Nix the van...

The Ms got a preview of overall British service quality (hey, I hear there's a new product in development to measure such things!) The net result--no 15 seat van rental.

Instead, we're going with 2 seven seaters. And we all seem to be concluding that might work out better anyway.

Rather than get bogged down in the details of how the driving for each leg is going to go, I have a new strategy. Each day, we will plan the next day. Given the forecast, that makes even more sense:

As a reminder of the basic schedule...

July 1st: fetch second van from Carlisle, do loop walk in St Bees.
July 2nd: walk Ennerdale Bridge to the slate mine, and drive to Grasmere where we stay the night.
July 3rd: drive back to Borrowdale and walk to Grasmere.
July 4th: walk Grasmere to Glenridding.
July 5th: rest day in Glenridding).

Test Run: Mt Si

Knowing that we needed an elevation challenge before the real thing, we tackled Mt Si today. We set off early enough to be on the trail by 7:40am, mostly to avoid the promised crowds on such a popular hike.

Steady slog uphill, took about 2.5 hours to do the 4 miles up. I found the steps a little hard--many of them are rather high for a little person like me :) But overall, especially armed with poles, it was very doable and quite enjoyable. 

We stopped at the top to enjoy the view, eat sandwiches, and have coffee! In a fit of brilliance, DC brought along flasks with boiling water and milk, and instant coffee. Delicious, given the circumstances.

DC headed up a little further--more of a rock scrambling. I had thought we were looking at Haystack, but in fact it was out of view from where I was sitting and a much more substantial rock face. Needless to say, neither of us attempted!

Haystack. In about three weeks, we'll be hopefully visiting Haystacks, Cumbria, if the weather allows.

We headed back down. The trail was already much busier with people coming up, so we took the Talus Loop side trail, which was delightful--narrow, wilder, and quiet.

Took about 5 hours from when we left the trailhead to when we returned. Not bad! (Note that the MapMyWalk pace numbers are absurdly exaggerated...it thinks we did the whole thing in 2 hours! No idea why.)

Everything falling into place beautifully

15 seat van BOOKED! Fantastic. The logistics are slightly different than the last plan. We all meet up in St Bees (the Ls and Ms arriving by train, Cs by car). Next day, DC drives the van drivers to Carlisle to drop off Cs rental and pick up van.

Current van drivers are MM, DC, and RL. If it's an automatic, should I "woman up" and add myself to that roster? Not even an option if it's a manual.

Training finally going really well. DC & I conquered a 2000ft climb on Sunday, up Tiger Mt Summit #3.

I followed that with a 7 mile walk home from downtown Redmond today. Feeling creaky right now, but overall optimistic that the walk is doable.

Best discovery of the weekend--hiking poles are useful! On a steep uphill, the poles make it feel less tiring. On a steep downhill, they're practically essential for stability. These are the poles I got from Costco:

Ah....the 15 seat Ford Transit to the rescue...

MM used the miracle of communication to establish that we can, after all, rent and drive a minivan that will accommodate everyone. That changes everything! Here's the re-think:

Day 0: "Fancy meeting you here!"

All meet up in Carlisle, pick up minivan. Drive (together!) to St Bees.

Day 1: "Warm up"

Loop walk, 5-8 miles
Acquire provisions (snacks etc) for days ahead

Day 2: "Drawing straws to (not) be driver"

Drive 11 people and bags St Bees to Ennerdale 20 mins
(Walkers set off east, 11 mile walk)

Drive bags Ennerdale to Grasmere 50 mins
Drive Grasmere to Honister Hause 34 min
Walk west to meet rest of party
Walk back to Honister Hause with everyone

Drive 11 people Honister Hause to Grasmere 34 mins
Drink

Map of bus system (not that we need it any more, with the wonders of a 15 seat van!)

Day 3: "We can't all drive..."

As muscles scream from the previous day's hill climb, there may be great enthusiasm for being the driver today.

Drive 11 people west Grasmere to Rosthwaite 29 min
Walkers set off east, 9 miles 2000 ft el
Drive back to Grasmere 29 min
Driver walks west from Grasmere to meet eastbound walkers

Day 4: "8 miles till a rest day"

Simpler days beckon

Walkers set off east, 8 miles 1800ft el gain
Drive bags to Glenridding 38 mins
Driver walks west to meet eastbound crew

Day 5: "Sit down protest"

I picture us spending the day on the lawn of one of the hotels in the sunshine drinking gin and tonic. Except that it probably will be raining and none of us will have the energy to walk to the bar to get the drinks and, since we're not in Kansas any more, no-one will bring the drinks to us. So we'll just slump somewhere blob-like.

Day 6 and beyond: "Too far away to care"

The biggest walking and driving challenges will be behind us. We'll be a well-oiled machine (or a creaking, groaning, grumpy machine) so I'm not going to think this far ahead.

Driving may be harder than walking...logistically

Because we're approaching this walk in an unconventional way (not walking coast to coast, nor even coast to middle, but walking a coastal loop then driving to the Lake District, and walking select segments not necessarily in the right direction or all together) we may have replaced a major walking challenge with a major driving one instead.

I think I'm the only one tangled up in the details of this. I'm hoping that a blog post will either untangle my brain or get everyone to freak out :)

Day 0: "Fancy meeting you here!"

All arrive in St Bees. Likely Cs by minivan, Ls and Ms by train.

Day 0 or 1: "Paperwork"

Everyone who might feasibly drive the 7-seat minivan has to present at the car hire place (probably Budget in Workington) to be added to insurance.

Day 1: "Warm up"

Loop walk, 5-8 miles
Acquire provisions (snacks etc) for days ahead

Day 2: "Drawing straws to (not) be driver"

Drive 6 people St Bees to Ennerdale 20 mins
Drive back 20 mins
Pick up bags and 4 people, drive St Bees to Ennerdale 20 mins
(Walkers set off east, 11 mile walk)

Drive bags Ennerdale to Grasmere 50 mins
Drive Grasmere to Honister Hause 34 min
Walk west to meet rest of party
Walk back to Honister Hause with everyone

Drive 6 people Honister Hause to Grasmere 34 mins
Drive back 34 mins
Drive 4 people to Grasmere 34 mins
Drink

There are some alternatives possible here. The first is simply to skip to the final step without ever leaving St Bees :) More reasonable alternatives include having all of the second group walk west with the driver. And/or finding 4 people willing to explore the public bus system at the end of a 11 mile walk (I'll sign up for that happily, so just need 3 more volunteers.)

Map of bus system

I don't think 6 people + all bags will fit in the van. It might even be tight with 4 people + all bags. So that also complicates things.

Day 3: "We can't all drive..."

As muscles scream from the previous day's hill climb, there may be great enthusiasm for being the driver today.

Drive 6 people west Grasmere to Rosthwaite 29 min
Walkers set off east, 9 miles 2000 ft el
Drive back to Grasmere 29 min
Remaining 5 people walk west from Grasmere to meet eastbound crew

Some alternatives here too. The van could be left in Rosthwaite, as long as the eastbound crew were determined to make it all the way to Rosthwaite to drive it back to Grasmere.

Also, depending on the bus experience from day 2, the eastbound crew could take the bus from Grasmere to Rosthwaite.

Day 4: "8 miles till a rest day"

Simpler days beckon

Walkers set off east, 8 miles 1800ft el gain
Drive bags to Glenridding with up to 5 people 38 mins
Walk west to meet eastbound crew

Day 5: "Sit down protest"

I picture us spending the day on the lawn of one of the hotels in the sunshine drinking gin and tonic. Except that it probably will be raining and none of us will have the energy to walk to the bar to get the drinks and, since we're not in Kansas any more, no-one will bring the drinks to us. So we'll just slump somewhere blob-like.

Day 6 and beyond: "Too far away to care"

The biggest walking and driving challenges will be behind us. We'll be a well-oiled machine (or a creaking, groaning, grumpy machine) so I'm not going to think this far ahead.

Motivation that seems to be working...

So the bingo card idea didn't seem to work.... but the combination of MapMyWalk.com and a FitBit has been magical for me. Here's an example of a MapMyWalk summary of a recent wandering:

And similarly from FitBit:

Definitely highly motivated by meeting my goals on FitBit, and enjoying the mapping of MapMyWalk.

I'm plotting a two-Starbucks walk AND a three-Starbucks walk for the weeks ahead.

Motivation

You'd think "not wanting to feel like I'm dying after the first few miles of the walk" would be sufficient, but it hasn't been so far. So I need something more fun and immediate.

On a walk up to Starbucks with R last weekend, I thought that a bingo card approach might work for me. That day was under 40 degrees and sunny. How about I check off different conditions for walking at least 2 miles? Two done so far this year:

< 40, sunny // 4 miles to RR Starbucks 1/5/14
< 50, windy & dry //4 miles to Avondale 1/11/14

Future possibilities:

1. Below freezing, sunny
2. Below freezing, cloudy
3. Windy and wet
4. Heavy rain
5. Fog
6. Drizzle
7. Sunny
8. With backpack
9. < 60
10. < 70
11. < 80
12. Starbucks -> Starbucks (8 mile round trip....two of those one weekend and I think we're ready!)

Worth a try!