Hit the wall day

Today was supposed to be an "easy" day.  We started off in a drizzle, following a sweet little path to a small village nearby, Muker.  It was a little deja vu, because we were walking on a rocky streambed again most of the time.  But the sound of the river next to us and the gorgeous views made it delightful.  One of the best treats was seeing huge flocks of pheasants very close to us.  For some reason I can't access the photos.  When I can I will post them.  After a pretty tough trail, we were greeted by this amazing series of paths through the fields entering Muker:

Slate path, a veritable freeway for us.

We stopped for tea in here and had delicious scones.  The English really know how to make them.

We were joined by a wonderful group from Tasmania, the same ones I spoke with last night.  Two couples who encouraged us to come trek in Tasmania next! I wanted to get their photo but they were too back lit.  Maybe we'll meet up with them again tomorrow.  We did get a picture of the two I've mentioned several times before, Jonathon and Barry:

After dawdling here for about an hour (which turned out to be a big mistake energy-wise, but more about that later), checking out the woolen store full of spectacular sweaters knitted and signed by locals, we set out again, following the river virtually all day.  One gorgeous river valley after another:

This is Gunnerside where we chose to continue walking next to the river.

See all those wonderful walls that divide the sheep?  Well, to get through those you have to climb through stiles, which have become much smaller and more difficult to navigate each day.

We often had to remove our packs to barely squeeze through

We must have climbed through at least 50 of these today! I'm not kidding.  And when there weren't stiles like these, there were ones like this, and this is a really nice one:

The day was fantastic, weatherwise.  Intermittent sunshine with puffy white clouds.  Almost no rain.  Some wind at times and many places that elicited fond memories of childhood books. Sometimes we turn a corner and truly expect to see fairies or gnomes. It's no wonder so many great fantastical stories have been written by authors who live in these parts.

The last 2 miles about did us in.  We were ready to hitch a ride, call a cab, anything but keep walking on our poor tired feet.  We did it though!  A few more fields, a few more stiles to climb up and over or through, a few more:

By the time we arrived in Reeth we couldn't even conceive of walking anywhere for dinner (or even putting on our shoes), so we had a mediocre dinner (our first) in the pub in the hotel where we are staying.  I had prayed for a tub tonight, and here it is, thank God.  Early to bed tonight for sure.  Praying that feet stop hurting during the night so they are ready for another 11 miles day tomorrow.  Then a day off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

The mistake of tea in the morning was that our energy is much higher in the morning and we had decided before we came that we would push through as much as possible early in the day so we could take it easier in the afternoon.  We were right.  Today was unnecessarily tough because of lollygagging in Muker, but we had to check out our theory I guess.

Before I close I want to share a little hiking wisdom:

• Whoever takes the lead always walks too fast.
• Being short is an advantage when clambering over rocks in a creek and standing in gale force winds;  being tall makes climbing high stiles and very high rocks easier.
• Sheep are very skittish.  All those fabulous photos you see must all have been taken with a fancy telephoto lens
• English miles are much longer than American miles.  Any of the folks on this trek, even some Brits, will substantiate this. We're going to Google it.

Good night :).  Many thanks for your sweet messages and lovely sentiments.