Day 9/Hike Day 7: Kirby Stephen to Keld
- kedeland
- Sep 17, 2023
- 2 min read
AKA...the bog in the fog hike!
This morning we woke up to power in Ravenstonedale, which was a welcome addition to an already fantastic destination. We had a marvelous breakfast: tea (of course), sourdough toast, yogurt with granola and black current preserves, and the most amazing croissant waffles with bananas, toasted pecans, and a mascarpone cream. Needless to say...we didn't eat lunch today.
After a quick taxi ride back to Kirby Stephen, we started our hike with a climb up to Nine Standards Rigg, which is a) The summit of Hartley Fell and b)a group of 9 large and distinct cairns at said summit. No one really knows why they're there...based on the weather today, my best guess is they were for the shepherds to stand behind to stay out of the wind (howling around 40 mph today) and rain (which was horizontal).
A further treat awaited us after our foggy, blustery summit: the notorious peat bogs of the central dales. Navigating the bogs in the fog, wind, and rain proved to be an tricky but rather enjoyable (and definitely gratifying) practice. A big and well overdue shoutout to Barb/Mom here, who copied, cut, and laminated nearly 100 small maps for this journey: you can see them in action below!
Unfortunately due to the coordination speed required to cross the bog, no pictures were taken of the actual crossings. After the first couple crossings, we discovered that running across them at top speed with trekking poles for balance was a fantastic method. As Mrs. Weasley says to Harry when he crosses through to Platform 9 3/4 the first time, "Best to do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous." In fact, the only time I got into trouble was when I was slogging through slow: one poor step a couple inches to the right of dad's, and I was up my knee in bog water. Fortunately we were only a few miles from Keld: our lodge here has an excellent drying room.
The rest of our hike was through our beloved rolling green dales: this was my first time spotting the famous dale cow houses, which are two story barns in nearly every stone paddock. They dot the horizon in the picture below. The town of Keld had a very helpful infographic about them, which I will post below.
Our arrival in Keld marked our official halfway point on the Coast to Coast trail. We celebrated with ice cream, naturally, and greatly anticipate tomorrow, where we head on to Reeth via Muker.
Until tomorrow!
Kelsey and Brian
Step Count: 27,700
Miles Hiked Today: 11.44 miles (this may have been a Strava error: we were supposed to hike over 13 miles and I don't think we took any shortcuts through the bog)
Elevation: 2010 ft
Time Hiking: 4 hours 3 minutes
New UK Breeds Seen today:
Shorthorn Cattle
Gypsy Vanner Horses
Bog Monsters (probably, but it was too foggy to really tell if they were there)
I’ve been loving following your travels! SO impressed by your hiking. And adore your animal and food descriptions. Thanks for sharing!
Congratulations on finding a resourceful way to navigate the bogs and on reaching the 1/2 way point on the Coast to Coast trail.
Loved the Keld Lodge picture in a picture. Thanks Brooks and Diane for the great shirts and the memories!!
Ok, who had Day 9 in the pool for when the first Harry Potter reference would be made? I had Day 0.5
A picture is worth a thousand words!! 😘 Diane ... Keep up the good work!
I love all your food pictures! British food used to have a bad reputation, but your pictures make it all look delicious!