Day 5. Patterdale to Shap 15.4 miles ~ 3200 feet climbed.

Susan decided to give her feet a break and took her hiking boots off in favor of her Birkenstock sandals. She stepped in a muddy spot and it was deeper than anyone was aware and found herself shin deep in black mud.  As she removed get foot with a loud sucking sound she found herself with a lost sandal.  Now she had to reach up to her forearms in the muck to retrieve the sandal.

Finally an hour later Kidsty Pike with cold 40 mph winds.  As we headed down we found a sheltered spot on the downslope to enjoy a picnic lunch and the view of Haweswater Reservoir.
We had many stone walls that we had  to navigate over.  We have had incredible weather, no rain while we have walked.  But this can be a boggy and wet area of the country. 
Yay!  We are there.  We are so excited to reach the edge of town only to realize that our hotel that night is at the other end of town. Thank goodness for a grocery market which had already made gin and tonic in cans. We were able to stumble (from the long day not the gin and tonic) into the Grey Hound Hotel
This was a day of  Tale of two hikes.  After a very steep and brutal downhill to reached Haweswater Reservoir we began our 5 mile hike along the edge of the reservoir.
Almost to Shap we see the ruins of Shap Abbey. Built around 1200 and dissolved in 1540 by Henry VIII. A lot of the stones were used in local buildings. Very impressive for those of us from a young country.
From Angle Tarn we continued our climb to our ultimate high point of Kidsty Pike (780m, 2340ft) which is the highest point on the Coast to Coast Path. False alarm when I (Trish) told Susan, Bill and Firoz that a hill with a big cairn must be Kidsty Pike. As they ran up hill a passing hiker with a map informed me that it was The Knott. Sorry guys but you had excess energy to burn. Continuing on to Kidsty Pike.
How is this comfortable? After hours trudging uphill and then still walking around the reservoir and knowing we still have hours to go to Shap, trust me you can easily pass out in the rocks!

We began to climb uphill immediately and the first take you breath away sight was Angle Tarn, a mountain lake formed by a glacier.
We started at 7:30 AM from Patterdale Youth Hostel.  This in itself is a big group accomplishment. Trying to convince all to get an early start. But we knew we had 9 hours of walking plus lunch and rest stops.


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