The Lake District: One

I'm not gonna lie, the Lake District was amazing, incredible, gorgeous, you name it. I will have to talk about it over two or three posts including one just dedicated to food. (Get excited, Sara!) Also, since I took almost 400 pictures of views, rock walls, water features, animals, signs, and what-have-yous, I will do my best not to post them all.

Even though we were 100% unprepared for heavy hiking, we hiked somewhere between 30 and 40 miles in 2 1/2 days. For example, the most hike-able shoes I brought to London have ribbons for the laces, Shelby wore Keds, and all of us only had jeans. Everyone else we saw on the trails was completely decked out in extreme hiker's gear, complete with walking poles. But as I said, this did not stop us from hiking (or as Brits say, walking) until we dropped. It was worth it. Someday, when I go back, I will be set to rock the trails.

We stayed in a loverly little hostel that was also a farm. (See the rooster below.) It was beautiful and the accommodations were decent, but the water pressure was nil. It took real determination to shower.



There were free range children on the farm. They were hard to find, but they sure tasted delicious!

Our first hike was improvised, even though we had some maps. We walked up through sheep fields and found ourselves a nice view of the valley and Grasmere Lake.



My favorite walk was to Easedale Tarn. The hike was very rocky but the tarn was beautiful. We also fed a duck that was blind in one eye. We bonded. Shelby and I are starting to dress alike. Should I start to worry about that? (P.S. The matching was a coincidence.) The tarn is gorgeous, no?


It was nice to rest at the top.

The worst hike was the Alcock Tarn. It was so steep and hard and the tarn wasn't nearly as pretty. I couldn't even get excited that we made it.
But the view was lovely. And apparently I'm trying out for America's Next Top Model in this photo.

Plus is was the sunniest and hottest day Grasmere had seen in seven years so we were very hot and we all got a little to a lot sunburned. Luckily I was in the "little" category, miracles of miracles. This scarf was my only sunblock.

Then I chopped a rock in half.

The end.