We hiked lots of nibs today

After I figured out how to keep my collapsible hiking poles from collapsing everytime I put them down in the mud (which was every step) I had a wonderful day hiking! We hiked 12 miles today, first in perfect cool temperatures, no wind. Then midday the rain started softly at first then a little harder, at the end the wind started for a little bit so I was feeling the cold all the way through.

Our host Dick told us we would be crossing lots of nibs (hills) today and he was right. The scenery was beautiful, we met lots of hikers, some of which told us to watch for the sycamore tree that was in the movie “Robin Hood” with Kevin Costner.

Hadrian’s wall was built around the year 120, we thought the reason was to keep the Scots out of Britain but turns out Hadrian really needed to keep his troops busy during peace time. The wall is approximately 80 miles long, we are doing half of that. The Hadrian wall is to Brits what the Chilkoot is to Alaskans, people want to hike it because it is part of history.

We met a single teacher who is hiking the wall during her Easter break to raise funds for hospice after her 38 yr old friend died from ovarian cancer. She was doing the full 80 miles in 5 days so we each contributed to her. She was very grateful and said she would post on the website “justgive.org” that the four Alaskan hikers donated to her fund.

Tonight we are staying in a little village called Twice Brewed, we had dinner at the Twice Brewed brewery. Very good dinner and beer! We are spending the night at Vallum Lodge which has chickens in the yard and rabbits in the cages.