Author Topic: Your most memorable hike  (Read 4147 times)

gunwharfman

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Your most memorable hike
« on: 12:39:59, 11/10/18 »
As I was jogging around my off road running circuit this morning, to pass the time, I started to think about all of the hikes I've done over the past few year and tried to decide which for me was the very best one?

I decided that for me, it was the GR10 route through the Pyrenees. I'd never attempted such a long walk before, the weather was good to excellent, the scenery was breathtaking, the villages were just the right size for a passing hiker and the locals hospitality was great. I also had a number of mini adventures en route, 5 pigs who tried to get into my tent with me, getting a hernia, hitchiking to get a truss, being biffed in the chest by a cow, being harrassed by a shepherds dog halfway up a boulder chaos and walking nervously though a load of 'mad' French hunters who were out to kill wild boar at any cost, immeadiatly springs to mind.

My second choice has to be the Pennine Way, the first hike I tried. I was so stupid and naive about the distance and the demand on me, I thought it would be just a stroll but at the end I was totally done in!

Have you a personal favourite, the route for you that stands head and shoulders above the others?

ninthace

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #1 on: 13:30:44, 11/10/18 »
Hard choice between 2 - both in the Pyrenees.
On the Spanish side, just through the Vielha Tunnel, the ascent of Besiberri Sud from the N 230 car park.  My first 3000m+ peak with a very "interesting" route involving a gut wrenching climb, a beautiful hanging valley, a scramble through a boulder field with boulders the size of cars and bigger and a scary scrabble up a loose couloir with walls covered in memorial plaques!
On the French side from the Hospice de France S of Bagneres de Luchon up to the Pic de Sauvegarde.  A super route, via one of the old Resistance escape routes with lots of zig zags, mountain refuge, glacial lakes and a proper pointy mountain with a view across to the highest peak in the Pyrenees, The return goes round the back of another mountain and back down via a different valley and all in a day! Some pics here http://www.topopyrenees.com/randonnee-pic-sauvegarde-2738m/  On reflection, this is probably my favourite, I certainly did it more than once.
« Last Edit: 13:46:50, 11/10/18 by ninthace »
Solvitur Ambulando

sussamb

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #2 on: 13:44:47, 11/10/18 »
Guess for me it has to be the PW, the only LDW I've done twice with plans for more  O0
Where there's a will ...

Dovegirl

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #3 on: 14:00:22, 11/10/18 »
So difficult to choose a favourite from the many enjoyable walks I've done.  Loved the sections of the SWCP I've walked in Cornwall, especially the Porthcurno to St Ives stretch.  Loved walking in the dales of the White Peak  -  Lathkill and Bradford Dales and the dales of the Dove and the Wye.
But my favourite walk is the Seaford to Eastbourne coast, which takes in the dramatic white cliffs of Seaford Head, the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head, the rolling South Downs, rock-strewn shores, and the marshes and river of beautiful Cuckmere Haven. I've never walked it in one go as it's an easy half-day trip from where I live so I do it in sections.  But I often walk there and I love it    :)

Rather be walking

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #4 on: 15:52:46, 11/10/18 »
For me out of all of them Greater Ridgeway Trail.

Jon.
““The hardest part was coming to terms with the constant dispiriting discovery that there is always more hill.”
― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods

harland

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #5 on: 16:15:07, 11/10/18 »
Guess for me it has to be the PW, the only LDW I've done twice with plans for more  O0
  Same for me, it was my first LDW and the only one I've walked twice as well but with no plans (currently) for more!

bricam2096

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #6 on: 17:51:45, 11/10/18 »
For me it has to be the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) purely for the amount of "wow" moments. It's been my only walk outside the UK so the scenery for me was more fantastic than I could wish for.

In the Uk, so many nice trails but probably my first one, the West Highland Way in 2012 would be the more memorable, not only for the scenery and meeting people along the way but it was a special feeling of achievement when I got to the finish line. It's always a nice feeling to finish a multi day walk but I've never had the same feeling.
LDWs done - 32 in total including 16 National Trails and 3 C2C

Wainwrights 176
www.brians-walks.co.uk

Mick wmexile

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #7 on: 18:07:52, 11/10/18 »
Pennine Way, my first long distance walk two years ago, done as a personal challenge as I'd reached the grand age of 65. Followed by C2C last year then West Highland Way in June of this year. Loads of 15/20 mile day hikes in the Peak District, but nothing compares to that Pennine Way, just the sheer emotion when my wife was there in Kirk Yetholm to greet me. Great memories of 18 days continuous walking
I never get lost, just don't always know where I am!

zuludog

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #8 on: 19:05:34, 11/10/18 »
Some years ago I was made redundant, and used my enforced free time to do a walk of my own planning from Strathcarron to Cape Wrath. Taking in a couple of side trips to go up Seanna Bhraigh and Suilven
The weather was glorious; as I remember I only had one wet afternoon
« Last Edit: 19:32:52, 11/10/18 by zuludog »

fit old bird

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #9 on: 19:25:45, 11/10/18 »
My most memorable one was the first one, 137 miles from Blackpool to the Humber Bridge. Memorable because I didn't know if I could do it. Worth a try I thought, took too many clothes backpack too heavy, had to dump some. First night I had to walk extra miles because I couldn't find a bed. Last night at Selby, walked the 30 miles to the end on day seven. Yippeeeee, I did it. Gave me a taste for more.  :)


ilona

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #10 on: 20:37:59, 11/10/18 »
Posting as Slogger.Trying to think back over the years, Ive walked in the Himalaya, Canadian Rocky Mountains, the Alps, Madiera and many LDP's in the UK. I really enjoyed slwo walking the Dales Way with my wife over a relaxing 8 days, but i think at least one of most enjoyable and most memorable ones was whilst munro baggin.We seta base camp at derry lodge in the Cairngorms and di several circular routes. The one that stands out was on a clear blue sky day, a cxircular of over 20 miles. We ascended 3 x 3,000 footers and 4 x 4,000 footers, including Ben Macdui, Braeriach, Angles Peak, Cairn Toul and Devils Point, crossing and re-crossing the Larig Gruh and requiring us to break through the cornice ice climbing to gain the cairngorn plateau.- a magic day.

tonyk

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #11 on: 23:09:09, 11/10/18 »
A solo backpacking trip across the Alpine Pass Route in Switzerland,230miles over 16 passes with 60,000ft plus of ascent.Weatherwise I had everything from 30 c on the first day to heavy snowfall and avalanches on the third day plus some amazing electrical storms.Hospitality from the locals was way better than anything I have experienced in the UK.
 

Islandplodder

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #12 on: 09:36:51, 12/10/18 »

Thinking of LDPs, I think I would go with the Pennine Way like a lot of other people.
A stand out single day, so stand out I can remember it after over 45 years was a walk from the Lickle valley up to the ridge and along the ridge to the Old Man of Coniston.  It was one of those frosty clear early January days and we arrived at the top of the Old Man at the moment of a spectacular sunset and the most amazing views.  We reckoned we saw Snowdon, Buckden Pike, up into Scotland and even across to the Isle of Man (is that possible?) and stood watching the sun go down.....then had to rush down to Coniston in the near dark (of course we didn't have torches or anything) hoping we weren't going to fall down anything too disastrous.
With hindsight, and a bit of old age cynicism, some of the magic of the day may have been because my companion and I were in the early stages of a youthful love affair.  Even the car breaking down on the way home didn't spoil the day.   

Doddy

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #13 on: 11:24:16, 12/10/18 »
I retired from work on a Friday night and was walking on the Appalachian Trail on the Sunday afternoon. I saw my first bear after three hours and never saw another one (till another hike). I hiked southbound for about 720 miles from Daleville,Virginia,to Mt Springer, Georgia; took ten weeks-early September to early November. I met some great people and learnt a lot about hiking and living in the woods.

gunwharfman

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Re: Your most memorable hike
« Reply #14 on: 18:02:22, 12/10/18 »
Thanks people, loved reading your entries. I hope they keep coming for a while. To Bricam, the Tour Du Mont Blanc, I agree, fantastic!

 

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