Lake trail
Lake trail
Trail sign, only 1.4 miles to Paradise
Bridge on the Grove of the Patriarchs trail.
Bridge on the Grove of the Patriarchs trail.
Grove of the Patriarchs trail.
Mountain Trails
Tag Archives: Cee’s Which Way Challenge
Paradise in every direction
A couple of trail pictures from my recent visit to Mount Rainier for Cee’s Which Way Challenge.
Carlisle to Lanercost Abbey
Most people “do” this 14 or so mile stretch in one day. The walking is pretty easy and even I could have done that (although it would have been a stretch), but we took two: Carlisle to Crosby-on-Eden, then Crosby-on_Eden to Lanercost Abbey.
We did this in order to backtrack a bit and spend the morning at the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle. This was a very worthwhile stop because we learned quite a bit about how to recognize the wall and the earthworks near it when un-excavated-which is most of the way. It made the walk into a sort of scavenger’s hunt.
On this stretch you start out walking along the Eden River in Carlisle, the main charm of this stretch is the wildflowers along the way.
It is a nice walk through Cumbrian countryside. The tower in the picture below is a folly, not an ancient fort.
The weather was okay until we got to Crosby-on-Eden, then the wind came up. Overnight it really blew, and the next day was blustery–good English weather with lots of atmosphere. It was in the stretch between Crosby-on-Eden and Lanercost that you start to see the signs of the earthworks and un-excavated wall. The only parts of the wall itself that you see are the stones re-purposed in churches, manor houses, etc along the way.
Hadrian’s Wall Path.
In this stretch you are walking on un-excavated wall with the defensive ditch running by your side.
Passing though farms and fields of buttercups.
As you leave the river the terrain is no longer flat, but sometimes that is because of human activity.
These young bullocks seemed to be saying “and don’t come back” to me. They had followed me across their field.
The sun came out at the end of the second day.
The end of that section, Lanercost Abbey, a lot of the stones for the Abbey were initially part of Hadrian’s wall.
Solway Firth to Carlisle City
Since life is moving fast and my ability to process the pictures from our last trip is not, I’m hoping to, at least on and off, work through our experiences walking the English National Hadrian’s Wall Trail day-by-day. Maybe life will slow down or I’ll speed up…but I’m not banking on it. Walking the wall was a major accomplishment for me, I am not well balanced or athletic, so I feel a need to spend some time reflecting on it.
This small gallery shows the variety of walkways that make up the national trail.
On our second day of walking Hadrian’s Wall Walk was about 9 miles from Boustead Hill through Burgh-by-sands (pronounced Bruff-by-sands) and other smaller villages, then along the Eden River into the city of Carlisle, we walked along roads (both paved and dirt), through cow pastures, beside a river and on narrow nettle and blackberry lined walk ways.
Follow that acorn!
Yesterday we touched down after a 23 day trip to England. The centerpiece of our trip was to walk the Hadrian’s Wall National Trail from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend, on the outskirts of Newcastle. We finished that walk a week ago today (officially it is 84 miles, but I can’t really brag-we did it over 12 days and had our luggage transported).
The National Trail is marked, well marked, by an acorn symbol.
Here are some pictures for Cee’s Which Way from the first day, walking along Solway Firth.
Setting out
(I have so many pictures of my husband’s back that I have it as a key word in Lightroom!).
The road along Solway Firth is prone to seasonal flooding. In several spots they have signs to let motorists know how deep the water will be so they know if it is safe to proceed.
Our first acorn (or at least the first one I noticed).
Ducks go that way. (Actually it means that there is a wildlife refuge, but they use the same format on signs to show pedestrians and cyclists which way to go).
Walking along the canal
These were taken along the Kennet & Avon Canal in Bath, England.
In response to Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge
Wall Walk
When did it get to be Friday?
In April, it seems so very long ago now, my husband and I spent three weeks visiting our son in China. A highlight of our trip was a hike up to and along the Great Wall starting at an un-restored area and ending at a restored one. It was a splendid day.
Our Flowery Path
May is a good month for puppy boot camp! Walking the dogs in the merry month of May is pure pleasure. I am blessed with neighbors who have splendid green thumbs, although in this case it seems like a red and orange thumb.
Signs of spring
These daffodil yellow ride-share bikes have started to crop up around the neighborhood.
Seaways
A somewhat different take for Cee’s Which Way Challenge this week. Last Friday I froze myself watching and taking pictures of a unique ship passing along the seaway of Puget Sound. This is a set of new cranes heading for the Port of Tacoma on a specially modified ship.
These cranes are very large, for unloading the new Panamax container ships. You can get a sense of how big they are as they pass by the Alki lighthouse and the ferries.
XingfuMama 