Day 12 was truly our first day entering into the moors. We had two options to join back up with the path. We could backtrack and attempt to navigate the two pastures of cows again… fun. Or, shortly after that turn off, a small backroad shot straight up toward the C2C path. We gratefully opted for the second option.
The weather was overcast and wet and misty. The small backroad took us behind houses and farms before joining the C2C path. The pathway started off as wide slabs of stone, winding through the first spread of moors. Laid out far in front of us, hiding in the fog, lay mountain after mountain that we were walking toward.
The land was rugged and rough, covered with miles upon miles of heather. The stone path ended, turning into a packed dirt trail. Following along a stone wall, the path made its way down to a street. The map wasn’t extremely clear on where to go from here. It looked like the path should be almost directly in front of us, but slightly to the left. However, we saw a locked gate that suggested we were not welcome. We walked back and forth for a bit until testing out going further to the left and walking over a cow grate. We successfully found the path.
So, I lied yesterday. I said Arncliffe Woods were the last woods we walked through on our hike across the country. I forgot that there were a few woods we walked through in the morning of day 12. After we found the path, we entered Cairn Woods. The path was empty with no one to be seen in either direction. The trees formed a canopy above our heads. Reaching a beck, a wood bridge spanned providing us easy access over the water.
The path wound with a farm to our left. Crossing a road, the path started a sharp ascent up. Now in the last woods we would walk through across England (!), we slowly made our way up a stony, slippery pathway.
As we made it to the stop, we looked back toward Osmotherley and the last woods we had just passed. In front of us was no longer the mystical visions we had had of hobbits or hounds.
Now we entered the world of Emily Bronte, with the forceful nature that created the fierceness of Heathcliff (if you haven’t been able to tell by now, I grew up in England and I’m a literature major!). The moors didn’t exude welcomeness. They were hard and brutal, rugged and forceful. Yet, they had a hard beauty that is uniquely a quality that can only come from a moor.
The path was made of stone slabs as far ahead of us as we could see. And it just kept going up, up, up. Ugh, when will it stop going up??! As was fitting for such an environment, the fog continued to hang low and the clouds spit at us.
As we neared the top, we passed a large group of teenage girls who had stopped for lunch. Some of them scolded the others, telling them to make way for us, a quality that you rarely see in a teenager in the States. Once we reached the top, we passed a large group of teenage boys who shortly after followed us down the path, which now sharply wove down the mountain.
We crossed a road and to our left was a cafe serving lunch and a campsite. From here, the group of boys split off from us. Before us lay another steep incline up. We examined our map and found the a path skirted around the side of the mountain, which would save us the pain of going all the way up and then all the way back down. The path wasn’t super easy, but it was better than going steeply uphill again. We passed two women locals who had hiked up a path to our left.
After we skirted around the mountain, we stopped to examine the map again. We had three options. We could mount the mountain in front of us, make our way back down and stop at a parking lot to phone the innkeeper. The inn we were staying at offered to pick up hikers from the trail because Chop Gate is about 3 miles south of the C2C. We could cut diagonally across the moors. Studying the map, we found a third way that would skirt us around Cold Moor mountain.
We cut through several sheep pastures with hundreds of grouse cutting back and forth across the path, filling the pastures around us. The path passed a farm and then joined a small country road. We passed several farms and a small holiday rental. The small roadway joined a larger one that wound its way into town, connecting with the main thoroughfare that led us to the inn shortly after turning onto it.
The ups and downs of traversing several moors was a killer on my knees, but we had a short day for day 13. Although, day 13 turned out to be one of the harder days to plough through.
We stayed at the Buck Inn in Chop Gate, and this is where we had the BEST dinner of our entire trip. The owner was German and made the most homey chicken schnitzel and spaetzle. If you want to read more about our fantastic experience at the inn and try the schnitzel and spaetzle recipe I created from this experience, read my food blog here.
Til tomorrow 👋🏻
Missed any days? Check out my Coast to Coast blog for the rest of our two week adventure across England.
