Day 5- Haytongate to Carlisle

This morning found me waking with a sore throat, a headache and upset stomach. Breakfast was rough. I was running to the bathroom every 5 or 10 minutes. I could only eat 1 egg and one piece of toast, some juice and coffee. Anyone who is about to start a 13 mile walk needs a good breakfast. At one point, I thought I was going to hurl, so I stepped outside for some fresh air, only to find the sweet smell of freshly spread manure permeating the air. I wasn't sure I could do this today. We got a little bit of a later start- about 9:00 due to my slowness, but the day looked to be a good one. Around mile 3, I started to feel better, and started nibbling biscuits I had "nicked" from the Twice Brewed hotel room. All through the a.m. I nibbled. Two packages of biscuits, some almonds, and an apple. Got me through. We enjoyed some pretty heavy rain before lunch. This time I had my rain pants on, and for that I was glad. We walked through little clusters of houses, and then wound our way down to the Eden River flood plain. Flat walking here on out. In a way, it's nice and easy, but not nearly as exciting as the higher stuff.

8 Miles from our start, and after the rain shower, we stopped at a very old Pub called The Stag. Great food, good service, and walkers, lots of walkers also stopping there. We now are familiar with several other groups of walkers who must be taking the same 6-day trek as we are. We pass them, they pass us, we end up at the same restaurants in the same towns in the evening. Everyone smiles and acknowledges each other. We're all MAD, you see, and I suspect everyone of us has sore feet. It's like a secret crazy brotherhood (and sisterhood, but I think there are slightly more groups of men than women on this trek). We met 2 earnest ladies at the beginning of the third day, as they passed us quickly on one of the first hills of the morning. We came upon them on and off for 2 days and struck up some conversation with them when we'd see them. They were fun, and did manage to follow some people who they assumed knew their way, but got lost. People are friendly and the West-bounders greet the East-bounders with smiles and "Morning!" or "Hello!" and the other way as well.

We made better time on the flat land today, so the day went by quickly, but we are all feeling some discomfort: I have a couple of blisters, Rob has a sore ankle, Nate's Achilles tendon is feeling strange. Then there is the chafing. I won't go into detail, but the older in our party are wishing we had brought tech wick underwear, if you know what I mean.

We want to finish what we started, but there is a slight possibility, depending on the weather and the state of our health, of catching a bus tomorrow. The warrior in me wants to complete this walk- simply for the bragging rights. And we probably will. One more day. 15 more miles.

Time to pop another blister and get some sleep, y'all.
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