Jeri’s Steps: 43,614
Miles walked: 16.5
Elevation: 2,972
Pints: 5
Churches: none
Stiles: 1
Benches: none

400 miles walked!

And now the big one. The Pennine Way, Britain’s first national trail, suggested in 1935 and finally established in 1965. Reading Wainwright can leave you shocked that anyone would attempt it, having read his vivid sentences cataloging the miseries of the first few days on the peat moors, but half a century has gone by and today was beautiful! Difficult as it was long, the path can be treacherous, but the empty landscape is striking in its simplicity. Our good friend Alec joined us for the day’s walk. The three of us started at 8:30 and got to our B&B at 7:00pm with only brief stops for food. The ‘standard’ time in the guidebooks is 8 hours so who do they use to measure this, olympians?

After we conquered Jacob’s Ladder and a few other spectacular but unnamed climbs we spent a good part of the day on top on the moor. Quoting from Wainwright; “Nobody has a kind word to say about Featherbed Moss, and no wonder, for it does nothing to earn it”. Well we have to respectfully disagree. The sun shone and the walking was fast on the flagstones. Of course they were missing when Wainwright wrote those words. The flagstones were with us all day, long stretches of them in some places; taken from the old mills of Lancashire; it’s strange to think that some of the Kinder trespassers of 1932 were mill workers who once trod these same flagstones in very different circumstances.

The weather changed every hour; clear spells of grey cloud, showers, then bright sunshine but our rain gear worked well. The difficulty was putting it on and off and deciding how long to wear it.

The vistas are colorful and rolling and it is difficult to capture their magnificence in a picture. The long descent into Torside was a little treacherous, a narrow winding trail perched on the steep hillside, but it took us to our comfortable B&B where we said goodbye to Alec and started planning for tomorrow.

Also today we reached our 400th mile. Still in Derbyshire, Yorkshire beckons…

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