Day 5 on the trail

What a day! Patterdale to Shap: 16 miles (horizontal) at least 2 miles vertical (up and down). After the requisite English breakfast, we left the Greenback Farm early and got instructions from the gentleman of the house on a 'shortcut' to the trail. An hour and a half later, we finally got over the hill far enough that we could no longer see the town of Patterdale. The route up to Kidsty Pike (2572 ft) was easier than the day 2 nearly vertical climb to the peak but still rather difficult as it's 5 miles to the top . We met a local Brit climbing to another peak who assured us that we'd find our way easily enough if we just followed the 'made' path.  Evidently that means the path they've filled with loose rocks in an attempt to keep you above the muck.  We did eventually make it to Kidsty Pike and, indeed, the views were amazing but the descent (which Mr. Wainwright describes as an easy grassy walk down) was grueling. Between the loose rocks on the made path, the erosion of so many footprints and the muck, we took about twice as long to get down as the guidebook suggests.  Once down to the Haweswater Reservoir, we had a fairly level walk to the town of Shap, our destination for tonight, but it was still 10 miles following that brutal 1 mile descent. We've had a good fish & chips dinner and are now back at our B&B where Margaret has taken our shoes to dry and our socks to wash.  Tomorrow's a 21 mile day through bogs & mud, but it's flat!

Here's a brief rundown of some of the lighter side of the trek so far:

• A tarn is a lake
• A gill is a stream 
• A fell is a hilltop
• The locals are very friendly &helpful, even when they send you off in the wrong direction
• Red squirrels are a protected and revered species here in the Lake District, they're still mad at the Yanks for introducing gray squirrels who compete with the reds for habitat &food. We were a instructed to watch for them on the mountain today as sightings are rare. We didn't see Anya, nor did we really look. 
• The coast to coast walk has its own communication tree-"word has it"- where all sorts of gossip about who's ahead of whom each day flourishes. The truth comes out at the destination town each night. 
• Good Samaritans or guardian angels abound. People pop up next to us on the path just when we need them. Today, a retired gentleman and his wife were hiking the hills and helped us with some way finding. When we stopped a while later on the trail to reset our compass bearings and reconcile with the map, he ran uphill to us and offered to help again because we looked as though we were 'suffering a crisis of confidence'! At the end of the day, as we asked for verification of the last 5 miles of path, 'Auntie Lynn' demanded we listen to her and repeat the directions so we were sure to go straight to Shap! Then she gave us some good English toffee and pointed us to the gate. 
• Gates are stiles and there are at least 45 different kinds of latches. Kay can even close them with her trekking pole when the mud is deep. 
• We've all got a new favorite vegetable: mushy peas  
• We think the Brits measure their miles differently than we do. In fact today Kelly decided we had a 23 day mile coming up on Wednesday! I don't think we have enough time over here to do that route!
• Of course, when you're this tired, we all make great verbal gaffes. Tonight Kay wondered aloud why she didn't have more 'endomorphins' and feel more energetic after all this walking. 
• Lastly, we've been blessed with sunshine and warm weather. Who ever thought we'd get sunburned in northern England. Auntie Lynn told us they throw clods of dirt at people who get sunburned! She also told us we looked 'cream crackered' or rather tired.
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