C2C

Coast to Coast Day 12 Danby Wiske to Ingelby Cross

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Well, that’s Day 12 on our Coast to Coast Path adventure in the books. Today was short and flat with one big milestone – crossing the major A16 highway with no bridge and no lights.

We started off with a proper slow morning today. We only had 13+ km to walk and wanted to time it arrival in our new town Ingleby across for lunch when we arrived and the ability to check into our BnB.

At 8am we met for our usual breakfast time and some semblance of full English cooked breakfast for each of us. Then we finished getting gear, packs and such ready before heading out the door of The White Swan for 930am. Skies were overcast but it was a great 15C and no rain expected.

Before leaving town we popped down a block to check out the Danby Wiske Church built in the 1200s. They were loading up the place with fresh flowers for a wedding this weekend – smelt amazing and looked pretty impressive!

Just beside the church is a Campsite which looks amazing and boasts a pretty awesome Tuc shop (little shop) so we ducked in and, wow, it was fantastic! Run on the honest system you could get cold drinks, ice cream (even some for dogs), all kinds of crisps and biscuits, homemade cakes, fruit, camping meals and more. Wow!

Many Coasters walk right through Danby Wiske to instead stay in Ingleby Cross or beyond – this Tuc shop is worth a pop on if you do come through! We grabbed some fruit.

Now ready to roll, we kicked off today’s walk with a stroll out of town on the road. Today’s terrain would be a mix of fields, quite a few gravel tracked and roads. No major milestones or features to see on the way.

At about 12km we hit the petroleum station beside the A16 and popped in for a few snack provisions for the next couple of days where there are no shops available… and a little sugar courage for the A16 crossing. This is the MAJOR highway in this area and it’s 3 lanes at least each direction (plus merge or slip lanes as they call them here) and hella busy!

Without any further excuses we made our way to the shoulder of the A16. The goal was to cross the first side, then pause in the middle shoulder for our chance to cross the next side. We ended up making pretty quick work of it. In about 10minutes and thankful for some natural gaps in traffic – we made it! I sure hope the locals are successful in getting a pedestrian overpass built soon – it is a National Path!

From there we had a quick 1km road walk to our lunch stop, The Joiner Cafe in Ingleby Cross. They had a Brie quiche on special and a load of delicious baking – yummy! We chatted with a few other Coasters who came through.

Then it was up to Ingleby House Farm to check into the most adorable BnB ever – we have our own little cabins! Complete with an outdoor seating area in their amazing garden, fresh scones in our room, tiniest mini fridge with cream for tea and clotted cream for the scones, and the nicer owners!

We all had a chance to freshen up, some of us washed a couple laundry items (the windy days and wind gusts are great for drying laundry) and we had some time at our little garden area before we made our way to dinner.

Tonight we ate at The Blue Bell Inn – the only pub / place to eat and gather in Ingleby Cross. Walking in to this bustling place felt like it was the life blood of this little village. We had great food, a game of Farkle and then headed back to enjoy the rest of the evening at our BnB. We wanted to soak up every minute we could.

For those with preference to peruse..

  • Date: Friday June 27 2025
  • Trail: Coast to Coast Path, England
  • Day: 12 of 17
  • To/From: Danby Wiske to Ingleby Cross
  • Start/Finish time: 945am / 2pm
  • Distance: 15.4km (Hiiker)
  • Steps: 21,466
  • Terrain: some fields, some roads, a s lots of gravel tracks, and one MAJOR highway to cross (A16!)
  • Weather: 19C with cloudy skies, gusty winds and clouds and maybe a few mins of rain if that even counts
  • Breaky: full English / cooked breakfast
  • Lunch n Snacks: delicious lunch at the at The Joiner Cafe in Ingleby Cross
  • Dinner: chicken tenders and chips at The Blue Bell Inn in Ingleby Cross
  • Tonight’s home away from home: Ingleby Farm House in the most amazing little cabin like rooms and homemade scones
  • Mood: fantastic!
  • Body: feeling good, I have named each of my pesky blisters now so I can curse them each specially and thoroughly
  • Highlight: Ingleby Farm House!
  • Lowlight: crossing the A16 motorway like terrifying game of Frogger
  • Deep thoughts: if you can’t change it, embrace – the story is always good!

Not a super eventful day on the Path today but that’s ok. That means we are rested up for Day 13 that will take us back up and up and up into the hills. Stay tuned!

Brande

Coast to Coast Day 5 Patterdale to Brampton

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That’s Day 5, Patterdale up and over the highest point on the Coast to Coast to Brampton (via Burnbanks) done. What a day!

We left our BnB (the Old View Inn ) at about 9am after an amazing breakfast with all the fancy things like tea cups and proper spoons and plates and such – in stark contrast to the stinky hikers we are by Day 6 with no laundry other than in a sink to this point!

A tiny bit of road walking to the trail head, and then we were in it right from the jump! Up and up and up on rocky obvious path with bracken (large ferns) to the left and right of us as we climbed. No crazy cliffs and no scrambling, just hard work up with great views back into Patterdale.

We had four milestones to hit today, the first being an include up to Angle Tarn – just keep walking, just keep walking. With my tummy still sore from yesterday for some reason I was not so much Scaredy Bear today but rather Slothy Bear. One step at a time made sure I kept up with my crew. We made it to the 1,500 feet were rewarded with the views of the Tarn!

We hit Angle Tarn, had a micro break – aka sunscreen and some candy – and then made our way to the next milestone, the peak of The Knott at 2,425 feet / 739 m. While still up and up this was a LOT less steep than our first push out of town but no less rewarding. Mostly obvious rocky path with a few soft (thank you!) grass sections.

The real reward was up next, Kidsty Pike at 2,559 feet / 780 m – the highest point on the Coast to Coast and it deserves all the praise it gets. The first photo in this post is all of us up there and in awe of the view and our accomplishments so far!

The walk up from The Knott has some good steep sections but nothing compared to what we have seen on other days, and all on pretty wide ridges and tracks making it my favourite climb so far.

After the last trudge up, we took our lunch break at the top of Kidsty Pike in amazing spirits, sunshine, comfy grass to sit on, and yummy snacks. This right here is why I do this – my happy place.

Ok sunscreen on and lunch on board, we started the long, long descent down to the next milestone Haweswater Reservoir. What started off as a nice stroll down on the grass, soon became a toe crushing descent. Just when the feeling of your feet sliding forward in your boots was too much, it became a rocky near-scramble which felt better … at first until it didn’t. Oh and then back to grassy toe crushing. Good times!

We made quick time of it – no lallygagging on descents for his crew – we had views of our Haweswater Reservoir. The actually loved a town, cemetery and use this spot as a Reservoir. When the water is low you can see some of the buildings from the old town!

We had another micro little break just at the bottom of the descent in the most amazing little spot beside the river. Shar dunked our buffs in the cool water for us to wear on our necks to cool down.

From there it was about a 6km hike along the Reservoir- a bit of up and down along the path, sometimes a little too close to the edge for my liking, but a great trail. The feet and heat were being felt by now so we made quick work of it as there was little to no shade.

On the other side of the water, we had a 2.4km stretch of quiet road to reach our much deserved home for the night, Mardale Inn. Which had manpower on arrival but made us yummy burgers on the generator power, and then were back up and running by 9pm for the WiFi and hot showers before bed!

For those reading on the run …

  • Date: Thursday June 19 2025
  • Trail: Coast to Coast Path, England
  • Day: 5 of 17
  • To/From: Patterdale / Burnbanks (onto Bampton)
  • Start/Finish time: 900am / 615pm
  • Distance: 20.48km (All Trails)
  • Steps: 35,093
  • Terrain: rocks up and rocks down and rocks rocks rocks
  • Weather: perhaps a little too hot at 25C
  • Breaky: scrambled eggs and yogurt
  • Lunch n Snacks: 11siesorange juice, banana, 2sies strawberries, cookies and sandwiches, 2sies strawberries, juice
  • Dinner: steak burger, chips (fries) and salad
  • Tonight’s home away from home: Mardale Inn (fantastic place to stay!)
  • Mood: good, fleeting blessed
  • Body: dogs are barking, hips tight but my tummy issues are gone
  • Highlight: the highest point of the Path and the trail was tough up up up but not Scaredy Bear tough – enjoyable!
  • Lowlight: the descent from the highest point was toe crushing
  • Deep thoughts: there us such thing as too much of a good thing

And we are off on Day 6, see ya on the flip side! (PS had to write this while walking – sorry about the grammar and spelling mistakes!)

Brande

Coast to Coast – A New Adventure

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The next adventure begins …

While the last couple of years have been more local adventures (so a little quiet here on Running for the Gate), that is all changing folks! In just 36 sleeps my bloggy blog friends, I am off to England to walk the Coast to Coast Path.

What is the Coast to Coast Path you ask?

Oh, you are in for a treat on this one – and I hope, as the person walking this sucker, I am too. The Coast to Coast Path is just over 300kms of glorious, rugged England landscape. You literally start the walk with your toes in the West coast (St. Bees) and meander a shot jaunt across the country in a straight-ish line to dip them in the East coast (Robin Hood’s Bay). On the journey, we will walk through 3 National Parks: Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. I think we even dabble just a wee bit in the Pennines National Park as well. It is going to be amazing!

If you are rambler, a fellwalker, a hill walker, a long-distance path walker, a hiker, a thru hiker, a weekend warrior of the hills, adventurer of landscapes, you get where I am going here … you have likely heard of the legend Alfred Wainright. This man is a fellwalking superstar. He walked up and down and around all of the Lake District and more England, all the while creating pictorial guides of his routes for others to give this amazing hobby a go. The Coast to Coast Path is his creation. We will be walking in the steps of ole A.W. for this one and cannot thank him enough for forging the way.

When, Who, Where of the Coast to Coast Path?

Well, this is where excitement about walking this Path and giddiness of the company I will be with combines into the most amazing of combos. This is a father and daughters’ adventure! We are celebrating a 70th (Daddio) and a 50th (my sister Shar, a name you have seen on Running for the Gate many times) with this walk. My sister Hailey (another name you would have seen in the Kilimanjaro hiking blogs) and I tagging along to ensure the right level of shenanigans and tom foolery.

The four of us kick off our adventure in just 36 sleeps. On June 12 we will make our way from Canada to London via plane, London to St Bees via train, St Bees to Robin’s Hood Bay via hiking boot, Robin Hood’s Bay to Londa via bus and plan, then back to Canada in the air for July 3. In there somewhere we will visit Kendal (the birthplace of Wainright himself), walk 16 days and visit York. So excited!

As we make our way to departure and while on our adventure, I will be sure to post highlights here. For videos, check out @runningforthegate on Instagram. I do a little morning ‘this is what our day looks like’ and an evening ‘this is actually what the day felt like’ video and sometimes a few in between. 

For now I will leave you with this most amazing quite from our Path founder …

“Oh, how can I put into words the joys of a walk over country such as this; the scenes that delight the eyes, the blessed peace of mind, the sheer exuberance which fills your soul as you tread the firm turf? This is something to be lived, not read about. On these breezy heights, a transformation is wondrously wrought within you. Your thoughts are simple, in tune with your surroundings; the complicated problems you brought with you from the town are smoothed away.” A.W.

Yes to ALL of that A.W. – there is just nothing like walking up and away from it all to free the mind and soar the soul.

Brande aka Doctor Boots