The Good, the Bad and the UGLY

Today the weather gods smiled on us, giving us only light rain for our entire 13 miles trek.  Tara and I had calculated an 8 hour walk and were very pleasantly surprised when we made it in 6. This was the countryside we had envisioned when first we conceived this walk. In preparation, Tara and I had joked that we would have breakfast, walk, stop for tea, walk, stop for lunch, walk, arrive at our destination for dinner, crash.  The actuality is that we rarely stop for more than a few minutes.  Today we never even sat down for the entire 6 hours. We stood standing in the rain eating bread and cheese for about 5 minutes and then took off again. I think the reason for that is that we never know for sure how long it's going to take us or how the weather will be.  If it's good, we want to take advantage and make good time.  If it's bad we want to hurry and get through it. Sometimes it's because we're walking with people who are fast and we want to stay with them for awhile, either because of the conversation or because we often need to consult each other about the route.  We do that often because the route really isn't always clear and none of us want to add any unnecessary mileage. Today, in fact, we started off in the wrong direction with great conviction and were greeted by Jonathon and Barry who pointed us in the right direction.

Here's one of our first sights:

A prehistoric stone circle

I have no idea of the significance, but I did stand in the center and I'm not sure if it was my imagination or not, but I did feel a special energy.

Here is Tara doing something that we have done dozens of times.  Stiles come in many configurations.  This one is stone.  You can also see what a good C2C sign looks like.  Wish they were all so clear.

Now let me show you the good, the bad and the ugly:

Smardale Gill Viaduct

Bridge across Scandal Beck

Now the BAD:

This is what a LOT of the walk looks like.  Thank goodness for gaiters and poles!

I'll show you the UGLY tomorrow.  I'm having technical difficulties with photos and I'm too pooped to go on now.  Good night!