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: