What's another 63 miles between friends? by lolruk

So I finally got myself up and moving at about 11.30am yesterday and drove up in to the eastern lake district (much quieter than the popular central lakes especially at this time of year) as you drive up the valley the mountains rise up on both sides reminding you that there is a reason why this side is much quieter.

As I was on my own I had carefully planned the route linking two walks previously walked by the Trailtrekker team during training.  I had also given myself four 'wimp out' spots where I could either get back to the car via a shorter route or get 'the husband' to come and scrape me up.  Sue from the TT team knew where I was going and was told call the MR if I was not back by 10pm.

The reason for such a tough walk alone was to face some of the Trailtrekker demons so I needed to push myself back to the limits of endurance. 

The first 30kms were a breeze a three hour slog up to 796 meters followed by the same in descent a happy memory with the i-pod on dancing my way down high-street. It was chucking it down and I found out that my summer weight waterproof is not even shower proof but that just kept me moving.  I managed to run a fair amount of the descents.  So all was going fine until I tripped and fell in a thistle patch - falling over is pretty much standard practice and the thistle patch although a new place to fall was not entierly un-expected so sitting there I looked up and realised there was no one to laugh with / at me, and I would have to pull my own thistle thorns out and have no one to grumpy, grump at, suddenly this walking on your own thing stopped being such fun.....time for a little cry (I do that a lot when I'm pushed to my limits)

After walking round the back of hawswater in the driving rain the final ascent over Gatesgarth Pass loomed I had been walking pretty much non-stop for 7 hours now and this is no easy climb...so back to the 'one foot in front of the other' coping mechanism. I climbed up into the clouds until just before the top I climbed high enough to break through back into the sunshine. Amazing.

I made it back to the car at 8pm having walked for 8 hours and there was enough left in the legs to run the last valley floor section - so not bad!

The feet today are sore no blisters but the skin has rubbed away on my heel, and my toenails are bothering me for the first time. Mentally though I feel ready for Trailwalker more than I did for Trailtrekker which was really the point of the day.