After a wonderful rest day in Kirkby Stephen, we left early and hit the trail at 6:45AM. All of our inns have offered breakfast and most have also offered to make us packed lunches for a fee. We have availed ourselves of the lunches at every opportunity. We had heard from other walkers that many B and B’s would let you swap out breakfast for another sandwich in a packed lunch for the road. We did that this morning and it was perfect.

It’s Monday, June 5 and we are walking from Kirkby Stephen to Keld in Yorkshire. The morning was sunny but breezy and there were clouds over the mountain tops. The wind picked up as we climbed and it was quite cool. We put all our layers on.

Our first destination is Nine Standards, more on that later. It is a 4 mile climb which took us about 2.5 hours. Along the way, we passed many pastures of sheep (surprise). But to our joy, we got to see a sheepdog working. He was running along with the shepherd who was on a quad bike. The dog would take one group of sheep one way and the shepherd another group the other way. It was a joy to watch. Here is a picture of them working together.

This next picture is looking back over the Eden Valley and Kirkby Stephen where we stayed last night. Beautiful isn’t it?

But looking ahead is a different story. The mountain top and the Nine Standards are shrouded in clouds. It looks foreboding.

We are getting closer now and it is clearing up a little.

As we reach the top, the clouds burn off and the bright sun comes out. It is still windy and cold however. These standards continue to be a mystery. They are ancient, but nobody knows really why they were built. Some think they may have been a boundary marker. Others surmise that they were built to look like an army encamped on the hilltop to keep away invaders. Whatever their original purpose, they still stand today and are quite impressive.

As we depart the Nine Standards, we head across the long top of a boggy moor. We cross over from Cumbria to Yorkshire. We are now in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, our second national park of the trip. There are no people and no structures visible as far as the eye can see. There is no traffic noise, nor other sounds of civilization. We might be the only ones on the planet. The trail is hard to follow because of the bogs. This would not be the place to get lost or to fall in a bog and break a leg. No one might ever find you.

All along our walk we have seen fields of these cute little cotton ball wildflowers. I don’t know what they are called, but I finally got a pictures.

We take a lunch break as we begin to descend the moor and as we look across the valley we see all these rectangular cuts through the heather. What is all that about, we wonder?

When you are on the top of a lonely moor with a trail that is hard to follow, any sign is a gift, even this very simple one.

Have you ever seen a grouse butt? Now you have! That’s what these are. They are hides for grouse hunters and are called butts. They are built in a line up this little ravine.

So here is one of those rectangular cuts through the heather up close. It has just been chopped off, just above the ground. Still no clue what that’s all about.

All along the walk we have seen sheep doing what these two are doing. Sheltering from the sun and wind in a cut in the hillside. It is cool and out of the wind. This old gal was a little too mangy to compete for Sheep of the Day however.

We passed a whole family of pheasants and were able to take a grainy picture of this one from a distance.

Here are our Sheep of the Day winners. These two lambs posed nicely in front of an old stone bridge and were very cute.

Well, we have reached Keld, and it is the halfway point on our walk. However, we still have 0.75 miles to get to our lodging.

This is not our lodging, but it is an interesting name.

As we travel our last little bit, we pass more beautiful fields of green and some with wildflowers.

When we do reach the Greenlands Inn, we find a wonderful room and a beautiful garden kept by Jude and Michael. They serve us a 5 star dinner with portions that are huge. It was really good. Before dinner we enjoyed a cup of tea in the garden while we planned tomorrow’s route.

We asked Michael about the heather cutting and here is what we learned. They used to burn the heather occasionally to get out all the old dead branches and plants. But they are not allowed to burn on the peat bogs any longer because it damages the bogs. So now they basically mow it down. It will naturally reseed and be healthier in the long run. There we go, we learned something else we had never known.

Today was another great day on the trail.

Today’s miles: 12.45. Total miles so far: 93.55. Miles remaining: 96.45.

Thank you Lord, for this amazing adventure.

God bless,
Coe