Spirit Trail Day 4 - Under starter's orders

Let's face it, any day that starts with gin for breakfast is going to be a good day.  You can blame me for this one.  Last night (in the Uplands Hotel) we were told about a magic gin which changed colour when you added tonic but it wasn't until this morning that I thought "we should really get a video of that".  Click on the photo to watch the video.

Magic gin in FAB Cumbria Crystal glass

After that it was all downhill - literally - we headed down into Cartmel to meet Peter at Unsworth's Brewery.  He told us all about the fascinating story of how they came to be there and loads of secrets about how to make beer - in fact I feel.a new venture coming on!

A legendary brew in every sense. http://www.unsworthsyard.co.uk/

Hops growing in Unsworth's Yard

Special beer for L'enclume

Adjacent to Unsworth's Yard is Hot Wines - also owned by the Unsworth family & home to a superb selection of wines & spirits from around the world. They buy direct from the importers so always have things you won't find anywhere else.  Of course when they offered us a gin we knew it would have been very rude to refuse...

As if 2 gins & a few beer tastings weren't enough, next we headed off to meet the utterly lovely Judith Wren, the creator of Kin Toffee Vodka. We enjoyed a riotous lunch in the Royal Oak (best tomato soup on the planet!) as Judith told us all about how Kin Vodka came to be.  She still creates the toffee flavour by hand at home and it's perfectly balnced with the vodka - dangerously moreish!

LOTS of laughs & FAB vodka!
 https://kinvodka.co.uk/

After all that excitement we still had an 8 mile walk over to Bowland Bridge. Fortunately the weather perked up & Karen got very excited by the blue skies!

To be fair the views over to Whitbarrow Scar were superb & we thoroughly enjoyed the yomp.  We're not racing through & there are plenty of pauses for catching our breath - we're also scoffing plenty of blackberries from the hedgerows & making the most of our Hydro Flasks. Today we filled them at 9am and the coffee was still piping hot at 4pm - plus the colours are brilliant!

Utterly fabulous Hydro Flasks

Just as we arrived at our hotel (the Hare & Hounds) a cyclist passed by & shouted to ask if we were the Spirit Hikers - how cool is that? We don't know who you are but if you're reading this we want you to know that you made 2 tired hikers very happy indeed!

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Spirit Trail Day 3 - Last one to the hotel smells!

With absolutely no disrespect to Karen, the first person to the hotel smelled as well.  Today

we covered 8 miles from Greenodd, up and over Bigland Hill and down into Cartmel.

The weather was decidedly "claggy" - muggy, grey and occasionally rainy - meaning I had a waterproof on but may as well not have bothered because I was sweating buckets underneath it and ended up soaked to the skin anyway.  (The persperation was probably 40% proof after a wee sampling session last night...)

Essential product testing...

Although straightfoward the route wasn't without its challenges.  We did consider limbo dancing under this tree but feared the weight of the pack would interfer with my otherwise contortionist moves.

Bigland Tarn was looking misty, moody & ethereal (which is another way of saying it was misty & we couldn't see much), still, it was the perfect place for a quick cuppa & a snack.

Bigland Tarn

Both of us SUPER impressed with our
Hydro Flasks!

From there it was a pretty easy "over & down" into Cartmel - but along the way the oddest thing happened & I promise that this is such a wild co-incidence that I wouldn't make it up as it would sound too cheesy!  As we came down the hill I pointed out some pretty cottages to Karen, Crumble Cottages, and mentioned that they were owned & run by some friends (Sarah & Stuart). Two minutes later we arrived at a road junction at the exact same moment as Sarah & Stuart (on their way to the shops) and they promptly dragged us back to their place and plied us with hot tea and biscuits (obviously against our will!) 😀

Beautiful Crumble Cottages

 Fully fuelled for our final push we headed for our hotel for the night - the Uplands Hotel in Cartmel.  Karen booked it and I have absolutely no idea what influenced her decision, though there may be a tiny clue in the photo...

After the escapades of the day we were both a little whiffy and were very glad of a long hot shower - I'm pretty sure the rest of the guests will appreciate the fact we took a shower too.

The bar has a spectacular selection of gins, including one which changes colour, so I thought it best to update this while I could still see straight... 

Tomorrow we're visiting a gin emporium and a brewery before sampling liqueurs over lunch & attempting to walk 8 miles. What could possibly go wrong? 😀

PLEASE spare a moment to follow our supporters & visit their websites.  I can't put all the fancy clicky links in while we're on the road but these are all the lovely folks who are helping us with this adventure. We love them all! 😁💖

Spirit Trail Day 1 & 2- Hello Stranger...

Well, we did it, we finally met. After around 5 years chatting on social media and several months of intense planning for the trip I finally met my hiking partner for the next 2 weeks.  Karen is absolutely lovely though frankly I'm just pleased she didn't turn out to be a 20 stone biker named Barry from Milton Keynes.

There was no time to mess around with slow introductions - within an hour of her arrival we were off to Ulverston for the start of our trek and a meeting with the lovely guys at Shed 1 Distillery.   They're often asked why they don't do distillery tours - the answer is quite simple - you see that photo below - it's an aerial photo of their distillery.  The entire distillery.  There's a reason they're called Shed 1 and it's because despite winning awards for their excellent gins, they distil everything in a 25 litre still in the shed in their back garden.

We had a fabulous time sampling 3 of their brews and learning all about the botanicals they use and where they source them (mainly Cumbria).  Our trip was beginning very well indeed...

From there it was over to Cumbria Crystal who have very kindly agreed to give us two absolutely beautiful crystal goblets for our trip - the perfect G&T demands the perfect glass.  You can find them in Ulverston opposite Booth's and the factory shop is open 7 days a week.  If you visit Mon - Fri you can watch the experts blowing the glass in the factory - but please do remember it's a working factory and the glass blowers are performing an immensely skilled task so it's best not to distract them.

Their finished products are unashamedly top end and can be seen in all the British embassies around the world as well as in James Bond films and Downton Abbey (amongst many others).  Here's the VERY best bit though - from October through to 22nd December you can book to go in and blow your own crystal bauble for your Christmas tree.  How cool is that?  We already have our session booked!  You can book yours HERE - do it soon as they're bound to sell out really quickly.

The crystal goblets are absolutely beautiful and I know they will be perfect for our many G&Ts - we've got them wrapped up like footballs so we don't damage them!

After all of that excitement it was time to check into our hotel for the night - Virginia House in the centre of Ulverston.  This little gem has a well deserved reputation for fine dining and the fact that it has one of the best gin bars in Cumbria didn't influence our decision at all.  Honest...

Craig and Louise are the perfect hosts and the food was absolutely superb - really imaginative and utterly delicious.  I mean this in a really good way, but the whole thing was like getting to taste all the amazing food they make in a Masterchef final.

Following such a fine feed - and perhaps the occasional gin (just to be polite!) we slept like logs and devoured a huge breakfast this morning before setting off.  Craig and Louise waved us off and, as we took our very first steps, the very first drops of rain began to fall...

So how was the first hike?  Well, it rained. And rained.  And then rained a little more.  There was also a howling gale as we made our way up over the back of Hoad Hill - but the problem with putting two resolutely positive people together is that we refused to acknowledge that we were either cold or wet.  "Well it could be worse..."  "And at least it's not..." were the main topics of conversation

"At least there are no bears..."

"At least it's not snowing..."

The first day was just a short hop to Greenodd as I had a commitment to honour with the Arthur Ransome Trust - I was reading a chapter in a marathon reading of Swallows and Amazons.  Such a shame the weather wasn't playing ball, but it was still an excellent event!

Tomorrow we're back on the road again so join us (or even watch out for us!) as we make our way from Greenodd to Cartmel.  Here's hoping for sunnier skies!

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You Shall Not Pass!

I love it when someone contacts me as a result of a blog - and even better when it's someone full of useful information like Nick Thorne.  Nick is the Countryside Access Adviser for the Lake District National Parks Authority (LDNPA) and after reading my last blog he contacted me to ask more about the overgrown routes.

Now, this may sound daft, but even though I've been hiking for years, it never occurred to me to report an overgrown path - I wouldn't have known who to report it to or what happened next, but Nick has answered all that for me!

Here's what he says:

In a nutshell, the management of Rights of Way falls to the local highway authority (usually the county council or unitary authority).  Here it is Cumbria County Council.  We have an agency agreement with them, whereby all their powers and duties are delegated to us, and we look after everything inside the National Park (except for roads – sealed or unsealed).  That’s about 3,200km of footpath, bridleway, restricted byway, and byway.


Basically, we have a huge database, which has an entry for every gate, stile, signpost, and so on along each right of way.  We survey these at least every four years, and log the outcome.  We also receive reports from the public, and log all these.  From this, our five area based rangers pull up a list of everything that is reported in their patch as needing work, and will deal with it in due course.

Obviously "due course" is rarely as quickly as anyone would like it to be, but these guys have spent the past few years repairing the billions of pounds worth of damage done by Storm Desmond in December 2015.  There's a great set of FAQs here if you want more information.

As you can imagine, on many low level routes bracken is a perennial problem in some parts of the county and there is a strimming programme in place to try and combat it.  Of course storms and flooding events mean that resources have to be directed elsewhere at times, but we can all get stuck in, either with LDNPA or one of the many conservation groups working hard to keep our footpaths clear.

So, what's the best advice for dealing with overgrown paths?  Here are Nick's top 5 tips:

1.     Take a stout stick

2.     Wear trousers and a shirt (I can vouch for this as being excellent advice - also consider heavier trousers as I found the nettles still got through my light walking trousers.)

3.     Go back with your friends and neighbours with slashers and loppers

4.     Report it to your local highway authority

5.     Only use it out of the summer season

I'd also add that if you're wading through thick bracken, wear gaiters or keep your trousers tucked into your socks and do a full tick check afterwards

Not sexy, but then neither are tick bites...

The path less travelled...

Today I learned that, despite what the motivation posters might tell me, sometimes the path less travelled is less travelled for a very good reason. Or maybe I'm just an overly optimistic hiker.

Steve was off taking fab photos for his new book and I wasn't about to let a sunny day go to waste by finishing the decorating so I slung some goodies into a rucksack, plotted a route and headed out.  It all started really rather well...

I even got serenaded by a very tuneful sheep!

Then it went a bit wrong, and this is what I mean by me being an optimistic hiker.  When I plan a route I assume a footpath is a footpath - that a nice, bright, inviting green wiggly line on a map will translate into a nice sunny footpath.  I know - mad right?  I should know better after all of these years.  To be fair I've spent so long on the high fells, where this is the case, that I'd forgotten low level walks could be quite different.

Overgrown doesn't even come close to what I encountered...

And this is where phase two of my optimism kicks in "it's tricky, but I'm sure it will be clear just around the next bend." Wrong, wrong, WRONG!

Optimism phase three goes something like "well, that's the end of that path, I'm sure the rest of the walk will be beautiful." Guess again.

Honestly, the photo above was taken from the top of a stone stile and shows my "path".  I'll leave you to pick it out for me.  I'm 5ft 10 ins and the bracken was nearly up to my head at times.

Optimism phase four is when I'm still determined to salvage some pretty views from my hellish hike to try and smugly prove that the "path less travelled" really does have nicer views.

Tom Tarn

Now I'm not saying they are bad views, I'm just saying that last week we drove, in a nice warm comfortable car, all the way to this:

I'm beginning to think that I could go off this hiking thing altogether.  Apart from the fact that there is deep and oddly sadistic joy at beating a bad route - sitting in the pub with a pint and a plate of food feeling that you've truly earned it as your arms and legs still tingle from all the nettle stings that made it through your clothing.  That could, of course, be the beer talking or, more likely, I'm now deep into optimism stage five "it wasn't that bad really".

The thing is, it can't put me off hiking as during the first two weeks of September I shall be embarking on a epic hike across the county with my good friend Karen.  The details are a closely guarded secret at the moment but watch this space and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.  Of course, after reading this, Karen may not trust me with any of the route planning... 😅