly paced hikers, some from UK and a couple from Sweden, and spent the day walking together. The last few miles of the trail seemed to drag on, but having some company made it pleasant.

We rolled into Shap in the late afternoon. We were supposed to camp, but after last night’s rough camp experience, we decided to book a room at a B&B. Several of our Trail Friends were staying at the same place, so we all got take away (to go) fish and chips, beer from a bar and enjoyed our evening on the patio. What could be better than that?

We’ve got a 21 mile hike tomorrow in the North Yorkshire Dells. From the sound of it, it will be more rolling farmland than the mountain passes we’ve been covering in the Lake District. We’ve been warned it will be an exhausting day.

That’s enough writing for one day. I posted todays pics in our Day 5 gallery.

Goodnight friends and family!